Adapted from Bicycling by Peter Oliver

Your muscle tissue is formed from two basic fibers: fast-twitch, with a greater anaerobic capacity for short bursts, and slow-twitch, with a greater aerobic capacity. Ideally, you want to develop both muscle types, and good variety in your daily rides should do the trick.

Variation has important psychological benefits, too. Doing the same ride over and over again is dull and pointless, given the bike's remarkable versatility in being able to take on different types of roads and terrain. Repetition leads to boredom and boredom leads to your bike ending up unused in your garage or closet.

Vary your daily distances. For a recreational riding program, distances of between 10 and 50 miles represent a good range.

Vary your intensity levels. Ride as hard as you can as far as you can one day, then ride leisurely the next. Combine in the same ride hard and easy riding, in what competitive riders call"interval" training, which is a good way of flexing those fast-twitch muscles. Start by riding easily, then push yourself for a mile or 50 to anaerobic excess. Ease off for a while to recover, push again, and so on.

Vary the gear you ride in, spinning low gears rapidly one day and hammering high gears another.

Vary the terrain you ride alternating between tile flats, rolling terrain, and long, steep hills.

And never, ever forget to include in your package of variations the fun ride, the cycling version of going out for a stroll. Go for a ride with your kids, your spouse, or your lover. Forget about your cadence or your heart rate or your muscular-twitch ratio or any of that human engine stuff: Forget about it. Instead, enjoy the world around you; enjoy the company you're with. Take it easy and love life on two wheels every once in a while. That's an upbeat attitude that will carry over and help sustain you through more strenuous rides.

Move on to Pacing Yourself

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