training for next season

nolf

Hi,

After a couple of half decent results this year and a generally good season I want to build on it and take my cycling up a level.

I'm fairly good at endurance (done loads of sportives and regularly do long rides) rarely finding myself reaching the limits in racing. my leg speed is pretty good and I can keep a good high cadence, climbing is fairly good as I'm light and enjoy them.

One area I want to work on is max sustainable power (so LT) through longer intervals as during some races (especially crits) I've found I sometimes just don't have the power to bridge gaps/go on breaks.

I've been doing some intevals recently and noticed I feel stronger.

Over winter as i get ill easily I was thinking of doing gym sessions twice a week (2x20 intervals on the exercise bikes there and some light upper body/core workout and 1 or 2 leg weights), 1 or 2 longer rides, and loads of stretching and core workouts on other days as thats a weak area of mine as well. That way I'm not exposing myself to the cold too much but am also getting a great workout in.

Question is if I do intervals all winter will I burn myself out come the new season?
And if so whens the earliest I can bring them in for starting racing as early as possible (want a full season before my sportive block wipes me out!).

Any advice apprecaited.

Edwin

Good post, can't really offer much advice yet as I've been thinking the same thing. I'm probably quite similar (plenty of endurance, quite good uphill but need more power on the flat, and can't sprint for toffee).
I'm thinking about getting a powermeter/turbo and starting to do intervals as well, so I'm interested in how you develop your training plan. It's probably quantity not quality that leads to overtraining or illness, so it shouldn't be a problem to do intervals over the winter as long as you're not overdoing it.
Wouldn't recommend the gym though, I know this has been discussed on the forum before, but weights don't help a great deal with cycling performance unless you do short events like track sprinting.

vorsprung

nolf wrote:

Hi,
Over winter as i get ill easily

Fix that! Eat more carbs after exercise. Put a little weight on.

Question is if I do intervals all winter will I burn myself out come the new season?
And if so whens the earliest I can bring them in for starting racing as early as possible (want a full season before my sportive block wipes me out!).

Any advice apprecaited.

This is a question about peaking
You wish to peak at some point in the next season and not in the winter
So work out a plan gradually building up what you do to before some event in the next season
If you do your heaviest training in the middle of winter you will peak a month or so after that, which is probably not what you want
If the "sportive block" is wiping you out you probably want to work on your endurance, or pacing or just do a few less sportives

BigDarbs

Get hold of a copy of "The cyclists training bible" by Joe Friel. It expalians very clearly in there about how to attack training at different times of the year, and build up effectively for the season. In summary the book aims at high duration, low intensity during the winter, with a planned change to high intensity, low duration as the season approaches, with peaking for each planned race.

Just a tip about the book. When he shows the bar charts of what training to do & when, I could never understand how you were meant to know what to do, because the charts give a suggested duration and effort, with abbreviations that didn't seem to be explained. You must read the charts in conjunction with the explanations of the abbreviations in appendix C, it all becomes very clear then!

P.S He shows a plan for riding every day, which is not possible for me (or many other people) to do. So I adapted his training plan and replaced the easy days or recovery rides with days off the bike. I have improved significantly over the past year. (Concentrating on climbing every hill I come to hard, and sprinting every crest has helped!!).

Also remember, nobody ever got to ride fast by concentrating on slow rides. To get fast you have got to train fast.

nolf

Hi Edwin and vorsrpun thanks for replying.

Edwin, I'll keep this thread updated and once I've got a proper plan I'll post it here. Feel free to criticise or steal
As for the gym, it's where I do my intervals. I use the gym bike machins which although aren't great I just about prefer to use than my bike (don't have a turbo).
The weights are only for core stability, I also don't really believe in the benefits of leg weights for cycling.


Vorsrpung, the reason it wipes me out is just because I do so many. I usually do 7 in 8 weeks and the 4am wake up calls as much as anything kill me
I do them for fun more than anything, as I find them a great experience. I might cut down this year. I find by the 3rd/4th week my body is back used to doing the mileage and gets a lot quicker. Not really bothered about doing well so long as I can keep up with my mates!

I'll try building up, but I want to get as much in as possible. Maybe take 1 interval session out...?

