Warmup

Before each workout it is important to warmup. Cold muscles get injured easily

perform 1 circuit of the following

Goblet Squats 10 reps
Forward/Backward Bends 10 reps (slow deep movement)
Halos 10 reps each directions
Spiderman Stretches 30 seconds per side
Sumo Stretches 30 seconds
Glute activation Bridges 10 reps both legs, 10 single leg, 10 both legs

Bike Workout

Warm-up 10-15 minutes with light spinning and 3X 20 second efforts to open the legs. Recover a couple of minutes between efforts.

Tabata Intervals

10 X 20 seconds hard / 10 seconds easy

( 175 % threshold power)

Go all out for each of the work intervals. This is only a 5 minute workout but it’s all you need if you give it 100%.

Finish off with 10 minutes of easy spinning to cooldown then stretch hamstrings, hip flexors, quads and piriformis for 5-10 minutes.

Cross Training Workout

Do after your bike workout or later in the day. If you do it separately from your bike workout, warm-up again to avoid injury.

Time you workout and try to get it done as fast as you can with good form. Don’t get sloppy with reps to improve your time. If you were training with us the sloppy reps don’t count so you would just have to do more.

As many rounds in 15 minutes as possible

5 pullups

10 pushups

15 bodyweight squats

Go from one exercise to the next with as little rest as possible. This will be tough both muscularly and cardiovascularly.

Warmup

Before each workout it is important to warmup. Cold muscles get injured easily

perform 1 circuit of the following

Goblet Squats 10 reps
Forward/Backward Bends 10 reps (slow deep movement)
Halos 10 reps each directions
Spiderman Stretches 30 seconds per side
Sumo Stretches 30 seconds
Glute activation Bridges 10 reps both legs, 10 single leg, 10 both legs

Bike Workout

Warm-up 10-15 minutes with light spinning and 3X 20 second efforts to open the legs.

15 km Time Trial on the Trainer (record you time and try to beat it each time you do this workout)

Set the trainer at the same resistance level each time if you trainer is adjustable.

You can do this workout outside but keep the same course each time. A loop course is best to minimize wind input.

Cooldown with 10-15 minutes of easy spinning. Stretch after your workout.

While no one looks forward to short days and cold temperatures, it’s a reality of living in Canada. Just because your outdoor rides have been cut short is no reason not to get in better shape.  With an indoor bike trainer you can turn your bike into a high quality spin bike for far less money than it would cost to buy one.

Add to his the super effective workouts on our Speed Factory Workout of the Day Program and you can start next spring in better shape than you were this past summer.

We stock the following brands of indoor bike trainers:

• Cycleops
• Kurt Kinetic
• Elite
• BBB

Bonus Deal: Buy any indoor bike trainer and receive a Free Month of Speed Factory Coaching

Warmup

Before each workout it is important to warmup. Cold muscles get injured easily

perform 1 circuit of the following

Goblet Squats 10 reps
Forward/Backward Bends 10 reps (slow deep movement)
Halos 10 reps each directions
Spiderman Stretches 30 seconds per side
Sumo Stretches 30 seconds
Glute activation Bridges 10 reps both legs, 10 single leg, 10 both legs

Cross Training Workout

MC 1 – The workouts are labeled so it’s easy to check back to compare your time when you do a workout again.

1 Round for Time

25 one leg deadlifts per leg
25 walking lunges per leg
25 Bent rows per arm – one leg one arm
25 KB swings
25 spiderman pushups
25 sumo deadlift high pulls with Kettle bell

Stretch afterward once you catch your breath.

Training with power isn’t some neat thing for the future. It’s now.  If you aren’t training with a power meter you are just guessing and what you are doing.

Both the Kitchener and Cambridge Stores have power meters in stock.

Sram Quarq crank based power meter

Available in many different lengths and gearing options. The SRAM Quarq power meter is a great option for those looking for the best performance advantage because it adds very little weight and lets you have power measurement regardless of the what wheels you run. This ANT+ system works with most

Regular Price $2499.98   Braun’s Offseason Deal $2299.98

Power Tap Pro hub based power meter

We can build the Power Tap into just about any wheel configuration. Available in road and mountain versions you can have power measurement on all of your bikes.

We have road versions in 28 hole in stock at an amazing price.

Hub, computer, heartrate strap and usb cradle

Regular $1699.98    Sale Price $1099.98

Kurt Kinetic Power and Heartrate Computer

This is the least expensive way to accurate power measurement but only works on the Kurt Kinetic Road Machine indoor bike trainer. If you need a trainer this is the way to get into power training for less.

Kurt Kinetic Road Machine $429.98

Kurt Kinetic Wireless Power Computer w/ heartrate $ 229.98

Kurt Kinetic Wired Power Computer $ 119.98

Warmup

Before each workout it is important to warmup. Cold muscles get injured easily

perform 1 circuit of the following

Goblet Squats 10 reps
Forward/Backward Bends 10 reps (slow deep movement)
Halos 10 reps each directions
Spiderman Stretches 30 seconds per side
Sumo Stretches 30 seconds
Glute activation Bridges 10 reps both legs, 10 single leg, 10 both legs

Bike Workout

Warm-Up on the bike for 10-15 minutes

Tabata Intervals

10 X 20 seconds hard / 10 seconds easy

( 160 % threshold power)

Go all out for each of the work intervals. This is only a 5 minute workout but it’s all you need if you give it 100%.

Finish off with 10 minutes of easy spinning to cooldown then stretch hamstrings, hip flexors, quads and piriformis for 5-10 minutes.

Cross Training Workout

Do after your bike workout or later in the day. If you do it separately from your bike workout, warm-up again to avoid injury.

Time you workout and try to get it done as fast as you can with good form. Don’t get sloppy with reps to improve your time. If you were training with us the sloppy reps don’t count so you would just have to do more.

Videos of the exercises are posted below.

3 Rounds for time

30 Kettlebell Swings

20 Burpees (make sure you jump with feet off the ground)

10 Pullups (any variety)

Kettlebell Swings

Burpees

Pullups

In our ongoing plan to build the fittest customers, we are exposing people to training ideas and exercises that they may not have seen before. While these movements and ideas aren’t mainstream don’t be fooled. All of the exercises we are showing you are there because they work.

Case in point: The Turkish Get Up

Weird name but very effective exercise. The basic concept is very simple.  Go from lying on your back with a weight (kettlebell or dumbell) exended at arms length, to standing without bending your arm.

It’s easier to see it in action than describe so I’ve posted a video below. The Turkish Get Up is both a training exercise and a good test of your functional fitness as you have to be strong, coordinated and flexible to do them properly.

When I do TGU’s I will do sets of 5 reps per side for 3-5 sets. I don’t usually build them into circuits as they require such control that I’m liable to drop the kettlebell on my head if I’m gassed.

Warmup

Before each workout it is important to warmup. Cold muscles get injured easily

perform 2 circuits of the following

Goblet Squats 10 reps
Forward/Backward Bends 10 reps (slow deep movement)
Halos 10 reps each directions
Spiderman Stretches 30 seconds per side
Sumo Stretches 30 seconds
Glute activation Bridges 10 reps both legs, 10 single leg, 10 both legs

Bike Workout

Warm-Up on the bike for 10-15 minutes

4 X 4 Intervals

4 minutes hard (120 % of threshold power)

4 minutes recovery

Repeat 4 times

Finish off with 10 minutes of easy spinning to cooldown then stretch hamstrings, hip flexors, quads and piriformis for 5-10 minutes.

