You might remember that a couple of weeks ago I posted a video demonstrating the riding technique for pushing big gears.
Last week I was in Lanzarote with 3 other athletes, for some warm weather training. If you’ve never been to this particular Canarian Island you’ll know that there are 3 things that you can pretty much guarantee at any time of the year: Warm weather, Wind, Hills
The last 2 gave me the perfect opportunity to practice my “quiet” hill climbing technique.
As I was cycling up my umpteenth hill of the day into a headwind and struggling in my lowest gear I started thinking of how much strength benefit there would be for my future fitness.
Riding the hills is a great sports specific way to make you stronger but what if you don’t live near any hills?
No problem. Here is a 10 week programme which requires you to do a strength workout once per week alongside your other bike workouts (If you are a triathlete I’d recommend the following -1 x endurance session (2-3 hrs), 1 x Vo2 max session (1hr) 1 x strength session (see below)
Please remember that these workouts will place extra strain on the ligaments & tendons of the knees so as with any other conventional strength training programme, it’s important to start at a low intensity and build up slowly. This session can be done on an indoor trainer or outdoors on your road or mountain bike
Warm up – Always ride for 20-30 minutes, steadily building the intensity to 85% of max heart rate or 80% FTP (if you use power). Ride at your normal cadence when warming up.
Main set – select a gear that will allow you to maintain 60-70rpm while remaining seated
Start with 10 x 2’ @ 60-70rpm. Stay <85%mhr. Take 60s recovery between efforts. Spin at your normal cadence. The best way to do this is just to drop into the small chainring. (NB these are efforts you can do on an indoor trainer, flat or gently undulating road; No hills needed!!)
Over the following weeks build the sets as
7 x 3’+ 90s recovery,
5 x 4’ + 2’ recovery,
5 x 5’ + 2 ½’ recovery
5 x 6’ + 3’ recovery
6 x 6’ + 2 ½’ recovery
5 x 8’ + 4’ recovery
4 x 10’ + 5’ recovery
3 x 13’ + 7’ recovery
2 x 20’ + 10’ recovery
The added bonus is that because of the prescribed HR intensity you’ll also be targeting the very important part of your aerobic system around what some people talk of as aerobic threshold and which the sports scientists refer to as the first turn point
Cool Down – You’ll have developed a fair amount of lactic acid so make sure you have a minimum of 15-20 minutes easy spinning to cool down
Follow this for the next 3 months and please let me know how you get on. The programme will work especially if you live in the flatter parts of the world
If you have any comments then please post them to the blog below
Stay healthy & have fun
Simon
P.S. We now have 20 week training programmes for every single long distance event in the world. If you dont see it on the list just drop me a line. simon@thetriathloncoach.com