RThaks for the replies, any other advice would be great.

nolf

BigDarbs wrote:

Also remember, nobody ever got to ride fast by concentrating on slow rides. To get fast you have got to train fast.

Thanks for the advice on the cyclists training bible. I've got a couple of books, mainly I use "serious cycling" by edmund burke as a basis for planning training. But thats been recommended to me so many times I may well just go and buy it.

tommy_tommy

Hi Nolf,

For many years I followed the long slow distance winter training regimes. However, last year due to time constraints, I dropped my weekly training to between 5 and 7 hours per week and lifted the intensity, I started this plan in Sept 2008.. I did 2 X one hour turbo sessions in the week at just below what I judged to my threshold (typically 2 x 20 minutes tempo). A really hard 90 minute session on a Saturday including 2 X 20 minute hill climbs at threshold. A 2.5 - 3 hour steady ride on a Sunday morning with tempo efforts on the hills.

I carried this right through the winter and suffered just one slight cold which is actually better than most previous winters. My belief is that the stress of fitting in extra long rides to an already hectic life was more detrimental to my health than the stress of the harder shorter training.

Anyway, this year I beat a 10 year PB in the local 10, manage to stick in the bench in most road races which I never managed previously and I actually beat all my previous times in the long 100 mile plus sporifs which actually surprised me as I never road more than 50 miles in training unlike in previous years.

The only problem I did experience is once ( started riding the sportifs) and I did get Quite a few niggling injuries. Next year, I going to drop the sportifs and concentrate road racing. In the road racing, I am exactly the same point as you. I sit in the bunch comfortably and ride well on the climbs due my light weight. However, I find it difficult to get across gaps in the flat crits and on occasion I have got away in a break I cant do many turns on the front and then hold on to last wheel. My target this winter is do increase my sustainable power on the flat and look at improving my aerodynamics and position on the bike.

Alex_Simmons/RST

tommy_tommy wrote:

Anyway, this year I beat a 10 year PB in the local 10, manage to stick in the bench in most road races which I never managed previously and I actually beat all my previous times in the long 100 mile plus sporifs which actually surprised me as I never road more than 50 miles in training unlike in previous years.

It's amazing what a focus on improving threshold power will enable you to do, even when time limited (by choice or by necessity).

But not surprising.

nolf

Thanks tommy for thr reply. Thats the kind of plan I'm thinking of.

I've got such a good endurance base nowadays, until I'm doing properly long road races, or an extra long sportive distance really doesn't concern me. I've quite happily cycled to and from most of my road races last year, and even the odd sportive!
I don't see the point in building up mileage over winter when I've spent most of the summer doing many many solo 4 hour rides.

Alex_Simmons/RST wrote:

tommy_tommy wrote:

Anyway, this year I beat a 10 year PB in the local 10, manage to stick in the bench in most road races which I never managed previously and I actually beat all my previous times in the long 100 mile plus sporifs which actually surprised me as I never road more than 50 miles in training unlike in previous years.

It's amazing what a focus on improving threshold power will enable you to do, even when time limited (by choice or by necessity).

But not surprising.

Threshold power is really what I'm getting at, hence the intervals in the gym twice weekly. But can you spend all winter developing threshold power/pushing out lactate threshold without burning your body out come racing season?
And should I build it up or can I jump right in? (coming from an already fairly fit base)
Be interested in a professional coach's opinion!

Murr X

nolf wrote:

Threshold power is really what I'm getting at, hence the intervals in the gym twice weekly. But can you spend all winter developing threshold power/pushing out lactate threshold without burning your body out come racing season?
And should I build it up or can I jump right in? (coming from an already fairly fit base)
Be interested in a professional coach's opinion!

Absolutely, hard training is fine as long as you allow yourself to recover. Many are opposed to doing shorter and harder training sessions during the winter but it is very effective though not easy.

You can start the threshold training right away but it goes without saying to start easier and work up volume and intensity.

Alex_Simmons/RST

Training threshold, either in a maintenance or improvement sense does not mean doing full blast intervals every time you hop on the bike/trainer. It's about the right balance of effort, such that the training load is sustainable, both physically and mentally.