A Beginner Cyclist's Guide to Endurance Sport 

In the summer of 2021 I bought my first road bike. It was an old, heavy, slightly-rusted and slow bike, but I loved it. I’m also not sure I can totally blame the bike for being slow. Some of that responsibility may fall on me as the rider.

I was instantly addicted to cycling, but I very quickly learned that it is a lot harder than it looks. Now, over a year of training later, I have some experiences to share with anyone looking to start or improve at endurance sports.

Here are my top 7 tips for anyone looking to participate in endurance sports:

1. Don’t go too hard too fast
2. Both cardio and strength training are important
3. Spend a little extra to buy good bike shorts. Trust me
4. Join a local club
5. Get good safety gear
6. Bring lots of water (and snacks)
7. Make sure you eat enough food

I’ll explain each of these tips in their own section down below. Feel free to skip ahead to the most important sections (e.g. if you’re a cyclist skip to section 3: buying good shorts).

1. Don’t go too hard too fast
   

This tip comes from an injury prevention standpoint. Lots of care is taken when getting into endurance sports to make sure that you are doing things correctly. For example, it’s normal to make sure you have all the right gear. For runners that might be new shoes, for cyclists it may be a bike that is properly adjusted for your body. This is of course important for your comfort, but don’t forget that your body has to adapt to the activity as well. It’s very tempting when you’re getting back into an activity to fully commit right away.

I’d recommend working your way into it gradually. Lots of runners end up with shin splints or plantar fasciitis. Lots of cyclists end up with sore hips, knees, and backs. Lots of swimmers end up with sore shoulders. Often this leads people to think that something is wrong with their equipment. The type of shoes you wear or the fit of your bike might be the presumed culprit for why you’re sore. It’s important to consider though, that it could just be a matter of your body needing more time to adjust.

It’s better to transition in slowly even though the training may not feel that hard. A slow introduction is better than having to take time off due to an injury.

2. Both cardio and strength training are important

Strength training is an often forgotten aspect of being successful in endurance sports. Doing lots of cardiovascular training will of course help you improve in your sport, but don’t forget that strength training can help too! You can use high numbers of repetitions (12 or more) to improve your muscular endurance in the gym. Combining the cardio endurance you get from practising your sport with the muscular endurance that you get from the gym will get you great improvements in your ability to endure long distances.

Many endurance athletes are inclined to avoid lifting weights to avoid putting on extra weight, but you don’t have to add a ton of muscle to improve your endurance in the gym!

3. Spend a little extra to buy good bike shorts. Trust me

This one is for the cyclists and triathletes. With the cost of entry to get into cycling I was inclined to find deals on the cheapest gear possible. I learned very quickly that the length of my rides was being limited, not by my endurance, but by my ability to comfortably sit on the saddle. Following my advice from Tip #1, I gradually increased the distance of my rides as I got more comfortable (using the term comfortable loosely) but my ability to ride longer and longer wasn’t increasing as fast as I would have liked. I finally decided to invest in a higher quality set of bib shorts and it was a complete game-changer. I was able to double my ride distance in the new shorts because it wasn’t such a pain (literally) to bike for so long.

It’s important to let your body adapt to the activity, but trust me, you don’t need the added stress of low quality shorts! 

4. Join a local club

After the initial excitement of training for a new sport wears off it’s easy to start talking yourself out of training. This is totally normal! Life gets busy and the new activity becomes more familiar and less mentally stimulating. This is one of two reasons why I recommend joining a local club.

Regardless of the sport, joining a local club is a great way to keep yourself accountable and on a consistent training schedule since the club will designate specific training times for its members.

The second reason is that it might push you to keep progressing. One thing that I found when getting into cycling was that I found a consistent route and speed that I liked to ride and I stuck with it. After joining my local cycling club I was given the push I needed to start making real progress again. Over the course of the season the speed and the length of the rides increased. Each week I found myself moving a little bit faster and travelling a little bit further. Had I not joined the club I likely would have stuck with my comfortable route. By putting the planning of rides into somebody else’s hands I was forced to go beyond my comfort zone and make real progress.

5. Get good safety gear

This tip doesn’t take much explanation but it is perhaps one of the most important tips. Nothing derails a season of training like an injury caused by an accident. Whether you’re a trail runner, a swimmer, or a cyclist, make sure you get yourself some good safety gear. This can be something as simple as a fully charged cell phone all the way up to a radar device clipped to your handlebars that warns you of a vehicle approaching you from behind. Well-planned training protocols are great for injury prevention but being clipped by a passing car can only be prevented by making sure you are carrying appropriate safety gear.

6. Bring lots of water (and snacks)

This is an uncomfortable lesson that I learned and hopefully my lack of planning can prevent you from making the same mistake. Before joining the Barrie Cycling Club my longest bike ride ever had been roughly 32km long. About 45km into my first 65km ride with the club we pulled over for a water break. As I polished off my second water bottle and looked around I noticed everyone else in the group had pulled out little bags of food. Some people had dried fruits, others candy, and others had strangely coloured and unlabeled sports supplements of which I am not sure of their function.

Why was everyone carrying snacks with them? Did they not eat before starting the ride? About 2km later my question was answered as I felt a strange feeling spread through my legs. This is when I learned what it feels like when your body has burned through its entire fuel supply. All of the calories that I had consumed that day were gone and my legs, like a car with an empty gas tank, completely shut off. I tried to stand up from the saddle to use my bodyweight to my advantage to push the pedals. It would have been a great idea if it weren’t for the fact that my legs refused to lift me off the seat.

From that point on until the end of the ride the goal wasn’t to go fast. The goal was to just make it to the end. It was not a good feeling. That was the last time I went out for a long ride without extra water and snacks.

I recommend always bringing a little extra fuel on your long endurance days. I didn’t enjoy the feeling of approaching a red light and being unsure if my legs would hold me up when I came to a stop. My advice is to do everything you can to avoid this situation. 

7. Make sure you eat enough food

This is the last point here so congratulations! You made it to the end! You really are a master of endurance!

Lots of people get into endurance sports as a way to lose body fat. My advice though is to make sure you’re careful not to under eat. Endurance sports require a ton of energy. If you don’t fuel well enough before you train, not only will the training feel much harder but the effectiveness will also be limited by your lack of fuel.

Participating in endurance sports to lose body fat is great but I always advise my clients to make sure that burning calories is not the objective of any workout. Every workout will burn calories, but I prefer that they focus on another goal like getting stronger, recovering from an old injury, or improving their endurance. Eating too little will certainly help you lose weight, but it’s also going to impair your ability to train effectively. I’d prefer someone to lose weight slowly and get a lot of efficient training done rather than lose weight quickly but not be able to achieve other fitness goals. 

You made it to the end of my list (or you skipped to this part) so give yourself a pat on the back! Hopefully, the tips you read here were both entertaining and helpful. I wish you luck with your training and commend your effort to get into such a challenging type of sport! Thank you for reading my Beginner Cyclist’s Guide to Endurance Sports and I will see you on the road (as I move to the side to let you pass). Happy training!