Cutting-Edge Cycling [Formato Kindle]

Even though the title suggests "Advanced Training for Advanced Cyclists" as a rookie I found the book to be very helpful and a terrific resource. Too often on the internet you can see conflicting information taking an advocate position for whatever they are selling or to support one opinion. Cutting Edge Cycling presents a balanced scientific approach to the questions many of us have related to bike fit systems, hydration, training with power, finding your perfect pace, how to warm up, equipment weight vs. aero etc. In addition I appreciate the references to both novice and elite riders. For me Cutting Edge Cycling demystified a lot of concepts and helped me avoid a lot of trial and error.

I was expecting a lot of practical guidance after reading previews and promotional materials for this book. While I found quite a bit of useful information, the book comes up short on detailed recommendations. The first four chapters provide a very good primer on how to interpret research, the physiology of cycling and how the physiological requirements of the sport translate into training. While I agree with the previous comment stating that most of this information can be found on the web, it is well presented and follows a logical sequence.

Chapter 5 on training load and overtraining is, in my opinion, the most important chapter in the book. Finding the optimal training load is very difficult and knowing when to rest is critical. It is almost impossible to provide a single recipe for finding optimal training load, but this chapter provides a good set of tools for helping people analyze their training. While the Performance Management Chart has some real limitations, I have found it quite useful in managing my training. Adding the other considerations listed in chapter 5 allows for further fine tuning.

As more of a mass start racer than a time trialist, I found chapter 6 to be uninteresting, but it should have value to time trialists and triathletes.

Chapter 7 was the most disappointing in the book. It is nothing more than an infomercial for the various fit systems and offers no practical advice beyond the need to find a good bike fitter.

Chapter 8 is also light on practical recommendations.

Chapters 9 and 10, cover fueling, hydration and environmental considerations. The review of current research on these topics is useful and there are practical recommendations for incorporating the research into your training and racing.

If you feel that you're getting nothing out of this book, you're clueless when it comes to high level training. I've been cycling for nearly 15 years and while I haven't made it through this entire book yet, I've already been able to take information from the cadence section to apply it to my own personal training. The idea behind this book is to give you tips, research, and guidance to help improve your performance. It seems that Michael Parish was looking for shortcuts rather than taking the high-level information inside the book and putting it to use in the way it was intended. If you want some form of "conclusion", read a research study. If you want information to help guide you to your peak performance, read this book!