Besides being a college professor and cycling coach, I am also a member of the domestic staff for two retired greyhounds (though I believe they think the last job is the most important). Greyhounds, you may know, are the world’s fastest dog breed, capable of hitting 40 mph in short bursts, and with their double gait, are sheer beauty to watch run, as demonstrated below by Cipollini (I know we’re in a bike racing crowd when we don’t get strange stares after answering the “what’s his name” question).
But while greyhounds are the fastest dogs, they may also be the laziest. That amazing speed is on display for very short intervals, usually only once a day, and sometimes, if it’s cold or wet or any of a number of things that seem to keep them indoors, not even every day. The vast majority of their days are spent sound asleep on the softest surface they can find.
So what, you might ask, does any of this have to do with bike racing and training? Well, hopefully you are aware of the old adage “Don’t stand when you can sit; don’t sit when you can lie down” (I’m not sure where this saying derives from; I do know it’s the one piece of training advice I remember from my first go round as a racer in the late 80′s). The phrase provides a sort of mnemonic to stress the importance of rest and recovery, and it seems to me that greyhounds provide another example, perhaps even a better one because in one animal you have the speed we all crave with the rest we all need, but usually don’t get. So today’s training tip, be like a greyhound, super fast, but also super restful. Drooling on the couch is optional.
