- So are you stuck for ideas on how to train outdoors?
- There are loads of videos on the channel
about indoor training sessions in the winter,
but I haven't seen that many about outdoor rides.
- No, that's true and it's a beautiful day.
- It is.
- I mean, it's a good time to do some training outdoors.
- How about we show them our three favorite
and then if there's time at the end,
we've got a bonus as well.
- That's a plan, let's do it.
- Cool.
Which way are we going anyway?
- Left I think.
The basis of any good aerobic training program
is the ability to increase your aerobic capacity
and ultimately the higher this is, the faster you'll go.
- We've chosen 12 minute duration for these intervals
because that enables you to include two to five reps
in one session, which give you space for progression
over the months as you improve.
- Yeah, so for this first session,
looks like you're doing it mate.
- This is much more of your kinda thing, Hank.
- Good luck buddy!
- For this session, you'll need to complete
a good warm up around 8-12 minutes of good progressive
ramp up to get your heart, lungs and legs pumping.
To be honest, 8-12 minutes is enough
for all of these sessions, assuming you do them correctly.
- How was that mate?
It looked tough!
- I've not done enough of these recently
so on that note, you should aim to include six to eight
of these each month throughout the winter
and that'll really help you progress as you go on.
Oh!
- Right, round two it is.
(rock music)
- Hank, do you ever feel like you're looking
for that break through performance?
- I guess.
- Well then you could be lacking those strict
dedicated intervals that push you not only
up, over and outside of your comfort zone
but they also really help get you to the next level.
- I had a feeling you were gonna say this.
This sounds very painful.
- Well, it's gonna be.
V02 intervals are absolutely agonizing.
- Oh gosh, here we go then mate.
V02 intervals coming up.
- James, mate, I've not even told him what they are yet.
Pay attention.
- After getting a bit overexcited and then getting
called back, I finally got all the information from Chris
and this is what I started with.
I started with five four minutes
with four minutes recovery in between.
The efforts are to be done at effectively max effort.
This will continue to build your top-end output.
These are often referred to as race-winning efforts.
- Oh!
One down, four minutes rest.
Nice and easy.
Recover, get ready for the next one.
(rock music)
- Good work Hank.
- That was hard.
- So we recommend this session up to five times
a month throughout the winter, but never more
than twice in one week.
This will help prevent stagnation through doing
the session too often but it will provide you
with enough stimulus to vastly improve.
- And you can progress as you get fitter
by increasing the lengths of the intervals
up to really seven minutes would be an ideal goal.
When you're thinking about recovery,
try making like for like
so for example four minute effort,
would need a four minute recovery.
Six minute effort, would need a six minute recovery.
- Yep! - I'm out of breath.
- It's hard isn't it?
You can build these efforts up to seven minutes in length.
- And finally James, c'mon tell me more
about neuromuscular power.
- Well, Chris, you always wanna build maximum muscle
recruitment don't you?
- Always!
- And you wanna win boat races, don't you?
- Not anymore!
- Okay, so you wanna win races to the cup.
- Now that I do.
- Yeah and when included in a session, or short session,
you can make it into a really good HIT session.
- Yep, you can!
And to do this, you wanna start out in a fairly big gear,
kinda the gear I'm in now, rolling at around 24k's an hour.
Cadence 80 to 85
and then over the next 12 seconds
through a maximum exertion into the pedals
you wanna build those 130 reps.
- Alright mate, enough talking about it,
I wanna see you do it!
Get them legs going!
- You will do this by getting into the drops,
selecting the appropriate gear, engaging your core
and then exploding down and through the pedals.
Allow 8-10 minutes to fully recover before repeating this
for six reps in total.
Don't simply ease off between the sprints,
in to continue at an effort of around 75-80% of max
and this will help you get the most from you session
on the bike and prevent cooling off too much in between.
- Alright mate, that looked hard.
- That was brutal.
- Right now you've done it, how often do you have to do it?
- Well I reckon once a week is enough to forge
a good progression with your sprints throughout the winter.
12-16 worths of sprints, six times a week,
that's 96 sprints over the winter.
- Sounds like a lot!
- Well 1152 seconds which is just under 20 minutes!
Quite a lot of pure neuromuscular effort, isn't it?
- You love it!
As Chris winds up for his next sprint,
just remember to keep your sprints sharp throughout
the entire winter because the last thing you wanna do
is play catch up as the temperature begins to rise
and the sun comes out.
C'mon Chris!
We haven't got all day, mate.
(electronic music)
- Mate, c'mon, I've done two proper sessions now.
It's only fair you do another yourself.
- I thought I was gonna get away with it.
But fair play, I've gotta the bonus ride.
And that is endurance ride and it's a really good way
to improve your overall condition on the bike
is to do a three plus hour ride if you've got the time.
- Yeah, it's a great way to improve your efficiency,
ability to oxidize fat for energy and to be honest
we can make an entire video on the benefits
of endurance training.
- True.
- I think instead of that, we should practice
what we preach and ride to the cafe.
- Yeah, I reckon I can set one
hundred k?
- Yeah, that's a good endurance ride for me.
- Well, perfect. - Nice.
Whoa, not so hard.
- Aim to make your endurance ride a good pace.
It's not easy like a recovery ride.
But also not too hard either.
You don't want to be over 80% effort on this ride.
So there you have it, three, actually no,
four training sessions that you can implement
during the winter out on the road.
- Which was your favorite?
I quite enjoyed the endurance myself.
- I think the endurance one was the best, yeah.
- But you mustn't neglect the intervals or you just
simply won't improve going into next season.
- Yeah and don't forget if you did like this video
then give us a thumbs up and we hope it helps you
when you're out on the road.
- And if you wanna check out Dan who's back on his
fitness plan, well click down here somewhere.
- He's tried to keep up with us but it's not gonna work.
- Well, he's only riding indoors.
Outdoors is the way for ya Dan.
(clink)