One of my favorite saying is: If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
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To get back to my cyclist friends:
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| We don't put on this much weight. |
Every winter we tend to put on a few pounds due to riding a lot less because of the weather. This means that every spring we have to get back into riding shape. What do I feel is the best way to do this? (Various types of intervals) Like I said, most of the people I ride with don't perform intervals on a regular basis. Making yourself tired doesn't make great training. I begin each ride with a goal for that ride. Most cyclist I know don"t.
Cycling coaches use to tell riders that they needed around 1000 miles of long slow distance riding before adding any intensity. If you have been riding for more than a couple of decades, it doesn't take long to rebuild your foundation. In other words, the longer you have been riding the less time you need to spend building this base. They type of interval I use depends on what I plan on working on.
Each spring I will spend 3 - 4 weeks using bigger gears a couple of times per week to build some strength on the bike. I have to be careful not to use too big of a gear or I will hurt my knees. These rides have to be done alone to keep from pushing myself too hard.
By the same token, you don't want to push yourself too hard, too often. I use to push myself more when riding alone, but have found that I would have trouble pushing myself on group rides. If I am riding with a group on Wednesday and Saturday, I will only perform intervals on Monday if I have recovered enough from the previous Saturday's ride.
If riding on Tuesday and/or Thursday, I will ride at a easy recovery pace. This pace should be slow enough that I almost feel guilty going so slow. You have to put your ego aside and let other riders pass you.
How do you know what you should work on and when? (I will work on one of my weaknesses during a group ride if I get the chance.)
The following article is from coach Matt Fitzgerald a featured coach on TrainingPeaks.com and author of several books for endurance athletes, including Brain Training for Runners.
Attack your weaknesses
A bicycle ride is at once so simple and so complex. It is
your life pared down, just you and the outdoors, away from stress and
obligation, or just you and your speed and watts and beats per minute. Yet it
is also multifaceted, requiring several types of fitness for your body to
motor, climb, sprint and last all day long. Each of us is stronger in some
areas and weaker in others. If you've been riding consistently all year,
there's probably not much room to improve in the areas in which you're already
strong. The key to making a big leap forward before the year is done is to
focus on your weakness. "The fastest way to boost your performance is to
identify your primary limiter and change your training in ways that push it
back," says elite-level cycling coach Hunter Allen, coauthor with Andrew
Coggin, Ph.D., of Training and Racing with a Power Meter. Your primary limiter
could be anything, depending on factors from your natural physiology to your
riding habits. To strengthen it, you must first identify it. Then, use these
workouts to attack it head-on.
YOU FEEL LIKE: "I end up gasping for breath before my legs give out on hard rides." OR "It takes me a long time--often 2 full days--to recover from hard rides."
YOUR LIMITER IS: Aerobic Capacity "Aerobic capacity refers to the body's ability to use oxygen to release energy in the muscles while riding," says USA Cycling elite-level coach Jeb Stewart, owner and head coach of Endurofit.com. When oxygen processing is your weak spot, you will tend to have that "sucking wind" feeling even when your muscles still are strong. Because the aerobic system is also the one primarily responsible for postride recovery, not bouncing back from hard workouts is another sign that your aerobic engine needs attention.
TO ATTACK IT: Sneaky Miles Aerobic capacity is closely linked to training volume. Adding even an hour or 2 of riding per week will boost your aerobic fitness noticeably. One manageable way to bump training volume is to go for an easy recovery ride of 30 to 90 minutes within 24 hours of a hard ride. You might not think this would have much of an effect on fitness, but recent studies show that when athletes start even an easy exercise session in a state of lingering fatigue from previous training, their bodies produce higher levels of interleukin-6, an immune-system messenger compound that stimulates fat-burning efficiency and resistance to muscle damage, among other things. If you can't fit an extra recovery ride into your schedule, try doubling or tripling the length of your cooldown at the end of a hard ride instead.
YOU FEEL LIKE: "I bonk sooner than I should during long rides, even when I eat and drink enough." OR "I get muscle cramps during my longer rides."
YOUR LIMITER IS: Endurance To ride long successfully, your body needs to develop the ability to store large amounts of glycogen, or carbohydrate fuel, in your legs and to burn fat efficiently during cycling. If you lack these adaptations, which accrue as a gradual result of depleting your muscle glycogen stores in longer-than-normal rides, no amount of drinking and eating will help. You will experience either complete muscle exhaustion or debilitating leg cramps.
TO ATTACK IT: High-Tempo Intervals The obvious way to boost endurance is to do a weekly long ride, or to add 30 minutes to an hour to your long ride, up to 4 hours. But this workout from Stewart helps you go longer without adding ride time. Endurance gains result mainly from depleting your muscle glycogen stores in training rides. These intervals are performed at a higher intensity than a standard ride, so they deplete glycogen stores faster. n Start a 2-hour ride with a 15-minute warm-up, then, depending on your fitness, do either 2 to 4x10 minutes, 2 to 3x15 minutes or 2 to 3x20 minutes at just below lactate threshold (80 to 85 percent of max heart rate or 90 to 95 percent of 40k time-trial speed/power). Recover after each with 5 minutes of easy spinning.
