Need to find a turn of speed!

charliew87

This will probably end up as a thoroughly generic
Q ‘how do I get better at cycling?’
A ‘Do more cycling’
topic.

But here goes
- I’ve done 6000 miles in 3 years of cycling
- 2000 of those so far in 2014 and 4500 in the last 12 months, so I’m doing more and more
- I’m getting quicker, I’m finishing 80 mile sportives @ around 17mph this year vs 15mph last year
- I feel fitter and stronger

However
- I’m massively short of a turn of speed. I can ride with a bunch for 4 hours and as soon as they step up a bit either on a hill or on the flat, I really struggle to step up and at the end of sportives it inevitably ends up as a race between me and my mates in the final 5k.
- I’m always left behind at this point.
I live 5 minutes from Richmond Park so have the opportunity to go there basically every night after commuting home. How can I best use that space to improve my speed? I can do a solo lap in around 19 mins. Should I do hill reps up the corkscrew rather than just constant laps?
Is there anything to be gained from leg strength work?

I want to be more explosive basically, so any tips to improve that would be great.

I’ve got a load of sufferfest vids and a turbo and a trainerroad account but am loathe to use them in the summer!

LegendLust

Intervals, intervals, intervals.

DeVlaeminck

You still have a lot of improving to do just by spending time in the saddle - basically one year of training with 4.5k miles - so there is always that improvement to look forwards to.

Are you getting dropped on any power climb or whenever the pace hots up - or just when that happens towards the end of a longer ride? Can you drop them on long drags or could they put you in trouble on them too if they wanted?

wheelie-bin

LegendLust wrote:

Intervals, intervals, intervals.

+1

Sir Velo

How about (unless you are already) joining a local club. Most have group rides of varying standards, learn to ride as a group and then start going with a slightly faster group and seeing how long you can stay with them before having to fall back to the group behind.

Also they will probably have some Time Trialing events, useful to get you to 'leave it all out on the road'.

Sounds like you could do with mixing it up a bit, rather than just train for Sportives, and as others say a few interval sessions.

SV

okgo

As said it sounds like your power at vo2 max has plenty of room for improvement. Which would be expected based on what you have said. I was like you, but would suffer when the pace went up. What worked for me was intervals of sorts. Ranging from 20-30 seconds right up to 4-5 minutes.

In the park you can do most short intervals, longer ones a but more tricky. Consider a local club, Kingston meet nearby.

macmaywill

charliew87 wrote:

This will probably end up as a thoroughly generic
Q ‘how do I get better at cycling?’
A ‘Do more cycling’
topic.

But here goes
- I’ve done 6000 miles in 3 years of cycling
- 2000 of those so far in 2014 and 4500 in the last 12 months, so I’m doing more and more
- I’m getting quicker, I’m finishing 80 mile sportives @ around 17mph this year vs 15mph last year
- I feel fitter and stronger

However
- I’m massively short of a turn of speed. I can ride with a bunch for 4 hours and as soon as they step up a bit either on a hill or on the flat, I really struggle to step up and at the end of sportives it inevitably ends up as a race between me and my mates in the final 5k.
- I’m always left behind at this point.
I live 5 minutes from Richmond Park so have the opportunity to go there basically every night after commuting home. How can I best use that space to improve my speed? I can do a solo lap in around 19 mins. Should I do hill reps up the corkscrew rather than just constant laps?
Is there anything to be gained from leg strength work?

I want to be more explosive basically, so any tips to improve that would be great.

I’ve got a load of sufferfest vids and a turbo and a trainerroad account but am loathe to use them in the summer!

you have some answers for your own questions:

I’ve got a load of sufferfest vids and a turbo and a trainerroad account but am loathe to use them in the summer![/

damocles10

wheelie-bin wrote:

LegendLust wrote:

Intervals, intervals, intervals.

+1

+2 also up the mileage if possible....last month I put in 868.97 miles and can kick up to 30mph if it's safe to do so ( I don't race any more but I did more during that period (roughly 200/250 miles per week) )......but yes, intervals are really good for the Uuummph...you need a good base too.

charliew87

Thanks for feedback. Will spend my evenings on Broomfield Hill if I go to Richy P and do 10 up and down or something a couple of times a week for intervals. If weather’s not up to it I’ll dust off the sufferfests. Did Tour of Sufferlandria this year so had a bit of trainer burnout.

Have also started doing some plyometrics to try and get a bit more out of my legs.

Should do the job in theory!

mpatts

Intervals. I found I could ride a lot faster than I thought I could.

ai_1

charliew87 wrote:

........I want to be more explosive basically, so any tips to improve that would be great...

What sort of riding/training have you been doing? i.e. have you been doing just long easy rides, just short easy or hard rides or have you been mixing it up?

If you want to be more explosive it's probably a good idea when you're out for a ride to occasionally pick a point just down the road and do a flat out sprint to it. If you're riding with a friend it's more fun as you can just call sprints every so often. If you're just training with long miles your sustainable power will probably increase gradually but your explosive power won't improve much or may even disimprove. Intervals are probably the best structured way to improve.