It’s a pain to buy a new trainer and have problems using it.  Instructions are fine but sometimes it’s easier to watch someone put something together and set it up.

Cycleops is kind enough to post videos of how to set up your indoor bike trainer.

Setting up Pro Series Trainers

Setting up Classic Series Trainers

Tips on using your trainer

At Speed Factory we are always looking for the most effective ways to improve athletic performance with the least amount of time spent training.  The kettlebell is one of the most effective tools we’ve found to make great fitness and strength gains.  To be a better cyclist you need to have a body that functions as a unit and full body kettlebell movements are unique in the load they create without having to devote much training time each week.

First let’s cover what a Kettlebell is. It’s a cast iron cannonball with a handle. It’s about as old school as you can get for a conditioning tool but used properly it is one of the most effective forms of cross training for cyclists. It’s hard to wrap your head around but tossing a steel ball around will make you a better hill climber faster than just about anything else.  I will get into explaining why it works more efficiently than other forms of training but in the end the why doesn’t matter as much as the fact that it just works.

The key kettlebell exercises, swings, cleans and snatches, are explosive movements that build power and endurance.  These movements are the easiest ballistic movements to learn to perform safely.  All athletic performance is based in a powerful hip extension and nothing builds that quicker than working with kettlebells.

Because the center of gravity of a kettle bell is offset compared to a dumbbell you get more muscle activation when doing the same exercises.  This means you get more training benefit from the same amount of exercise.

With a couple of different weight pairs of kettle bells you can perform tons of exercises without leaving home. Our Speed Factory Training System make use of the efficiency and ease of use of Kettlebells to strengthen the whole body of our cyclists and triathletes. Most of our workouts are only 10-20 minutes long so you don’t have the excuse that you don’t have time, particularly if you do them at home. The kettlebells are small enough to toss in the trunk to take on trips so you never have to be without them.

The great thing is you can start with just one KB to get started on super fitness. For women I suggest starting with a 20-25 lb and guys can start with 35 lb. You can add to your collection as you get stronger and want a greater challenge. Get some of your riding buddies together and you can to tough but short circuit workouts to build great fitness and torch off body fat.

We have Kettlebells available for order through the Kitchener and Cambridge Stores. Drop in the Cambridge store to see them in action in our Speed Factory Training Center.

The core exercises include:

• Swings
• Cleans
• Snatches
• Presses
• Windmills
• Renegade Rows
• Turkish Get-ups
• Bent Rows
• Squats
• Thrusters
• Sumo Deadlift High Pulls

You can find great instruction on Chronicles of StrengthYoutube channel. Just search the exercises on Youtube for other instruction.

Training without power is like lifting weights that aren’t labelled. It’s better than doing nothing but you have no real idea of the work you are actually doing. It’s hard to do a little more tomorrow when you don’t really know what you did today.

In addition to being able to track your true fitness level the power meter is a powerful training tool as you can train at the exact intensity needed to maximize your workout goals. Targeted training will get you more progress with less time training.

Once only within reach of pros, power meters have become much more affordable over the last few years. We have many options available including hub, crank and indoor trainer based power meters. A Kurt Kinetic Road Machine Fluid Trainer with the Kurt power computer will give you a great trainer and power measurement for around $550.

We have the Quarq crank based meter in stock in the Cambridge store so you can drop in and check it out. In addition we build wheels with the Powertap rear hubs for both road and mountain.

If you are looking to have a great season next Spring you need to train smart over the winter.  That means months of pedaling on the bike and cross training. Think how much more you would get from you training if you were fit to your bike properly.  Maximize your bike fit and you will maximize the effect of your training and minimize the chance of over-use injuries.

Think back on your rides this season. Did you suffer from any of the following symptoms?

• Numb or sore hands and wrists
• Pain in the knees or hips
• Numb or burning feet
• Sore butt or crotch including numbness of the unmentionables
• Pain the lower, middle or upper back including shoulders and neck
• Localized muscle soreness after a ride particularly in the quads or calves

If you did you will benefit from having your bike fit analyzed and adjusted to get your body into it’s natural position. The key to riding well is efficiency and comfort. If you are fighting with our bike, you are spending unnecessary energy that could be making your go faster.

Our Speed Factory Fitting System is a comprehensive approach to fitting that looks at your structural fitness on and off the bike. It lets us dynamically analyze your position and pedal stroke to optimize your body position and pedaling angle. We adjust the foot alignment including cleat set up, shimming for tilt and leg length imbalance and put in proper arch support. The feet are the foundation of your cycling house and a crooked foundation puts everything else out of balance.  In addition we recommend cross training and mobility work to improve your function on and off the bike.

The start of the off season is the perfect time to get your fit dialed in as you have the time to let your body adapt to the new position without missing any key events.

Get a leg up on the competition next season by getting your position personalized. Don’t settle for less.

Speed Factory Fitting is currently available at our Cambridge store (505 Hespeler Rd, Cambridge) but will be available at the other stores in the coming months.  Call 226-533-9090 Ex. 310 or email cambridge@brauns.com to book an appointment.

Everyone is looking for that secret piece of the puzzle that will allow them to get the speed and fitness need to go from middle of the pack to winning races. While nothing replaces hard work and consistency, you can get more from your training if you apply these concepts to your training.  The techniques outlined here are either unknown to most cyclists or not used the way they should be.  At Speed Factory our goal is to get the most fitness with the least amount of time spent training. Apply the things you learn to your training and you will see a big improvement in your riding performance.

Some of these techniques can be followed year round while others need to be used sparingly to give your fitness a kick start when you’ve hit a plateau.  I will start with the easiest concepts to integrate into your program and work to the harder one.

Many of these techniques are pretty advanced so you want to have at least a couple of years of steady training under your belt before you attempt them.

Progressive Overload

This concept is so simple yet not applied by nearly enough people.  Each week you need to do a little more than you did last week.  Most self-coached riders keep riding the same distances and paces, week after week.  It doesn’t mean that your over all ride time each week has to keep going up (that can help at times though), but you need to get more work done in that time.  If you did 5 hill repeats this week, do 6 next week. If you burned 1000 kilojoules on a ride (measured if you have a power meter) then aim for 1100 next week.  Limit over all increases to 5-10% per week.

Yoga and Crossfit

I have to mention this, although it isn’t really a secret.  I see so many cyclists that are fit in the narrow parameters of cycling but their bodies are a mess.  Muscles are overly tight and they have aches all over.  In time they will end up with overuse injuries that could have been prevented if they looked after their bodies the way the worked on their cycling specific fitness.  A big motor in a weak chassis isn’t the recipe for a long cycling career.  Doing 20 minutes of yoga, 3 times per week does wonders for flexibility and recovery.  3 Crossfit workouts of 10 minutes or less will help with core strength and fitness of both the prime movers and support muscles, making the body perform better over all.

