Work on your strengths or weaknesses?
AndrewBye
Posts: 35
I am not much of a sprinter and don't really practice it much instead as II think im ok at longer efforts and hills so tend to practice these more.
Just wondered what people's opinion was regarding where they focus their attention in training and whether they work on their strengths or weaknesses?
Just wondered what people's opinion was regarding where they focus their attention in training and whether they work on their strengths or weaknesses?
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You may have identified an area that needs attention but I think that because it is still relatively early in your racing career it could well be the case that your sprint is realtively poor because of a lack of sufficient practice and training.
Your strength might be in the long break or as a lead out man for the team sprinter but if I were you I would nail that assumption down by practicing sprinting for town signs or lamposts and maybe do sprint intervals on the turbo. It can only add to your overall fitness for chasing down or making breaks.
As a TT rider I would do sprint training in the weeks building up to a peak. If I rode road races then I would do them more regularly. You never know you might be sprinter after all.0 -
Improving your own sprinting is usually a good idea, even if you are only likely to win atop a hillclimb or in a break. You may still find yourself in a small group of 2-5 riders and who wants to lose those encounters? Or as something to help you initiate and/or make a break.
Of course, then there are the tactical and skill elements of sprinting, which if learned can vastly improve your results without actually improving your power output. Nothing like a day at the track every so often to help with that.
Short sprint power (neuromuscular power) can be easily worked on without much additional fatigue to existing training. Just do a handful of 6-10 seconds efforts seated or standing from a slow pace and accelerate as hard as you can with a really good rest in between. There's stacks of drills you can do to mix it up.
It's when you start to work on the longer sprints that it needs more consideration as part of training as that starts to get into the realm of pain and suffereing
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All depends on what your weaknesses are and whether you are losing races because
of them. In which case train train them. If you never miss a layup but shoot less than 80
percent from the foul line you had better practice those free throws. An old saying goes
something like this "train your weaknesses until they become your strengths, then
repeat and repeat and........
Dennis Noward0 -
dennisn wrote:All depends on what your weaknesses are and whether you are losing races because
of them. In which case train train them. If you never miss a layup but shoot less than 80
percent from the foul line you had better practice those free throws. An old saying goes
something like this "train your weaknesses until they become your strengths, then
repeat and repeat and........
Dennis Noward
That's great advice but a little tip for the future. We don't really play netball in this country, so the analogy is kind of wasted on us. 0 -
chrisw12 wrote:dennisn wrote:All depends on what your weaknesses are and whether you are losing races because
of them. In which case train train them. If you never miss a layup but shoot less than 80
percent from the foul line you had better practice those free throws. An old saying goes
something like this "train your weaknesses until they become your strengths, then
repeat and repeat and........
Dennis Noward
That's great advice but a little tip for the future. We don't really play netball in this country, so the analogy is kind of wasted on us.
thanks. didn't think about that0 -
Must be all that sprint practice I did this week 8)
I actually did 4 short sprints on my turbo recovery ride on friday - as I think I read was advised by Lemond in procycling magazine to aid recovery although I forget how
Probably one of my better results from a bunch sprint so perhaps ill do a few more of those in training next week :?:0 -
AndrewBye wrote:Must be all that sprint practice I did this week 8)
I actually did 4 short sprints on my turbo recovery ride on friday - as I think I read was advised by Lemond in procycling magazine to aid recovery although I forget how
Probably one of my better results from a bunch sprint so perhaps ill do a few more of those in training next week :?:
Practice and training builds confidence and self-belief.0 -
Hey Andrew practice a few sprints during your tempo rides. If the word on the street is true and your functional threshold power and 5min powers are as impressive as I hear they are then I wouldn't 'sweat' sprinting too much at all.AndrewBye wrote:I am not much of a sprinter and don't really practice it much instead as II think im ok at longer efforts and hills so tend to practice these more.
Just wondered what people's opinion was regarding where they focus their attention in training and whether they work on their strengths or weaknesses?
Just keep dragging the lazy sprinter types into deep Elite 'threshold' water and by the time the race is up you'll nullify any cat 1/2 neuromuscular efforts - and you can see the job done with your moderate sprint. Alternatively just give em the Cancellara treatment 0 -
Just took myself deep into threshold water with a MAP test - just for kicks on a tuesday morning before work
Interested / bored at work lookon my blog
http://andrewbye.blogspot.com/0 -
Good work!
Some nice numbers in there. MAP of 457W.
What are you estimating your FTP at?
What do you weigh?
