We are quickly approaching the beginning
of the road season and hopefully full of inspiration and motivation from all
the action of both the Australian National events and the Tour Down Under. The
start of the year is often the best time to reflect on the year gone and begin
to map out the year to come. I have a few athletes that have given me their goals
for the year and we are now beginning to decide the best course of action to
achieve these goals as the year progresses. I try to follow the old premise ‘practice what
you preach’ but often find myself training without any specific direction and
following old habits. This year I’ve set my first goal to change this and follow
a structured program that addresses all the weakness I have in my cycling
armour.
Before I go any further I’ll say
that I don’t have weak points and any race that I loose is sheer bad
luck!!!.... Any good periodised program consists of several key stages which
most would be familiar with. Each phase has a specific goal and we incorporate
specific sessions/races that will target the physiological/psychological adaptations
that we desire. The basic premise of any
program should be this; Step 1: Teach the body to use oxygen, spare
carbohydrate and develop endurance to go the distance. Step 2: Teach the muscle
to resynthesise energy quickly via the appropriate energy systems, clear waste products,
maintain chemical homeostasis and activate all muscle fibres (neural
recruitment and patterns). Step 3: Get specific and determine the physiological
demands of the races you wish to excel in. Specificity of training is often the
most overlooked of all components. Think about.. How long are the efforts
required to go with breaks, how many watts do I need to put out in a sprint,
can I repeatedly attack and recover to make sure I can go with the important
moves in a race?
A well rounded rider may be good
at all of these components. More importantly you cannot expect to master all of
them in one season. It may be better to stick to one component and focus on it.
I have worked with a few guys now that have specific goals and forego the want
to be the ‘all-rounder’. If you want to
be good at time trails then hang up the road bike and perform the majority of your
training on a TT bike. Stop riding 100+km and focus on going as fast as you can
for shorter distances. This would require dedication to interval training and a
lot of time focusing on holding power in the most aerodynamically position
possible. Once you have maximised your ability to use oxygen (aerobic capacity)
you need to work on improving your aerobic threshold. In untrained individuals
power at lactate threshold may occur as low as 70% of their peak power and
elite athlete with some threshold training may increase this to 80-82.5%. With
specific training I have seen individuals increase this to up to around 95% of
their peak power but this has taken years of specific threshold training and
the ability to hurt like nothing else.
Alternatively, If you want to be a sprinter
then be specific and perform more sprints. This gets a little trickier because
you still have to be there and in a good position when the hammer goes down so
there are skill components to think about. Sprint training is all about energy
turn over. The more energy you can produce the faster you will go. Learning to
do this defies the normal physics of endurance training and turns more to all
out strength. Ever heard of the mother that can lift a car to save her baby? Under
normal circumstances we are unable to activate our entire muscle, we can however
learn to do this by maximally loading the muscle and nervous system through
either low repetition high load resistance training or through specific all out
efforts on the bike. Then comes learning to sustain near maximal power for the
entire length of a sprint. Generally speaking we measure anaerobic capacity through
a Wingate test which is essentially a 30 second all out sprint. We record time
to maximal power, average power and the degree of fatigue throughout the 30
seconds. All of these components will determine the type of sprinter you are.
If you are more inclined to go up
hill then training specifically to go up hill is required. Body mass now plays
a large role and power to weight ratio expressed as Watts/kg.bodymass is the
main predictor of performance. A good club
level climber has a peak power (power at VO2max) of about 6 Watts/kg and a threshold
power of around 5.2 W/kg. This may be good enough to hold a few Strava KOM’s
but the Pros are pushing sustainable numbers closer to 7 W/kg.BM. Climbing is
not all about power to weight it is also about learning to accelerate above
threshold and recover again… repeatedly!! I prescribe a lot of out of the saddle
climbing for my athletes that want to
improve their climbing skills. This teaches them to recruit different muscles
which is a major benefit and can dramatically improve climbing ability. And of course what goes up must come down so
learning to descend quickly and safely is essential.
To achieve goals you need to identify
the specific demands of the activity and determine the best techniques to
target both the skills needed and the physiological components required.
Sometimes it is just the motivation in training to learn to hurt like you would
in a race. Training with friends is often a good way to include a little extra
motivation to push harder and the best way to improve skills if specific race
type scenarios are practiced. So… Get out there and train properly. Map it out,
monitor progress ensure adequate recovery and most importantly RACE HARD!!