Stack Workouts

Who says you do only an aerobic ride or one type of intervals during a workout?  Stack workouts are ones that have more than one type of training in a single workout.  For example, as part of a long ride, do 60 minutes of aerobic paced riding, 2 threshold repeats of 20 minutes and then finish the training portion of the ride with 20 X 30 seconds hard with 30 seconds recovery.  Stacks can be mixed many ways but don’t get carried away and try to cram in too much.  While this type of workout would be hard for science to test due to having too many variables to control, real world experience with athletes has shown this type of workout builds a lot of speed, work capacity and endurance.  For anyone who is time limited this approach can knock off a bunch of objectives in a single session.  As well it is much more fun than 3-4 hours of steady aerobic riding.

Block Training

This is link together multiple days of heavy workload be they large volume or high intensity.  I find they work best with the longest day first and then progressively work to shorter high intensity intervals over a 3-4 day block.  After the block take an easy day, then a rest day and finally another easy day before doing another heavy block.  Vary the recovery as needed to be fresh for the next block.

An example of how to set up a block would be:

Day 1 – 3-5 hour Steady ride with some hills (Aerobic and Tempo pace)
Day 2 – 2-3 X 20 minute Threshold repeats
Day 3 – 30 Velmax intervals – 30 seconds Hard (135 % Threshold Power) / 30 seconds easy
Day 4 – 45 minutes recovery pace
Day 5 – Day Off
Day 6 – 60 min Aerobic pace

Depletion Rides

For many cyclists, they reach a point where it isn’t the engine that limits performance but the gas tank.  Their body can’t supply energy fast enough to keep up with the pace they are fit enough to ride at.  At a certain point the legs just stop working.  Many people assume this is lack of endurance but it is usually that you have just run out of fuel at a muscular level.  To improve this you need the body to store more carbohydrate and burn more fat during exercise, sparing muscle glycogen.

This is where the Depletion Ride comes in.  With nothing other than water and electrolytes go on long rides with at least the first 60 minutes aerobic.  After that you can pick up the pace.  You want these rides to be at least 2 hours but we often go 3-4 hours.  Carry some gels in case your legs completely run out so you have the fuel to make it home.  Don’t use them unless you have to. Long rides without carbs force the body to tap into stored fat as a fuel source and you will increase your glycogen stores in the meals after them ride.  Only do 1-2 Depletion Rides per week for 4-6 weeks.

Overview

Integrate these techniques into your training wisely and you will see results. Experiment to find the right workload and keep at it. The best gains come over time. Build on past success to reach new heights of performance and put the hurt on your competitors and riding buddies.

You’ve done the training and you’ve got your nutrition dialed in. You can still blow it if you don’t get your pacing correct.  Start an event too hard and you will fade long before the finish.  Go too easy and you will finish much slower than your potential would allow.  For events longer than 5 hours you need to choose when to put in hard efforts as you only have so many of these in your system.
Follow these tips to find and hold the pace for optimal performance.

Avoid redline efforts particularly if you are riding on your own. For a triathlon or other event that you don’t have the benefit of drafting, a strong steady pace that sees you dial back the effort on hill climbs will yield you a better average than killing yourself up the hills. If you are doing a road event that has a pack such as a long race or century, the occasional maximal effort to stay with the group can pay off later with the drafting benefit. You will have to practice this in training to know how many efforts you have in you before they will end up lowering your overall average speed or power.

To finish strong in the second half of an event, the first half should feel a little easy. A pace that feel like you can do all day long will feel pretty hard in 4 or 5 hours. If you start too hard you will pay the price with a slower finish.

If you are in an endurance mountain bike race, you may find some super steep hills are best walked to save energy for later on in the event. Some hill climbs are only ridden with a 100 percent effort. You may make it up for the first few laps but pay the price in average speed later on in the event.

If you train and race with a power meter figuring out the optimal pace is a little easier. Once you know your maximal 60 minute power you can figure out a good target for your average power output for longer events. For events of 5-8 hours, target an average of 55-58% of your 60 minute power.  Of course like all things test this out in training to fine tune.

Pacing in long events plays a big role in your success.  Don’t let your ego dictate your pace.  If others are going hard at the beginning, they may just be stronger than you or they may be making the mistake of going too hard.  If this is the case you will pass them later on. You can only ride the fitness you have.  If you try to over extend yourself against stronger riders you will blow up well before the finish.

World Class Performance on a Real World Schedule

At Braun’s we don’t sit still. Rather than sit our laurels and coast on our history we are constantly finding ways to make your riding experience better. I always say you don’t own a bike to have a bike, you have a bike to ride so the focus should be on making riding better.

With this in mind we are unveiling the Speed Factory Coaching and Training Program.  Imagine getting into race winning shape on 8-10 hours of training per week.  I’ve been coaching cyclists and triathletes for many years and now bring it to the Braun’s. We have a unique system for people who don’t have unlimited time to train.  By stripping training down to the specific workouts that get you the most progress you will see great results and still have time for your family.

Unlike training systems that just focus on the bike training and leave you to figure out the cross training, flexibility and nutrition end of things, we guide you in becoming a complete athlete.  This approach maximizes performance while minimizing the chance of overuse injuries.

In addition we offer indoor training during the winter with both on bike and cross training workouts.  In addition to the coaching we become your gym. Rather than pay to go to a commercial gym that doesn’t cater to cyclists, we do trainer workouts, cross training and flexibility work specifically designed to improve your cycling performance.  We have the gear and we have the workouts.

Currently we are offer Speed Factory Coaching out of our Cambridge Store but will be bringing it to the other stores this Fall/Winter season.

For more information click below

Speed Factory Coaching and Training

With the second 24 hour mountain bike race of the season this weekend, it’s timely to look at how you get ready for 24 hour solo mountain bike racing.  Like marathon running, you need to acclimatize your body to the pounding your body will experience during a 24 hour mountain bike race.

Along with pushing the pedals for a full day, the repetitive bumps are one of the biggest causes of fatigue during a 24 hour solo.  Even with suspension you will still be getting thousands of jolts of various sizes during your race.  With the right training you can train the body to tolerate the pounding with less fatigue.  Think of the bumps as body shots in boxing.  One isn’t going to knock you out but thousands of them will certainly take the wind out of your sails.  Just as a boxer has to toughen their body for those blows, the cyclist need to toughen up for the pounding we receive.

Here are five ways to improve your bodies fatigue tolerance and improve your 24 hour riding.

Cross Training

You need to ride of course but cross training with Crossfit circuit workouts, trail running and punching a heavy bag will all help toughen up the joints and muscles. Not only will it help you with the fatigue from bumps but you will also perform better as cross training will strengthen the core and upper body muscles that don’t get hit much on the bike.

Ride a Rigid Bike

If you race on a suspension bike then ride a fully rigid bike a few times a week on the trails. You will get more bumping which over time the body will build a toughness that will make it seem easy when you ride your suspension bike. During the lead up to your big event do an enduro or 8 hour mountain bike race on your rigid bike.  I can’t over state this one.  I do most of my mountain biking on a fully rigid single speed and it has really improved over all body toughness and ability to resist fatigue both on and off road.  A bonus is that your bike handling skills will improve as well as you need to ride cleaner on a rigid bike.

Plyometrics

Bounding, jumping and tumbling.  Plyopmetrics are explosive movements such as box jumps and clapping pushups.  The goal it to increase maximal speed and toughen up the joints.  Try doing two legged broad jumps for the length of a football field or doing pushups up a stair case (move hands up in a jumping movement and then walk you feet up the next step).  The impact has to be built slowly but your body will adapt with stronger bones and joints.