YOU FEEL LIKE: "I end up gasping for breath before my legs give out on hard rides." OR "It takes me a long time--often 2 full days--to recover from hard rides."
YOUR LIMITER IS: Aerobic Capacity "Aerobic capacity refers to the body's ability to use oxygen to release energy in the muscles while riding," says USA Cycling elite-level coach Jeb Stewart, owner and head coach of Endurofit.com. When oxygen processing is your weak spot, you will tend to have that "sucking wind" feeling even when your muscles still are strong. Because the aerobic system is also the one primarily responsible for postride recovery, not bouncing back from hard workouts is another sign that your aerobic engine needs attention.
TO ATTACK IT: Sneaky Miles Aerobic capacity is closely linked to training volume. Adding even an hour or 2 of riding per week will boost your aerobic fitness noticeably. One manageable way to bump training volume is to go for an easy recovery ride of 30 to 90 minutes within 24 hours of a hard ride. You might not think this would have much of an effect on fitness, but recent studies show that when athletes start even an easy exercise session in a state of lingering fatigue from previous training, their bodies produce higher levels of interleukin-6, an immune-system messenger compound that stimulates fat-burning efficiency and resistance to muscle damage, among other things. If you can't fit an extra recovery ride into your schedule, try doubling or tripling the length of your cooldown at the end of a hard ride instead.
YOU FEEL LIKE: "I bonk sooner than I should during long rides, even when I eat and drink enough." OR "I get muscle cramps during my longer rides."
YOUR LIMITER IS: Endurance To ride long successfully, your body needs to develop the ability to store large amounts of glycogen, or carbohydrate fuel, in your legs and to burn fat efficiently during cycling. If you lack these adaptations, which accrue as a gradual result of depleting your muscle glycogen stores in longer-than-normal rides, no amount of drinking and eating will help. You will experience either complete muscle exhaustion or debilitating leg cramps.
TO ATTACK IT: High-Tempo Intervals The obvious way to boost endurance is to do a weekly long ride, or to add 30 minutes to an hour to your long ride, up to 4 hours. But this workout from Stewart helps you go longer without adding ride time. Endurance gains result mainly from depleting your muscle glycogen stores in training rides. These intervals are performed at a higher intensity than a standard ride, so they deplete glycogen stores faster. n Start a 2-hour ride with a 15-minute warm-up, then, depending on your fitness, do either 2 to 4x10 minutes, 2 to 3x15 minutes or 2 to 3x20 minutes at just below lactate threshold (80 to 85 percent of max heart rate or 90 to 95 percent of 40k time-trial speed/power). Recover after each with 5 minutes of easy spinning.
YOU FEEL LIKE: "I
bonk abruptly when trying to sustain a high intensity." OR "I feel
overwhelmed by the speed of time trials and time-trial-intensity
workouts."
YOUR LIMITER IS: Lactate threshold "A simple definition of lactate threshold is the maximum power you can sustain for 1 hour," says Allen, which is roughly the speed at 85 percent of your max heart rate. If this is your limiter, you'll notice you can't ride at 85 percent of your max heart rate for an hour, and that your max sustainable speed/power is too low. A trained cyclist should be able to churn out at least 30 percent more speed/power in a max-effort hour ride than in a moderate one.
TO ATTACK IT: Microbursts Allen uses a workout he calls microbursts to efficiently raise an athlete's lactate threshold. After warming up, do 15 seconds "on" at a near sprint (150 percent of your threshold power, if you have a power meter), then do 15 seconds "off" at an easy spin (50 percent of your threshold power). Continue for 10 minutes. "It's totally annoying," says Allen, but effective. Unlike steady-pace lactate threshold workouts, he explains, microbursts work primarily by challenging your body to quickly and repeatedly recover from high-intensity muscle fatigue. "Plus, you get a tremendous boost in your ability to change speeds," Allen says. Because it takes only 10 minutes, Allen recommends preceding this with wind-out sprints (below) to get 2 distinct benefits from a single ride.
YOU FEEL LIKE: "My performance drops quickly after the first effort of an interval workout." OR "I struggle with speeding up from an already hard pace, even for a minute."
YOUR LIMITER IS: Anaerobic capacity In practical terms, anaerobic capacity refers to your ability to recover quickly from very hard efforts--those exceeding lactate-threshold intensity--and to repeat such efforts multiple times before you experience a drop in performance.
TO ATTACK IT: Near-Max Intervals There's no way around it: To nudge your anaerobic capacity higher, you need to do short intervals at near-max effort. After a 15-minute warm-up, do one of these workouts from Stewart. In each, ride the hard parts at the highest intensity you can sustain through the last interval without blowing up. These are hard. Two to 4 sets of 3 to 5x30 seconds hard and 90 seconds easy spinning, with 5 to 10 minutes easy spinning between sets. Two sets of 5x1 minute hard followed by 3 minutes of spinning, with 5 to 10 minutes of spinning between sets. Two sets of 5x2 minutes hard followed by 3 minutes of spinning, with 5 to 10 minutes of spinning between sets.
