There, he shared his training techniques to some of the pros that will compete in this Saturday’s 2011 Tagaman competition and other avid riders interested in making themselves better for the upcoming 2011 Tagaman competition.
The first area that Gardner covered was the time of year a certain person should train. He advised that people should work on their weaknesses during the winter season. “But it’s always sunnier here,” brought up Taga inc. President Wolf Mojica rather humorously.
“Well there are off season. Like a certain amount of time you have between your next big race,” answered Gardner.
“A [training] program that works for one person isn’t going to work for the next person.” Gardner emphasized that when two people aim for the same goal it may take different ways to get there. “Women are stronger when it comes to training than men,” he added.
He also empathized that there are different programs to use to get to a person’s certain goal and that the best one to use is the one that is the most comfortable and challenging at the same time.
“The guy that won the Tour De France, Lance Armstrong, was known for being super devoted at calculating everything and everything is down on power and numbers,” Gardner said.
He also explained that many people should train with company so as not to lose motivation or effort and to make sure that when training, it should be done in intervals with repetition a person is comfortable and challenged with as well.
When asked what is the most important thing a rider should be well aware of when it comes to their bicycle he recommended on taking great care of the tri-bars, the wheels and shocks. “Wheels count double. Be careful of how narrow you go. Tires that are tubeless get punctured easily when hitting a rock. Shocks should be changed once a year,” Gardner added.
He also advised everyone to tweak their bikes to where it was comfortable for them. “Make sure that you can get off that bike and still run for at least an hour more. Riding techniques really help,” he further explained.
“Would you recommend the air shocks vs. coil shocks?” asked one of the avid riders and he responded, “If you break air shocks at least four or five times then you should try the coil shocks and vice verse.”
Most of the participants of the bicycle clinic will compete in Saturday’s Tagaman Competition to test out their newly acquired skills. Triathlete Brad Ruszala is also gearing up for the 2011 Olympic Triathlon in Tinian this coming June which is composed of a 5k run, 10k swim, and a 40k bike course.
Sam Gardner will be seen on the streets once more this Saturday to compete and defend his title as the 2010 Tagaman Saipan Champion whereas the female listing will be a tough field where Renata Bucher plans to redeem herself after losing her crown to USA’s Shonny Vanlandingham last Saturday in the 2011 XTERRA Saipan competition.