Progressive Overload

No one starts with the ability to ride for a whole day and night.  You need to slowly but steadily increase the workload your body can tolerate.  Build in a long ride each week that gets a little longer (5-10% per week).  Two weeks before your race your long ride should be in the 8 hour range.

Night Riding

Even in the summer it’s dark for 10 hours so if you don’t have night riding experience you are in for a world of hurt. Riding at night is a totally unique experience that you don’t want to do for the first time during a race.  Go on night rides regularly to get your timing sorted out and how you best like your light set up.

By Winston Endall

One of the big secrets of high performance training is regular fitness testing. This article will give you the knowledge to test yourself and evaluate what the results mean.

Testing will give you your functional threshold (max 1 hour power), a good indication of aerobic fitness and, if you have a way of measuring, your power at threshold. You can then track if you are improving and by how much.  As well, workout intensities are based your actual fitness rather than a theoretical percentage.

While there are a number of testing protocols for the cyclist, I prefer to use the 8 minute time trial for its simplicity and ability to do it in the real world. This is 2 eight minute time trials with 5 minutes recovery between them. You can do this test outdoors, doing it on the same course each time, or on an indoor trainer. If you have an indoor trainer with enough resistance then this would be your best option as all of the variables such as wind and temperature are taken out of the equation. If done on a trainer make sure that the resistance is set the same each time to give an accurate comparison of fitness changes.

The best tool for measuring you fitness is a power meter which as a system will measure the wattage you output, heart rate and cadence. The power meter is more expensive than just a heart rate monitor but is a more exact way of measuring fitness.  If you don’t want to spend the money on a power meter we offer power based fitness testing at our Cambridge store.

If you don’t have a power meter, another way to do the test you will need a heart rate monitor that has a lap function and will give you average heart rate and total time for the lap and a bike computer that will give average speed and distance.  Most bike computers don’t have a lap function so you will have to reset your computer at the beginning of each test.  As well it is helpful to have someone help with recording your information and hold your bike up so you can start with your feet in the pedals if you are doing the test outdoors.

If you do the test outdoors find a loop course that is relatively flat. A paved running track at the local high school is ideal.  Make a note of weather and wind conditions as this will have an effect on average speed.

Warm up for 20 minutes with three 30 second hard efforts to activate the lactate system.

Then from a standing start (clipped in with someone holding you up like a time trial) go as hard and as far as you can in 8 minutes. Get up to speed over the first 30 seconds and then try to hold the highest average speed you can.

Hit the lap button after the 8 minutes and ride easy for 5 minutes. Call out to your helper your average heart rate for the interval, average speed and the distance covered.

After your 5 minute recovery, get set and do it again. After the interval, record your average heart rate for the interval, average speed and the distance covered.

Ride easy to cool down for 10-15 minutes.

As you get fitter you will be able to go further during each test as well as be able to do the tests with a higher average heart rate. In addition to tracking your progress the test is important in setting your training zones. The higher average heart rate you can sustain leads to all of your training zone bumping up.

If you use a Powertap or crank-based power meter, then when you download your file you will see your two time trials very easily when you look a the graph of that workout. Highlight the first time trial and look to see the average wattage and heart rate. Do the same with the second, jotting the numbers down.

Now comes the math.

Functional threshold heart rate and power

Add the average heart rate of each test and divide by 2. Take this number and times it by.95. For training purposes, this will be within a couple of beats of your functional threshold.

Add the wattage from the first and second test and divide by 2. Take this number and multiply it by.9.  This will give you your functional threshold power.

Example: Test 1 Average HR 172 bpm – Test 2 Average HR 169

182+169/2=170.5

Functional Threshold 170.5*.95=162 bpm

Aerobic Training Zone

To train your aerobic system you have to train below your anaerobic threshold.  By knowing your threshold your aerobic training zone can be accurately calculated. Training at the right intensity will give the quickest results.

Take the Functional  Threshold and multiply by.9 to get the top end of your aerobic zone and multiply by.75 to get the lower end.

Example: Topend of aerobic zone 170.5*.9=154

Lowend of aerobic zone 170.5*.75=130

Typically, training zones have been based on a percentage of your max heart rate but this is difficult and painful to accurately figure out.  Basing training zones on functional threshold will yield much better results as your threshold will change with training so your zones will change with it.

Once you have your functional threshold calculated you can set your training zones and have a quantifiable measure of your fitness.  Retest every 4-6 weeks and you will be able to track your progess.  If you don’t see an improvement then it tells you something in your training or nutrition has to change.  Don’t waste big chunks of time guessing.

By Winston Endall

To achieve you maximum performance you need to develop more than just cardiovascular fitness and strong legs.  If your core is weak you will be limited in how much power makes it to the pedals.  Add to this tight muscles and you have a recipe for mediocre results.

You’ve been putting the time on the bike but your progress has slowed down.  You might feel tight in the hamstrings and hips.  Your long, hard efforts start to fade as your back gives out.  When you stand on hill climbs you fade muscularly before the cardio and legs give out.

So what is the answer?

You could do a core training program and work on your flexibility after every ride.  The problem is that will cut down on your riding time.  The easy way to improve these areas is to take up Yoga.  The combination of poses will stretch and strengthen the muscles with particular emphasis on the hip, legs and core.

Three sessions a week of around 20 minutes will make a huge difference to your riding and how you feel.  Not to get all “new age” on you, but yoga unleash inner energy and gets the body aligned.  The increased blood flow from Yoga also helps speed up recovery.  Scar tissue is broken up and the joints move more freely.

While it is best to sign up for a Yoga class, you can make good progress on your own with Yoga DVDs or online yoga courses.  This is the way I started many years ago.  I bought Power Yoga by Rodney Yee and started doing it a few times per week. After a couple of weeks I stopped going to the chiropractor as all of my back pain disappeared.  After a couple of months I noticed it really improved my riding as tight hamstrings and back pain didn’t flare up on long rides and races.

I have since incorporated Yoga into the training programs of the athletes I coach.  Training beats up your body.  Yoga keeps it limber and strong and speeds up recovery allowing you to get in more quality training.  Yoga will also decrease the chance of injury.  To improve your cycling performance you need to make sure you don’t have any weak links.  With very little time spent each week, Yoga takes care of two very important pieces of the puzzle and it makes you feel great.

If you are feeling adventurous, sign up for a Bikram hot yoga session each week.  This is a long, intense yoga in a hot environment.  The heat really loosens up your muscles and you sweat out a lot of toxins.

If you are a cyclist and you aren’t doing Yoga yet, you are missing a great opportunity to increase your performance.  Buy a DVD or sign up for a local class and start seeing the difference from the first session.

By Winston Endall

While any riding will help there are some workouts that are more effective than others.  Some rides are to get your ready to train.  Others are to help you recover.  But there are certain key workouts that require a lot of effort and payoff with big improvements. There is still a lot of riding season left so if you are like me and didn’t have the best fitness in the Spring, there is still time to build some killer fitness.  Here are the top 5 workouts that will improve your speed, endurance and help burn the pudge by spiking up your metabolism.