YOU FEEL LIKE: "I get dropped on steep, short climbs and can't keep up when someone in the group attacks." OR "I have no 'snap' in my legs."
YOUR LIMITER IS: Maximum power "This is the ability to contract and relax the muscles very quickly," says Stewart. There is a common misconception that maximum power is something only sprinters need. In fact, the best climbers and time trialists tend to have greater top-end power than those less proficient, so boosting your maximum power is a great way to improve your all-around performance.
TO ATTACK IT: Wind-Out Sprints Power is the ability to apply force quickly. Cyclists typically train for power by emphasizing force (i.e., by pushing big gears). But Allen's high-rev sprints emphasize the speed aspect, which means high cadence and big power gains without a big time commitment. After a thorough warm-up, start at a slow speed, only 5 to 8 miles per hour, and in your small chainring and a middle gear on your cassette. Do a 10-second all-out sprint with only 1 or 2 gear changes. Wind out the gear before you shift, like you do in a car, going up to 120 rpm before upshifting. Complete 6 to 8 sprints, recovering 2 minutes after each sprint. Allen suggests doing wind-outs and then moving on to microbursts (above).
YOUR LIMITER IS: Lactate threshold "A simple definition of lactate threshold is the maximum power you can sustain for 1 hour," says Allen, which is roughly the speed at 85 percent of your max heart rate. If this is your limiter, you'll notice you can't ride at 85 percent of your max heart rate for an hour, and that your max sustainable speed/power is too low. A trained cyclist should be able to churn out at least 30 percent more speed/power in a max-effort hour ride than in a moderate one.
TO ATTACK IT: Microbursts Allen uses a workout he calls microbursts to efficiently raise an athlete's lactate threshold. After warming up, do 15 seconds "on" at a near sprint (150 percent of your threshold power, if you have a power meter), then do 15 seconds "off" at an easy spin (50 percent of your threshold power). Continue for 10 minutes. "It's totally annoying," says Allen, but effective. Unlike steady-pace lactate threshold workouts, he explains, microbursts work primarily by challenging your body to quickly and repeatedly recover from high-intensity muscle fatigue. "Plus, you get a tremendous boost in your ability to change speeds," Allen says. Because it takes only 10 minutes, Allen recommends preceding this with wind-out sprints (below) to get 2 distinct benefits from a single ride.
YOU FEEL LIKE: "My performance drops quickly after the first effort of an interval workout." OR "I struggle with speeding up from an already hard pace, even for a minute."
YOUR LIMITER IS: Anaerobic capacity In practical terms, anaerobic capacity refers to your ability to recover quickly from very hard efforts--those exceeding lactate-threshold intensity--and to repeat such efforts multiple times before you experience a drop in performance.
TO ATTACK IT: Near-Max Intervals There's no way around it: To nudge your anaerobic capacity higher, you need to do short intervals at near-max effort. After a 15-minute warm-up, do one of these workouts from Stewart. In each, ride the hard parts at the highest intensity you can sustain through the last interval without blowing up. These are hard. Two to 4 sets of 3 to 5x30 seconds hard and 90 seconds easy spinning, with 5 to 10 minutes easy spinning between sets. Two sets of 5x1 minute hard followed by 3 minutes of spinning, with 5 to 10 minutes of spinning between sets. Two sets of 5x2 minutes hard followed by 3 minutes of spinning, with 5 to 10 minutes of spinning between sets.
YOU FEEL LIKE: "I get dropped on steep, short climbs and can't keep up when someone in the group attacks." OR "I have no 'snap' in my legs."
YOUR LIMITER IS: Maximum power "This is the ability to contract and relax the muscles very quickly," says Stewart. There is a common misconception that maximum power is something only sprinters need. In fact, the best climbers and time trialists tend to have greater top-end power than those less proficient, so boosting your maximum power is a great way to improve your all-around performance.
TO ATTACK IT: Wind-Out Sprints Power is the ability to apply force quickly. Cyclists typically train for power by emphasizing force (i.e., by pushing big gears). But Allen's high-rev sprints emphasize the speed aspect, which means high cadence and big power gains without a big time commitment. After a thorough warm-up, start at a slow speed, only 5 to 8 miles per hour, and in your small chainring and a middle gear on your cassette. Do a 10-second all-out sprint with only 1 or 2 gear changes. Wind out the gear before you shift, like you do in a car, going up to 120 rpm before upshifting. Complete 6 to 8 sprints, recovering 2 minutes after each sprint. Allen suggests doing wind-outs and then moving on to microbursts (above).
This article should give you some ideas on how to plan to work on your weaknesses the next time you go out for a ride.
