BIKE workouts
4 Great One-Hour Bike Workouts
By Matt Fitzgerald
Triathlete magazine
There's a great disparity between the way coaches advise triathletes to train on the bike in columns such as this one and the way most triathletes actually train on the bike.
The majority of articles on bike training for triathletes focus on higher-intensity workouts such as threshold rides, VO2 max intervals and hill repetitions. The authors of these articles (myself included) are well aware of the fact that, as endurance athletes, triathletes should spend most of their time training at a steady aerobic pace. But this type of training is not quite as interesting to write about as the higher-intensity stuff, so we overemphasize the higher-intensity stuff.
The average age-grouper does few or none of these workouts, however. Indeed, the variable of intensity is not really a variable at all in the training of the average age grouper. Every ride is done at more or less the same effort level. The only factor that distinguishes one workout from the next is duration. "Let's see: Should I do my 45-minute loop, my one-hour loop or my 90-minute loop today?" Oh yes, I'm on to you!
We triathlon coaches must not fool ourselves. The average age-grouper's willful avoidance of intensity manipulation in bike training is not the result of lack of information. You folks read our articles. It's really a matter of sheer stubbornness.
These fancy high-intensity workouts seem to require that you do all kinds of logistical preparation, find the perfect training environment (your favorite one-hour loop surely will not do) and control and monitor your power output, heart rate, speed, cadence, interval distances and split times with scientific precision.
You figure you get 90 percent as much fitness benefit from noodling through your favorite one-hour loop at a steady, moderate effort level time and time again as you would get from throwing some fancy high-intensity workouts into the mix. You reckon that the hassle you spare yourself by not doing these workouts is worth more to you than 10 percent greater fitness.
So you keep doing your loops.
I would like to propose a compromise. Your bike training does not have to be all or nothing—your way or the coaches' way. With just a little mental effort you can easily incorporate some valuable high-intensity training into the same old routes you ride two or three times per week.
By making this small effort you will get a significant boost in cycling fitness without adding any extra logistical stress or planning hassle to your routine. Here are four specific workouts to try:
1. One-hour Loop With Threshold Work
Threshold intensity is more or less your 40K time-trial effort level. Training at this intensity will improve your performance not just in triathlons featuring a 40K bike leg but also in triathlons of every distance because it produces physiological adaptations that generally improve your capacity to sustain hard efforts.
To turn a one-hour loop into a threshold workout, just throw in one or two blocks of riding at your known or estimated 40K time-trial power level/speed. Don't worry about the effect of turns, winds and hills on your speed. Just maintain a consistent effort level.
Be sure to begin the workout with at least 10 minutes of easy spinning to warm up. Beginners should do no more than 10 or 12 minutes of threshold riding in their first session. If you're fit and competitive, you can build up to 2 x 20 minutes, or 40 minutes straight. (Note that doing a given amount of threshold riding in two equal blocks instead of one block is always a little easier.)
As you gain fitness, your threshold power level/speed will gradually increase. Allow this to happen automatically, rather than forcing it, by always riding at the same subjective effort level.
2. One-hour Loop With VO2 Max Work
VO2 max intensity is approximately the highest work level you can sustain for 10 minutes. Training at this intensity produces big gains in aerobic capacity and fatigue resistance at very high effort levels.
The simplest form of VO2 max training is three-minute intervals. To incorporate VO2 max training into your one-hour loop, start with 10 minutes of easy spinning and then complete three to six intervals of three minutes apiece at the maximum effort level you could sustain for 10 minutes in race conditions.
Spin for at least two minutes after each interval. Limit yourself to three intervals in your first VO2 max interval workout. Build to five intervals if you're moderately fit and competitive and six intervals if you're highly fit and competitive.
Again, pay no mind to turns, winds and hills and how these factors affect your speed. The point here is to make do with your favorite one-hour loop, not simulate laboratory conditions—after all, isn't this supposed to be fun?
3. One-hour Loop With Power Work
Power is the ability to apply force quickly. In cycling, it is the ability to turn big gears at a high cadence. Your maximum pedaling power is the greatest number of watts you can produce during a very short, all-out effort. There is a common misconception among triathletes and cyclists that maximum power is more or less irrelevant to endurance cycling performance, but it is not.
The best endurance cyclists typically have much greater maximum pedaling power than average endurance cyclists, and increasing your maximum power is an effective way for anyone to improve his or her performance in longer race efforts.
The best way to train your maximum power is to perform multiple short sprints. These can easily be incorporate into a one-hour loop ride. Cycling coach Hunter Allen recommends the following format: Start at a slow speed—five or eight miles an hour—and a middle gear in your small chainring.
