Six ways doing less can make you faster

As the calendar turns over to the new year, and news articles and influencers start shouting about setting year-end goals. If you’re feeling the pressure, don’t worry. “New year, new me” doesn’t have to mean more time on the bike, more sacrefice, expensive training camps or replacing all the gear you have.  There are easy, like really easy ways to improve your performance.

Here are five easy ways that doing less can make you faster on the bike.

Sleep more (and sleep better)

Getting a good nights sleep is the starting point for good training (and for every other part of life). Some experts argue it is the foundation of good phsyical health, but also mental health. So, if you want to get faster, slow down. All the way down. If you’re having trouble logging Z’s, here’s a few tips for getting a better nights sleep.

Sunshine Pro: Four recovery techniques pros swear by and you should be practicing

Recovery time

Unless you’re a pro racer that can commit to your sport full-time, you’ll want to get the most out limited training time you do have. That means recovering as hard as you train. We all live busy lives but trying to squeeze in time to cool down from a workout, stretch a little bit and, when possible, put your legs up and do nothing can help your body recover from whatever efforts you just put it through on the bike or trainer. If you want help, Garmin will even help track your naps for you now.

This former professional cyclist made an absolutely hilarious TikTok on the importance of recovery

Proper diet (not dieting)

Eat well, go fast. Eat more, go faster. Endurance athletes across sports tent to chronically underfuel. One of the easiest ways to make sure your workouts are actually making you faster is to properly fuel them. That means eating enough before, during and after efforts. This is also helpful for avoiding injury and illness. You’re body is working hard, make sure you give it what it needs to support that effort! Eating well doesn’t have to be complicated, either. Simple foods are some of the best for recovery.

Five Top Recovery Foods

Heat/Sauna training

One of the newer, and more luxurious tricks pros are using to boost performance is heat training. There are a few ways spending time in a sauna can work into your training. Heat adaptation or acclimatization are some of the better known uses for a sauna in training. But there’s new evidence that it can help endurance athletes deal with inflamation, too….