CTL ~ 100-110 so some pretty solid training (as long as FTP is about right).
i take it you worked out how to seed the charts.0 -
I think my FTP is somewhere around 370w, I do about an hours hard ride ride on the road most wednesday evenings and that is my best score to date (since getting my pt a month ago)
Think i'm gonna plan do an hours test on the turbo tomorrow and see what score I get for that without traffic lights - so wont have any excuses. And as the weather is so lousy here, I doubt ill be able to get on the road without getting a good soaking.
My current weight is 74kg.
By seeding I think you mean: After reading up a little on the wattage forum and decided it was better to make up an approximate intensity value for my old training rides to give me an approximate starting point for my training load for the season.
I've been finding the ATL and CTL functions to be pretty useful, and the TSB useful but less so as it obviously doesn't take into account real life factors that affect recovery such as hours of and quality of sleep.0 -
Wow even as an estimate thats some serious power dude. 8) PS Don't forget to give Ric his propsAndrewBye wrote:I think my FTP is somewhere around 370w, I do about an hours hard ride ride on the road most wednesday evenings and that is my best score to date (since getting my pt a month ago).
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Just looked a bit more through the resources on Rics website and found a bit more about what it all might mean:
Guess I should have done that first
http://www.cyclecoach.com/pageID-downlo ... _zones.htm
Very interesting.0 -
Yes to the seeding. After a few months the numbers will settle anyway, irrespective of seed value.AndrewBye wrote:I think my FTP is somewhere around 370w, I do about an hours hard ride ride on the road most wednesday evenings and that is my best score to date (since getting my pt a month ago)
Think i'm gonna plan do an hours test on the turbo tomorrow and see what score I get for that without traffic lights - so wont have any excuses. And as the weather is so lousy here, I doubt ill be able to get on the road without getting a good soaking.
My current weight is 74kg.
By seeding I think you mean: After reading up a little on the wattage forum and decided it was better to make up an approximate intensity value for my old training rides to give me an approximate starting point for my training load for the season.
I've been finding the ATL and CTL functions to be pretty useful, and the TSB useful but less so as it obviously doesn't take into account real life factors that affect recovery such as hours of and quality of sleep.
A fair early observation on TSB, although you will learn more about that as you build up your power data bank and start to compare the patterns with what happened. Life's other stresses play a big part in determining training.
370W would be pretty high if MAP is 457W. It's not out of the question, so will be interested to see the result. Not many are prepared to lay down a full one-hour test for this purpose. A 10 mile TT is usually sufficient. But nothing predicts performance like performance itself.
Good luck with it!0 -
Alex, with that sort of TT power at his disposal II'm guessing Andrew should go under 20mins for a flat 10mile TT if he shapes up well aerodynamically speaking! 8)0
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Well there are a lot of variables but I guess he would need to be pretty slippery to go sub-20. A CdA in the vicinity of 0.22 - which is certainly attainable with the right position and equipment. For TTing, 0.20 is very slick, 0.25 is only average/OK, 0.3 is poor although of course it's a bit relative to height/weight/shape etc.Toks wrote:Alex, with that sort of TT power at his disposal II'm guessing Andrew should go under 20mins for a flat 10mile TT if he shapes up well aerodynamically speaking! 8)0 -
I keep overheating when I try and ride this test on my turbo!
I tried on wednesday evening with a fan but with windows closed but only managed about 10 minutes, I tried again just now with the patio door open and the fan on but still started to feel like the heat was overcoming me (i.e. dizzy and not sweating much)
I guess having being doing all my training outdoors over the winter my body has become somewhat accustomed to riding in 0 to 10 degrees temperature with a icy gale blowing rather than 21 degrees with a pathetic warn breeze coming from my fan.
Managed 20 minutes now before my HR started to come down - which suggested to me my heart wasn't in it
Think ill wait till the weather improves a little bit and then go try and find a dual carriageway somewhere without any traffic lights on and have another go.0 -
AndrewBye wrote:I keep overheating when I try and ride this test on my turbo!
I tried on wednesday evening with a fan but with windows closed but only managed about 10 minutes, I tried again just now with the patio door open and the fan on but still started to feel like the heat was overcoming me (i.e. dizzy and not sweating much)
I guess having being doing all my training outdoors over the winter my body has become somewhat accustomed to riding in 0 to 10 degrees temperature with a icy gale blowing rather than 21 degrees with a pathetic warn breeze coming from my fan.
Managed 20 minutes now before my HR started to come down - which suggested to me my heart wasn't in it
Think ill wait till the weather improves a little bit and then go try and find a dual carriageway somewhere without any traffic lights on and have another go.
You're either a battery hen or you are free range. We are alike I think.0
