Coach's Corner — Coach Darryl’s Quick Tips, Part 1
Our Coach’s Corner series is your chance to have your biggest cycling questions answered — right from longtime cycling coach Darryl MacKenzie. In these short Q&As, Coach Darryl speaks from his 35+ years of cycling and coaching experience to help you become a stronger, smarter cyclist.
Thinking Cyclist:
Coach, what are some of your top quick cycling tips — things every cyclist should know?
Coach Darryl:
Over time, your knowledge of the sport changes and evolves. You read up about cycling. You observe what other cyclists are doing their rides — both the good and the bad habits. And sometimes, you forget things that were common practice in the past, and bad habits slowly start to form. That’s why it’s always a good idea to look for new tips to keep your cycling knowledge up to speed.
Here are a few “quick cycling gems” from what I’ve learned over the years.
1. Push, don’t pull, when removing your cycling gloves. The material around the fingers is usually soft and flimsy on the back side of the gloves to help sweat dissipate. When you pull on this area to remove your gloves, they tend to tear, and you’ll be replacing them far earlier than you anticipated. Instead, push the gloves off rather than pulling them. Place the back of the right hand along the inside of the left palm, thumb down with both hands facing right. Now, simply push the right hand forward along the palm of the left hand to remove the gloves. They come off easily, and they’ll last much longer.
2. Lower your heart rate in the summer heat. Your muscles are extremely inefficient. Like old-fashioned incandescent light bulbs, 80% of the energy your muscles use escapes as heat rather than going into your pedals. The higher your heart rate, the more heat you produce. Slowing down to reduce your heart rate will help you stay cool in the summer heat. Just how low? That depends on the individual cyclist. I try to keep mine below 110 bpm on especially hot days.
3. Be careful what you put into the three pockets in the back of your jersey. The center pocket is right on your spine. If you get in a crash, you don’t want to have hard objects in the middle pocket. I only use it for nutrition bars and other soft items. Put any hard objects in your side pockets.
4. (For men) Don’t forget to rearrange your personal equipment. This is a special tip for male cyclists — there should be nothing dangling between the legs. When you are pedaling at, say, 80 rpm, your legs are grinding past each other at the crotch 160 times per minute. That is almost 10,000 times per hour. At that rate, it does not take much to develop irritation … exactly where you don’t want it. The last thing I do after putting my leg over the bike and before I start pedaling is to move everything upward toward my belly button. I repeat this adjustment every half hour or so.
5. Keep your helmet properly adjusted. The last thing you want when a crash occurs is to have your helmet come off and roll on the ground right before your head hits the pavement. To test whether yours is properly situated, buckle the helmet under your chin and touch a finger from each hand to the lower tip of each ear. If you can also feel the buckle joining the front and back steps of the helmet, then it is properly adjusted. If not, you need to move the buckle up.
As a cyclist, you should never stop learning how to be a better, safer rider. Stay tuned for more quick gems in the weeks ahead!