Warning: As with any exercise program, check with your doctor to make sure it is safe for you to do intense exercise.

Velmax Intervals

These are power based intervals I created based on research on increasing VO2 max and threshold power for runners.  To do these properly you will need a power meter and have tested your functional threshold power. These are among the hardest intervals I have ever done so if you have less than a year of training under belt or are coming off a layoff, don’t do these as you will probably throw up if done correctly.

The performance gains from these are quite rapid so the prescribed intensity is for the first time you do these intervals. Usually each workout you will increase either the number of intervals or wattage you do them at after the first workout.

Warmup 15-20 minutes

Velmax intervals

30 seconds at 135% of FT power / 30 seconds easy Repeat until you can’t sustain the wattage.

As wattage flucuates I would usually set a target and when you can’t sustain at or above that level the workout is over.

If you don’t have a power meter then start with 20 repeats and increase 5 per week up until 40. The effort should be 9 out of 10. You will still make the progress if you work hard, but you won’t be able to measure it the way you can with the power meter.

For example, if your threshold is 300 watts then your Velmax target for your first workout is 405 watts. It’s okay to go above but don’t drop below 400. When you can’t keep it above 395 watts, the workout is over and cool down. The first time you do these it is common to only get 15-20 repeats. Keep the same wattage target until you can get over 30 repeats. When you can up your wattage for the next workout by 10-15 watts.

Athletes I work with have gone from averaging 400 watts for 18 intervals to 450 watts for 31 intervals in just 3 weeks. This translates into increased higher sustainable power, higher sustainable heart rates and better recovery ability from hard efforts.

The reason they work so well is that the 30 second work period really drives the heartrate up but the 30 second recovery isn’t enough for your heartrate to come down much. With each interval your heartrate and oxygen useage keeps going up until you hit your Vo2 max. The recovery time is enough for your legs to clear a bit allowing your to do more work than you could if it was continuous. This allows you to accumulate a lot of time at your maximum oxygen capacity eliciting a rapid improvement in your cardiovascular system. While very effective, I once again to not try these if you aren’t used to intensive training.

Tabata intervals

Tabata intervals are named after the doctor who did the research into the effectiveness of short high intensity intervals versus longer, moderate exercise. Tabata describes the interval protocol. 20 seconds work/ 10 seconds rest repeated 8-10 times. Dr. Tabata’s research showed these intervals to be the most effective for eliciting improvement in both the aerobic and anaerobic system.

The key is the maximal efforts with shorter recovery periods. Incomplete recovery leads to an increase in oxygen debt leading to and improved ability to process oxygen. In a six week study these intervals done 5 days per week increased VO2 Max by 13 percent, aerobic capacity by 14 percent and anaerobic capacity by 28 percent. This is with only 20 minutes of exercise a day including warmup and cool down.

20 seconds hard / 10 easy spinning X 10 repeats = 5 minutes of hell

Then ride easy for 5 minutes and do it again.

Gauge you effort level  based on your current fitness level.  If you are new to cycling or just getting back into go about 80% instead of all out. If you have been training regularly give each 20 second interval a 100% effort.  Don’t try to pace yourself, just attack each interval like its the last in the set.

If you are using a power meter you want to target 150% of your functional threshold power for the 20 second hard efforts.  When you start do just one set of intervals but as your fitness increases you should increase the number of sets you do.  Some of my top athletes do up to 4 sets of 8 Tabata intervals but you want to work up to that gradually.

4 X 4 intervals

Norweigian researchers Hoff & Helgerud have found you can get better increases in cardiac output from frequent high intensity exercise than longer but less intense training. The basis of Hoff & Helgerud’s endurance training theory is the 4×4 interval. This means 4 intervals of 4 minutes each, at 85-95% of HR max (for top endurance athletes between 90-95% of HR max), with low-intensity breaks of 4 minutes. This is training which is meant to give the biggest increases in VO2max  which according to Hoff & Helgerud is the deciding factor for endurance (something I only partly agree on but I digress).

The theory is based on training the heart at maximal Stroke Volumes to expose it to maximal shear stress – conditions which are only reached at the highest heart rates. Why 4 minutes? Apparently it takes over 2 minutes for the heart to reach maximal stroke volume under these conditions, so you need to keep working for a longer period of time in order to get maximal training effect here. They have found that intervals that last longer than 4 minutes usually mean a drop in intensity and are therefore less effective.

The researchers had the athletes doing multiple days in a row of just 4×4 intervals (up to 18 sessions in 14 days) with 2-4 weeks of lower volume training to facilitate recovery, while still maintaining the gains without as much work needed. On average subjects saw a .5% improvement per workout.

The experiments have led to large increases in VO2max, up to 10% increase in the course of the experiment for already highly-trained athletes. If you are training with a power meter or heartrate monitor do the intervals as follows: Warmup 15-20 minutes. 4 min at 120% of your threshold power at high cadence 100-110rpm or build to your maximum heartrate from the fitness test.

- Recover for 4 minutes
- Repeat for a total of 4-6 times.
- Cooldown for 10-15 minutes

Muscular endurance intervals

This workout is good for increasing force development. Putting out a lot of power is the combination of pedal cadence and gear selection. Aerobic conditioning and pedaling drills will let you spin, and this workout will help you be able to do it in a bigger gear.  This workout is great because it works the cardiovascular system and really works the legs.  In time your legs won’t get as tired from sustained hard efforts.

While doing the low rpm intervals focus on being smooth and relax your upper body.  If you have knee problems switch to higher cadences until your knees don’t hurt.

Do this workout twice a week with at least two days between workout as your legs will take longer to recover from this workout than higher candence aerobic riding.

Warmup 15 minutes building up top end of your aerobic range (90% of your average heartrate from your fit test) Cadence 90-100 rpm.

Work set 5-10 X 10 second stomps with 3 minutes recovery between efforts (choose a hard gear, slow to walking pace and then stomp on the pedals trying to accelerate as hard as you can for the 10 seconds). 5 minutes easy riding after the stomps followed by 10-30 minutes at 70 rpms at the top end of your aerobic zone. (If you are using a power meter this will be 85-90% of your Functional Thresold wattage). Cooldown 10 minutes easy spin to clear the legs and gradually bring down the heart rate.

Threshold intervals

Your Functional Threshold (FT) for practical cycling purposes is the maximum heart rate or power you can sustain for about an hour. The higher your threshold power the faster you can go for a sustained period without having your legs blow up on you. Very simply, the way to raise your anaerobic threshold is to ride at your threshold heart rate or power for progressively longer periods. These are hard but effective. If you have done the fitness test you will have calculated your anaerobic threshold heart rate and/ or power if you have a trainer or on-bike meter that measures wattage.

Start with 2 X 10 minutes at your threshold heart rate with 5 minutes recovery between intervals.

Each week increase the amount of time of the intervals by 2 minutes until you are up to 20 minutes each.

To increase from there look to add a third interval or multiple days of threshold intervals in a row. This can be very taxing but when you recover from the workouts you will be stronger.

Mixing it up

While you will get your biggest improvements in fitness from high intensity workouts there is still a need to longer and easier rides. While you can build great endurance performance with the workouts listed above, if the events you do are long (ie. over 2 hours), you need to get your body used to spending that kind of time on a bike. As well, lower intensity rides are great in promoting physical and mental recovery. Sometimes it’s hard to push yourself hard enough to get the training benefit from intervals because of mental burnout, so mixing up your training is a great way to keep fresh mentally and keep progressing physically.

