Hi, Roberto Vukovic here. I’ve quite recently come across a pretty cool post from bestselling author Morgan Housel. In it he describes a short dialogue between famous investor Charlie Munger and a kid that went like this: “What advice do you have for someone like me to succeed in life?” Munger replied: “Don’t do cocaine. Don’t race trains to the track. And avoid all AIDS situations.”
See, it’s hard to know how to build cycling fitness but it’s easy to spot how not to. Similar to relationships. Building trust is complex; destroying it is simple. So when trying to get faster it can be helpful to flip things around, focusing on what to avoid.
Here are a few pieces of very bad cycling advice:
Always following the latest trend without further research.
Obsessively chasing after every marginal gain.
Trying to apply extreme examples to your own training.
View every group ride as a competition to win.
Feeling a constant need to validate your power numbers.
Assume the solution to better performance is better cycling gear.
Assume more intensity is always better.
Skipping one or another training day because it seems trivial.
Only riding for the Strava leaderboard.
View mental attitude as a minor component of success.
Train only with people whose objectives are beneath your own.
Always associate weight loss with better performance.
View every trend in pro cycling as an absolute to follow.
Let your ego guide your training decisions.
Choose who to trust based on follower count.
Confuse tolerance with adaptation.
Confusing knowing something with doing something.
Underestimate the power of consistency.
Prioritize defending what you already believe over learning something new.
Use power numbers as a scorecard instead of a tool.
Assume more is always better.
Assuming more effort always equals better results.
Believing effort is rewarded more than results.
Maximize for immediate results over long-term progress.
View complexity as knowledge and simplicity as stupidity.
Be external motivated vs. internal driven.
Set shallow, imprecise goals.
Focus on outcomes you cannot control.
Believing extreme approaches are necessary or even beneficial whether pro or non-pro.
Automatically associate status with wisdom.
Discounting repeatability, assuming variety is smart training and similarity is ineffective.
Avoiding joy in boredom.
Assuming what feels good is always what is good.
Avoiding the nature of uncertainty.
Underestimating the power of tiny gains while overestimating huge gains.
Trying to impress those that don’t care about your impression.
Only seeing your performance relative to others.
Confusing numbers with readiness.
This article was inspired by bestselling author Morgan Housel’s article “Very Bad Advice” on the Collaborative Fund Blog. I encourage you to check out his work and writing. Read it here.
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