Building sprint power

irezumi · July 2011

Hi, I'm a naturally slim rider and suited to climbing which I work on (5"7 and 9 stone). On hills I'm more than fine, on flats I can hold my own pretty well. However when it comes to sprints at the end of a race or breaking away from a group (this is cat 3 racing) I struggle. Having just recovered from an injury I'm looking to build up to next season with a few winter races. So see this as an ideal time to build up this acceleration/power.

So any tips/hints on building that initial power which I can sustain for a few minutes? Any specific training guides or books to read?

I'm also looking to start doing some TT'ing with the view of taking racing more seriously next season to try and progress to Cat 2, perhaps 1 at a push. So any tips on how this can be worked in to building power whilst maintaining climbing ability I'd be grateful.

Edit: I'd prefer road based training tips but will be moving to the turbo come winter time.

Thanks for any help.

joeyhalloran · July 2011

I find big gear rides help me. Through last winter I was doing extended rides (1-2hours) in the biggest gear I could, very low cadence. I found this built up the power I need, so on hills I could sprint pretty well. In the Spring I started adding some high cadence work which meant my technique in the sprint was getting better. Unfortunately these gains could only been seen in training as I had to take a few months off the bike after that.

amaferanga · July 2011

Intervals. 30s up to a few minutes. Find a nice gently sloping hill and do 8-12 at a time.

irezumi · July 2011

With intervals as a sole training session (with warm up and cool down) or at the end of a normal session?

Herbsman · July 2011

I would have thought doing powersprints would do the job... 53x11, accelerate to maximum speed, recover for 5+ mins, repeat.

amaferanga · July 2011

irezumi wrote:

With intervals as a sole training session (with warm up and cool down) or at the end of a normal session?

I usually warm up for 20 mins or so, do some intervals and then do some steady tempo riding after the intervals.

irezumi · July 2011

Thanks very much for the help. Had a half hearted go during a short ride today but can still only 'roll' on the power and to a certain amount.

Think it's going to be a long road, if you'll forgive the pun.

lef · July 2011

after warming up do the following sprint intervals
6x50m in small ring sprint from 10mph - max effort
3x250m in 53:17 from 20mph - max effort
3x250m in 53:16 from 23mph - max effort
1x 53:15m in 53:15 from 27mph - all out

1min recovery between every interval

You should need minimal gear changes (maximum of 2) and wind out the gears before changing. You should be finishing each sprint at around 120rpm.

...and I should acknowledge the source - Training and racing with a power meter by Coggan. Fantastic training guide and all the workouts (there's many) show required heart rate zones as well as the power zones in case you're missing a power meter.

jda3000 · July 2011

I surgest you buy joe friel training bible.

He reccomends improving all of your abilityies to become a complete rider and provides ways todo this which seems to me to be very good. But as like you im not too good sprinting, so i spent the whole year trying to improve my sprint and initial power by doing seated jumps. But by trying to improve my sprint i feel ive missed out on improving my strenghts, with no real gains on my weaknesses.

amaferanga · July 2011

lef wrote:

after warming up do the following sprint intervals
6x50m in small ring sprint from 10mph - max effort
3x250m in 53:17 from 20mph - max effort
3x250m in 53:16 from 23mph - max effort
1x 53:15m in 53:15 from 27mph - all out

1min recovery between every interval

You should need minimal gear changes (maximum of 2) and wind out the gears before changing. You should be finishing each sprint at around 120rpm.

...and I should acknowledge the source - Training and racing with a power meter by Coggan. Fantastic training guide and all the workouts (there's many) show required heart rate zones as well as the power zones in case you're missing a power meter.

1min recovery isn't enough and that's not what my copy of TRWPM says. 3-5min recovery.

lef · July 2011

this is NP-W5. Are you looking at the correct workout?

amaferanga · July 2011

lef wrote:

this is NP-W5. Are you looking at the correct workout?

I've got the 1st edition - I take it you have the 2nd edition?

But I still think that if your aim is to build sprint power you need to be resting for longer between intervals. If you did those with a PM you'd see that your power would be falling off significantly more by the final interval than if you rested for longer between them. When I do all-out sprints I rest about 4 minutes and even then I struggle to keep the power up after 9 of them....

If you want to train to do repeated close-spaced all-out efforts though then that workout (with 1min recovery) would be ideal.

P_Tucker · July 2011

amaferanga wrote:

lef wrote:

this is NP-W5. Are you looking at the correct workout?

I've got the 1st edition - I take it you have the 2nd edition?

But I still think that if your aim is to build sprint power you need to be resting for longer between intervals. If you did those with a PM you'd see that your power would be falling off significantly more by the final interval than if you rested for longer between them. When I do all-out sprints I rest about 4 minutes and even then I struggle to keep the power up after 9 of them....

If you want to train to do repeated close-spaced all-out efforts though then that workout (with 1min recovery) would be ideal.

He's right you know.

lef · July 2011

Apologies, it should be 2-3 min recovery for first set of intervals then 3-5 mins for the others. I do have the 2nd edition but my fault. probably shouldnt have been typing it from memory. I agree with the suggestions, and mixing the recovery intervals from week to week, if youre doing it weekly, will probably keep the body on its toes too.

Building sprint power

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