As a cyclist your knee is the main focus of all your power. If you develop knee problems, you’ve got a cycling problem. While you may get lucky and never have knee pain during your cycling career, for most of us it will happen at some point. The key is to reduce the factors that lead to knee pain and treat is properly when it does happen so it doesn’t become a chronic injury.

Follow these tips to help prevent knee issues and come back strong if you have them already.

Bike Fit

Seat height and saddle fore-aft position will have a big effect on how much shear force there is on the knee.  If you get pain in the front of the knee, you seat is probably too low or too far forward.  If it is in the back of the knee, your seat is too high.  A lot of pedaling with your seat in the wrong position can lead to over-use injuries in the knee. Luckily we specialize in bike fitting to dial in your fit to reduce the chance of over-use injuries due to bike fit issues.

Cleat and shoe setup

Cleat fore-aft position, angle and side to side position will change the angle the knee is getting loaded.  Being a single plane joint, the knee has a very small window of angle side to side that is healthy and safe. As with general bike fit this is best addressed by a professional bike fitter but here are a few tips to help you on your way.  Cleats further back on the shoe will reduce load on the knee.  If there is side to side movement of the knee through the pedal stroke, the stance width may to be adjusted or the foot may need to be adjusted for tilt with wedge shaped shims.
Don’t Over Do It

One you get off the trainer and get outside in the spring, you need to watch how much climbing you do.  Once the weather warms up, it isn’t unusual for a cyclist to over do it which can lead to tendinitis.  Start conservatively and build each week in a progressive manor.  Keep increases per week to 10%.  If you have been riding an hour a day on the trainer, don’t go out for a 3 hour hilly ride the first nice we get.

Warm-up Properly

Joints need to be warmed up just like muscles do. Depending on fitness level you should warm up for 10-30 minutes.  The fitter you are the longer the warm up you need. The first 5 to 10 minutes should be just easy spinning.  You don’t want to have hills at the beginning of the ride.  Once you’ve gotten your breathing up a bit and broken a sweat then you should do a few harder efforts to activate the lactate clearing system and increase blood flow. Proper warm up will decrease the chance of over use injuries and get the body ready for harder work.

Clean up Your Diet

Most knee pain is caused by inflammation. Depending on what you eat, you can either increase or decrease inflammation in the body.  Reduce processed carbs and saturated fats. Increase your intake of Omega 3 fatty acids, blue berries, strawberries, almonds, green tea, cinnamon, flax seed and extra virgin olive oil.

Overview

While this isn’t a comprehensive program for knee health, these tips will help you on your way to reducing the effects of wear and tear on the knee.  As a cyclist you need to safe guard your knees.  Proper set up on your bike, smart training and a healthy lifestyle will all help with this.

There are a lot of styles of road clipless on the market, making it tough to figure out what would be the right option. Save yourself the cost of experimenting by reading the low down on the different pedal systems. Over the last few years we’ve seen an influx of pedal redesigns from Shimano, Time, Look and Speedplay. Each of these has come with some improvements but they also have come with some changes that may make a pedal not work for you.

Shimano

Shimano is the only one of the bunch that has pedals made from metal, aluminum to be specific.  This improves there durability, particularly across the platform that you cleat makes contact with.  As the pedal and cleat wear you can get rocking so a more durable surface is desirable.  The engagement is solid but the large button headed bolts limit the amount cleat adjustment.  I use the Shimano pedals and have swapped the bolts out for SPD bolts to get a little more adjustment.  The Shimano 105 and Ultegra versions allow a little wider foot stance than do the Dura Ace so they are better choice if you need to have your feet a little wider.  The alloy pedal bodies of the Shimano should stand up to crashes better than the composite of the other brands.  Cleats are available with float or a fixed configuration.  The size of the Shimano cleat allows for easy shimming to fix alignment issues as well.

Time

Times pedal design has a nice feel to the float and a solid engagement. The cleats are limited in side to side adjustment so you may not be able to get the proper stance width. To adjust width you swap cleats from your right shoe to the left. This give 2.5 mm of adjustment which isn’t enough in my experience. I run into the issue that I can’t get a wide enough stance width on the Time so I get knee pain.  The composite or carbon bodies are prone to braking off at the tip if you are a little fumble footed when clipping in. Cleat life is good as the actual engagement point on the cleat is metal.

Look

Looks Keo line engages well but the smaller cleat, compared to their older pedals, limit adjustment.  With the Keo, I personally can’t use them as I can’t get my feet wide enough apart or get the cleats far enough back.  Again these are a composite bodied pedal so over time the platform can wear leading to slop between the cleat and pedal.  To combat this the have added a stainless steel plate but only on the more expensive Keo 2 Max.  Three different cleats are available with different amounts of float from no float to 9 degrees. The older Look Delta design pedals had more adjustment but were a little heavier with a slightly taller stack height.

Speedplay

Speedplay Zero and Light Action pedals are unique to the bunch in that they have the retention mechanism on the cleat rather than the pedal.  Of the pedals the Speedplay is the most adjustable as there are different length axles available and different cleat mounting plates so there is lots of adjustment.  This comes at a price though as different axles and adapter plates must be purchased separately from the pedals, increasing the cost quite a bit.  But if this is the only way to pedal pain-free it’s worth it. The float of the pedals is free, so initially it feels like your standing on an ice cube.  This feeling goes away after you’ve ridden them for a while but some people won’t like the feel, myself included.  Speedplay pedals are the most aerodynamic so you can save a bit energy wise.  Speedplay cleats are the most expensive of the brands mentioned as the retention mechanism is in the cleat.

Overview

Each company makes good quality pedals but if you have unique fit issues the Speedplay may be your best option. I personally run the Shimano SPD-SL as it allows me the right fit.

So you’ve done the training and your nutrition leading up to the start line was dialed in. That can all go out the window if your on-bike nutrition plan isn’t solid. Your body has enough stored carbohydrate to a few hours but after that you will run out of gas if you aren’t feeding on the bike.

By Winston Endall

So you don’t have much time but you still want to make progress.  As cyclists, we tend to think that short workouts aren’t worth doing as our goals are to ride fast for many hours.  Well here is the secret to getting the most gains from less time training.  Go hard.  I’m not talking about picking up the pace a bit but really going hard.  Sprints, hill attacks, other tough intervals and circuit workouts that demand a huge amount of oxygen and create a lot of lactic acid.  The accumulated oxygen debt will overload both the anaerobic and aerobic energy systems leading to improvements in both.

As well, high intensity intervals and off the bike cross training workouts spike your bodies production in growth hormone and testosterone leading to an improvement in body function without resorting to cheating.  As we age these hormones decrease so spiking them up with exercise will help with fat burning, recovery and growth of new red blood cells.  It literally will turn back your bodies internal clock letting your feel and perform younger. Not bad for such short workouts.

Enough of the preamble.  You’re reading this because you want results, so on to the workouts.

Due to the intensity of my workouts you will want to warm up at least 10 minutes before doing the workout.  As you get fitter you will need a longer warm up for optimal performance but a quick one will do to reduce the chance of injury from trying to do these workouts cold.