Do a 10-second sprint with only one or two gear changes. Wind out the gear before you shift, like you do in a car. Go up to 120 RPM. Recover two minutes after each sprint. Start with just four sprints if you haven't done anything this intense recently (or ever!). Build up to six or eight sprints if you're moderately competitive or 10 or 12 if you're highly competitive.
Do make an effort to perform your sprints on a sensible stretch of road (no sharp turns, good pavement, relatively flat) within your one-hour loop.
4. One-hour Loop With Hill Work
Most hill workout formats require that you ride up and down the same hill multiple times. Obviously, that doesn't work with a one-hour loop. A radical but still effective alternative is to simply work with what you have by attacking any and all hills that exist on your one-hour loop.
If there are three hills, two of them short and steep and one of them long and moderate, then ride each as hard as you can without emptying your tank for the remainder of the ride. If there's just one big mountain to get over, attack that.
This approach is certainly not as systematic as your typical, structured hill interval session, but it beats the common alternative, which is to ride the hills a little harder than the rest the loop but certainly not to attack them. You will definitely gain additional climbing prowess by working with what you have on that favorite route, whatever it may be.
OFF-ROAD CYCLING DRILLS
Train Slow to Race Fast: Off-Road Cycling Drills
By Adam Pulford, CTS Expert Coach
Triathlete magazine
Over the past year, several of the athletes I work with have broadened their triathlon horizons by venturing off-road into XTERRA or similar events. For the most part, on- and off-road triathlons are pretty similar.
The swim is essentially the same, aside from the potential for some colder water or an extra obstacle in XTERRA. And while there are some differences between road and trail running, most athletes already spend at least some time running off-road while training. The biggest point of difference—and perhaps the greatest challenge to newbies—is swapping a tricked-out tri bike for a mountain bike.
I recently went to an off-road triathlon to coach Trisha, one of the local XTERRA athletes I work with in Colorado. As I stood at various points along the mountain bike course, I saw clear signs that this was foreign territory for a lot of athletes.
But Trisha and I had worked on some key mountain biking skills, and by T2 she was well ahead of several athletes she's normally chasing, and she went on to record one of the best-ever results in her age group.
As much as Trisha wants me to keep these tips just between us, here are some of the ways she improved her mountain bike performance:
Going Uphill
Low-speed balance is very important to maintaining control and conserving energy as you go uphill on a mountain bike. The steeper and more technical the climb, the slower you're going to go. When athletes lack confidence at low speeds, they overreact to obstacles like rocks or roots and charge at them in an effort to maintain speed and momentum.
Incorporate the following drills into your rides, and once you get comfortable with your balance, you'll see you can conquer the same sections of trail without hyperventilating and sending your heart rate through the roof. This means you'll be faster when the trail opens up and have more energy once you get to the run.
Track Stands: It's very simple: Try to balance on your bike without rolling forward or backward more than half a wheel rotation. If your bike is pointed uphill, this is easiest to do with your front foot at the 2 or 3 o'clock position while you're standing out of the saddle so you can rock forward and back by adjusting your weight on that pedal. Pick out a grassy park and just be a kid again. If you fall over, oh well. Get back up and try again.
Water Bottle Pickups: This is a great one to do after your track stands. Place your water bottle upright on the grass and then reach down and pick it up as you ride by.
As you get better, try to go even slower, and for a bigger challenge lay the bottle on its side. While this isn't something you'll have to do in a race, it helps improve your body awareness to make you comfortable moving your body around on top of your bike.
The Slow Ascend: Pick out a local climb that has some moderate obstacles and then purposely ride it slower than normal. As you start creeping and crawling over rocks and roots, you'll start to see new lines, and you'll see that with greater balance and control you can pedal over and around obstacles while maintaining a smoother and steadier effort level.
Soon you'll be able to use the same techniques but maintain a higher overall climbing speed because you'll experience fewer extreme spikes in your power output (and subsequent drops for needed recovery) as trail conditions change.
Coming Back Down: Loosen Up to Go Faster
Maybe triathlon just attracts athletes with controlling personalities, but at Trisha's recent off-road triathlon I saw a lot of athletes fighting with their bikes as they came downhill instead of working with them.
Unlike descending on a road or tri bike, going downhill on a mountain bike can be a lot of work. But you can reduce that workload and increase your speed if you learn to loosen up.
Let the bike dance a bit.
A smooth and fast descent is a little like dancing the salsa: you need to have some swing in your hips. You've been working on your balance, so don't be afraid to move around on top of the bike and let the bike sway and lean a bit. You need to be firm and in control, but not rigid, in order to guide the bike through the fastest line downhill.