Tabata Interval Blocks

The basic Tabata interval is becoming well known. The basic premise is 20 second hard / 10 seconds easy, repeated 8-10 times. 8 repeats is a 4 minute block.

If you are pushed for time, do a quick warm up and then 10 x 20 second hard sprints with 10 seconds easy pedalling between the reps. This is a 5 minute workout. Don’t be deceived by the length. Even the fittest athlete will get a training overload if each interval is attacked at maximum effort. Due to the intensity level these are best done on an indoor bike trainer. I’ve done them outside and by the sixth or seventh interval I’m weaving all over the road.

If you have a little more time to work with then I recommend doing a couple of blocks. After warm up, do 8 x Tabata intervals (4 minutes) then a 4 minute recovery and do it again. Two blocks of Tabata intervals overload just about every system in the body and it only takes 12 minutes. As you get fitter you can attempt to add another set during times you want a huge training load.

20 minute Time Trials

Some of you may be familiar with 20 minute threshold repeats. These are up a level in intensity. You can do them indoors or out but if outside find a 20 minutes long hill climb for the lucky folks that live in the mountains or level terrain into a headwind. You don’t want the terrain to give you a break so try to find a route that has no downhills. The rest is pretty simple.  Cover as much distance as you can in 20 minutes.

A variation of these I use for my clients is a 10-15 km time trial as this takes most fit cyclists around 20 minutes.  If you picked the pace right your legs will be burning but you will be just barely able to keep the pace going for the full distance.  Because lactic acid is accumulating faster than your body can process it, the last 5 minutes really hurt.  These will raise your aerobic capacity and improve your ability to process lactic acid.  If you do time trials in competition they are really good for getting a feel for pacing as well.  Go out too hard and your legs will blow up.  Go out too easy and you won’t be as fast as you could.

Mini Velmax Intervals

Velmax intervals are a simple but effective workout that we usually do for 25-40 repeats.  In this case you will do 20 to fit in the time limit hence the mini.  The intervals are pretty simple 30 seconds at 135% threshold power or 8-9 out of ten perceived exertion if you don’t have a power meter.  The recovery time is 30 seconds.  So you go hard at the beginning of each minute and recover at 30 seconds in.  Fairly easy to keep track of no matter how fatigued you get. The first few are hard but doable.  Each one after that gets harder until the last few feel like your legs are going to fall off. While you have to get proper recovery between this type of workout they really bring results fast if you put an honest effort in.

Full Body Circuit Workouts

The last two workouts are not on the bike. Sometimes you find yourself without equipment but still want to get a workout in. Other times you will use these types of workouts to balance out the rest of the body. Cycling hits certain muscles hard but neglects others. If you lack muscular endurance in the core and upper body it will affect your performance on the bike. A strong core will increase your power to the pedals both seated and standing. While I’m giving you two workouts, there are almost infinite possibilities when it comes to programing cross training workouts.

To do these workouts you will need nothing more than a pair of dumb bells. For guys I recommend a set of 20 lbs and for women a set of 10 lbs.  If you don’t know how to do the exercises, do a Google search for “crossfit exercises” or do a search for the name of each exercise.  There are YouTube.com videos of most of the exercises.

Before we get to the workouts, a few points about how to do them.  Do each exercise in order and once you’ve gone through one circuit start over at the beginning until you have done the planned number of rounds.  The aim is to get the workout done as fast as possible while maintaining good form in the exercises.

Don’t rest unless you have to.  This type of workout will have a lot of lactic acid and get you huffing and puffing.  This is good.  This type of workout leads to an increase in your bodies production of growth hormone and testosterone.  For those of us over 30, levels of these hormones decrease.  This increase will lead to easier fat burning, better recovery and increased performance.

Workout 1

3 rounds

20 Thrusters

20 Sumo Deadlift Highpulls

20 Burpees

Workout 2

3 rounds

10 Manmakers with Dumbbells

20 Dumbbell Swings

30 Bodyweight Squats

When you first do the above workouts, work at your own pace. Give yourself at least 48 hours between workouts. Try to better your time each time you do them. These are tough but effective. Depending on your fitness level these can be done is as little 6 minutes.

Overview

By making each minute count and overloading the system, you can get great results with very little time spent training. As a cyclist if you focus on quality over the winter with a longer, moderate ride once or twice a week you will see a big improvement by the time spring comes around. The lack of time is just an excuse.

By Winston Endall

The usual approach to train for endurance riding is lots of long rides. On paper this makes sense but in practice it isn’t the most effective way to train.  A targeted approaching building all facets of cycling fitness will improve your endurance cycling fitness faster than a diet of long steady rides.  Learn how to put the pieces together and see your performance increase.

There are many fitness factors that let you do well at endurance events. You need high threshold power, good recovery ability, aerobic endurance, muscular endurance, core strength and upper body muscular endurance.  If any of these areas are weak you will find your performance drops quickly in the later miles of a long event.

Long rides do need to be part of your training program but not the foundation.  I advocate a periodized approach that builds functional threshold power and speed with a progression to longer rides as the season progresses.  Speed is the hardest thing to build so we spend a far amount of time over the winter increasing sustainable speed and force development which allows you to do your longer rides with a higher average power.

The training year will brake down into a number of phases with different goals. Here is how the average year should break down.

Training to Train Phase

(4-8 weeks depending on how long your end of season lay-off was)

At the end of each season should be some sort of lay-off or reduced training load to let the body recover from the season.  The Training to Train phase gets your body back into the swing of things after a layoff.  Over the course of this phase you will gradually increase the workload to get the body ready for harder work to come.  Workouts will include Aerobic and Tempo rides, Yoga, light cross training and core/balance training.

Speed and Muscular Endurance Building Phase

(12-16 weeks)

The goal of Speed Building is to increase you Functional Threshold power and build full body muscular endurance.  Intensity is high with an overall training volume on the bike of 6-10 hours per week depending on training experience and schedule.  For most of my athletes they will be on the bike at least 5 days per week with a mix of 2-3 hard workouts and 2-3 Aerobic or Tempo rides of 60-90 minutes between the harder workouts.  The hard workouts are a mix of threshold repeats, Velmax Intervals, Tabata Intervals, 4 x4 intervals and time trials.  Keep mixing the workouts up but make sure that you do a little more each week.  If you did 20 velmax intervals this week, do 22 next week.  I plan increases for 3 weeks with the fourth week eased off for recovery.  During the recovery week I take out the intensity work and have athletes do 4-5 Aerobic rides.  This is enough to allow the body to recover without losing cardiovascular fitness.  In fact after a recovery week you see a noticeable increase in performance as the fatigue built over the three week build goes away.

In addition to the rides, there is cross training and Yoga done during this phase.  Crossfit full body circuit workouts done 3 times per week pay huge dividends with very little time spent training.  Crossfit’s recipe of functional movements done with constant variety at high intensity is the most effective cross training I’ve found for endurance athletes.  Over the course of 4 weeks we will do 10 cross training workouts ( 3 per week during the build weeks and 1 during the recovery week).  All 10 workouts will be different.  This keeps hitting the body in different ways, not allowing it to adapt to the training, therefore you will keep making progress.  An example of a Crossfit workout is: 5 chinups, 10 pushup, 15 bodyweight squats – Do as many repeats of this circuit as possible in 20 minutes with as little rest between exercises as you can manage.  Another approach is to take 3 compound exercises (ones that hit more than one muscle group) and do 3-5 repeats of the circuit in as fast as possible.

Sample workout

3 Rounds for time:

20 Pushups

20 Dumbbell Swings

20 Pullups

In addition to the Crossfit, incorporate 20-60 minutes of Yoga 2-3 times per week into your program.  The Yoga builds flexibility, static muscular endurance and speeds up recovery between workouts.  Hard training makes muscles tight so you need to focus on keeping things loose and supple.  Yoga is the best way to do it as it hits the whole body and builds cycling specific fitness at the same time.

Endurance Phase

(8-16 Weeks)

Now is the time to start building the miles.  This will start in the spring so you can get outside again.  For most people, this means your can do a few hours a night during the week and build longer rides on the weekends.  I’m in favor of doing a couple of interval workouts during the week along with a 1-2 steady rides with the longer rides on the weekend.  Interval workouts will be split between one with shorter high intensity intervals and one with longer intervals.  Try to get a long ride in both Saturday and Sunday on the weekends.  Make one a harder workout with hills or a fast group ride and the other a steady aerobic ride.  Just like the previous phase build your volume over three weeks and ease off on the fourth week.  Keep the increase per week to no more than 10%.  If you are aiming to do a century (100 miles) the time of your long rides should build to at least 5 hours.

During this phase you want to keep doing Yoga at least twice a week and do a couple of cross training workouts with a focus on the core and upper body muscular endurance.  It doesn’t take much work each week to maintain the gains you made over the winter.  As your legs are getting tons of work we don’t need to do cross training for them.

You want to build a quality that I call “Fatigue Resistance”.  This is the ability to do repeated harder efforts without a decrease in performance.  For endurance riding people think in terms of steady pace, but unless you are riding a perfectly flat course, you will have repeated hard muscular efforts with every hill climb.  There is no way to do hills at the same level you do flat terrain, without going so slow you fall over.  In endurance events you want to pace yourself on the climbs but they are still harder than riding on the flats.  This is why we still have harder work during the Endurance building phase.

Competition Phase

(4-8 weeks)

This is when we put the finishing touches on your fitness leading up to your key event for the season.  It’s hard to maintain peak fitness for a long period so it’s important to plan your events ahead of time.  During this time we will add some over distance rides as well as multi-day blocks to build capacity in the body.  With block training your will do 3-4 days in a row of either long or hard workouts with a corresponding number of easy or rest days afterward.  You want to time this phase so the week before your event is an easy week.  During that week you want to cut hard intervals to one short session at least 5 days from the event and cut your volume by 20 % to give the body a chance to recover to a higher fitness level.  During the last week before an event you can’t build any more fitness so you need to focus on recovery so you are as fresh as possible.  This takes experimentation as some people do well with 5-6 days of recovery, while other can need a taper of up to 2 weeks depending on the workload and recovery ability.

Recovery Phase

(2-8 weeks)

A recovery phase can be at the end of the season or used mid season after a hard event to let you recovery to rebuild for the last half of the season.  The rides are light and fun.  Keep the workload mainly aerobic and recovery pace.  Keep up the Yoga to loosen up the body and don’t start thinking about hard training until your body is fresh.  After an event like a 24 hours solo mountain bike race, it can take up to 2 weeks for the fatigue to go away.  When you start feeling like you want to go hard again, give it a few more days.

At the end of the competitive season, it’s a good idea to give your self at least a full week off the bike.  Enjoy yourself and make sure that any riding you do is fun, not training.

Overview

As you can see from the number weeks in the phases, there is a lot of variation to how much time you spend in each.  This is both a function of doing a given phase more than once during the year and how long your competitive season is.  While the actual mechanics of a program can be pretty complex, the basic outline is pretty simple: get the body ready to train, build speed, add endurance, peak for your event and then recover.  If you are self coached it can take a few seasons to work out the loads and durations that work for you but if you start with a plan you will get much further ahead than just trying to ride more.

The biggest thing you can do to improve your triathlons is improve your bike split, as this is the longest part of the race. The easiest way to go faster on your bike is decrease your aerodynamic drag.  When riding on level terrain above 27 km/h, 90 percent of your effort goes it to overcoming  wind drag. If you can substantially reduce your wind drag you will go faster with less effort.

The following three areas will make the biggest difference in order of importance:

• Body Position
• Wheels and Bike
• Helmet and Clothing

The first and last items on this list cost the least to get a big gain. Wheels and bike while the second most important are the most expensive.

Body Position

Between you and your bike, your body is 80 % of the wind drag. Getting a more aerodynamic body position will make the biggest difference to how fast you will be able to go.  A low position on the aerobars will put the smallest hole in the wind but you must train to ride comfortably in this position.  Add core-based cross training and Yoga to your program 2-3 times per week to see big improvements in your ability to ride in the aero position.  The longer you can stay in the aerobars the faster you will be.

You want your elbows no wider than your hips and your forearms level.  Your back should be flat.  A hunched back compresses the diaphragm, decreasing your ability to breathe.  You want to get your torso as close to parallel to the ground as your fitness allows.  And keep your head down when riding and look out the top of your eyes.  Keeping your head down is worth about the same time savings as an aero front wheel.

If you are working to lower your handlebar position, winter is a great time to do it, as most of your riding will be on the trainer this time of year.  Lower your stem 2-5 mm every two weeks, giving you time for your body to get used to the new position.

Seeing a professional bike fitter can be some of the best money you can spend.  It’s my job to get you in the most aerodynamic position that lets you put out the most power.

Wheels and Bike

Once you’ve taken care of the 80 % of drag your body causes we move on to the 20% left, which is your bike. The two biggest parts are your frameset and wheels.  Reduce drag here and you will see the biggest improvements.  For wheels you deep rimmed carbon fiber wheels.  How deep will depend on how big you are and the riding conditions you face.  Deep rims are more affected by crosswinds so the deeper they are the more you get pushed around.  Lighter riders need to go shallower with a maximum depth of 58 mm.  There are exceptions but this depth is a safe bet.

When it comes to frames, if you want to change it out then you are usually better off with a new bike.  You want a frame that is narrow with deep airfoil shaped tubes.  The seat tube should be airfoil shaped with a cutout to tuck the rear wheel into.  The fork should have the same airfoil properties as this is the first part of the frame to hit the wind.  Top brands include Argon 18, Scott and Guru.

Aero Helmet and Tight Clothing

Get your self one of those funny looking helmets with the long tail at the back. The helmet merges into your body when you are in the aerobars improving your overall profile into the wind.  The Giro Advantage is well tested in the wind tunnel and well priced.  One of these helmets will save you over 1 minute over 40 km.

There is no point in making everything else aerodynamic and then wearing a tent.  Make sure all of your clothing is skin tight with nothing fluttering in the wind.  A small detail, but success is in the details.

Overview

Maximize these three areas to see a big improvement in your bike split.  As I pointed out earlier your body position and aero helmet are the least expensive part to implement.  Once you’ve taken care of those, start saving your pennies as a new triathlon bike with carbon wheels is a big investment.