Pedal a big gear through rough patches.
Your tires and suspension can keep you tracking straight through rough sections like small rock gardens and low roots if you are able to keep your momentum. Keep your weight back and use a big gear so you can maintain your speed with only a few pedal strokes.
Lighten your grip.
Maintain a firm grip on the bars, but try to resist the urge to hold on for dear life. When you white-knuckle the handlebar, you'll also tighten up your wrists, elbows, shoulders, and neck. Instead of cushioning the vibrations from the trail, this just amplifies them. Let your limbs absorb the bumps to give your torso and head a smoother ride. Not only is this more comfortable, but you'll also be able to see better and focus on finding the best line.
At the end of the day you have to go fast to get faster, but learning to go slowly first is an important step toward gaining necessary mountain biking skills and greater off-road riding efficiency. It paid off for Trisha, so see what it can do for you.
Off-Road Triathlons: Five Tips for a Faster Off-Road Bike Leg
By : Carmichael Training Systems
As the competitive season hits its stride and you find yourself prepping for races rather than another training session, it’s important to remember that success in off-road triathlons isn’t completely about fitness. You’ve got to have the skills to pay the bills, and the competitor who produces the most power at lactate threshold doesn’t always reach the finish line first. In off-road triathlons, dexterity, skill, balance, and experience combine with fitness and endurance to produce a much different set of challenges than you experience during a classic road triathlon. It’s often the competitors who run and ride smarter races that end up standing on the podium.
Fortunately for you, you can still learn how to race intelligently and limit wasted time and effort. And the biggest gains in your racing IQ come from the skills you can develop for the mountain bike leg. Take some time to practice the following tips and then execute them on the mountain-bike leg of the race. Done right, these small tips could shave minutes off your bike split time and deliver you to the run with fresher legs.
Don’t kill the momentum. Use the brakes sparingly and efficiently in order to maintain your forward motion. Control your speed into turns rather than pedaling hard right up to them and then braking hard. You want to conserve as much of your momentum as possible, but when you brake hard into a turn you often come to something close to a complete stop. This means you’ll have to use a tremendous amount of power to get back up to speed as you exit. And try to keep your wheels rolling through the turn; power-sliding is not only bad for the trail, but it burns off more speed than you think.
Pick a quick line. There are usually more tight turns during the bike section of an off-road race than your typical road triathlon. Poor lines are slow lines, and seconds add up to several minutes when you make bad choices on a technical course. For downhill switchbacks, you’ll want to enter the turn wide, cut to inside of the turn at its apex, and exit wide. On uphill switchbacks, start wide and steer your front wheel through the outside of the turn. And on bends that are 90-degrees or shallower, keep a light grip on the brakes and be nimble over the bike; you’ll be surprised how much speed you can carry through these turns.
Increase your cadence. Because of our focus on three disciplines, triathletes have a limited capacity for power production on the bike. The power available can be produced in two ways: through pedaling at high cadence and low resistance, or in low cadence and high resistance. High-resistance pedaling means that your body recruits more fast-twitch muscle fibers to do the work. You generate a lot of power, but these muscle fibers fatigue quickly. As endurance athletes, you mostly rely on slow-twitch muscle fibers that can fire repetitively and nonstop for hours, but only at lower resistance levels that come from pedaling at a higher cadences (90–100 rpm). By pedaling faster you’re actually holding the fast-twitch muscle fibers — necessary for explosive power — in reserve for use on steep hills, fast transitions, and the sprint to the finish.
Practice your balancing act. Keeping the rubber side down seems to be a fairly easy and obvious way to improve your bike split time, but the gnarly trails featured in some off-road triathlons, make it easier said than done. Improving your balance on the bike is a function of being comfortable moving around the cockpit of your bike. Sliding up to the nose of the saddle and putting your weight over the handlebars (great for steep climbing), sliding off the back of the saddle to keep your weight back on descents, and leaning the bike to the right or the left while keeping your body vertical are all skills that you’ll need to maneuver your bike while out on a technical race course. To practice, simply go to a grassy field and ride around at super slow speeds, holding a line through a turn, and eventually riding in a tight circle as slow as you possibly can to mimic a narrow switchback turn. The slower you can ride without falling, the better your bike balance and the faster you can ride over rough terrain.
Get on a road bike. Technique on the mountain bike is a huge component in maintaining speed during an off-road triathlon, but you still have to be a strong rider. Due to the very nature of mountain biking with its uneven terrain, it’s hard to produce the long and steady efforts necessary to boost your aerobic capacity. For that, it’s best to hop on your road bike when your training schedule calls for intervals lasting several minutes or more.
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