- Last week you may have seen our video on introducing
the fundamentals behind any training program.
It's well worth checking this out
if you haven't already seen it,
as this is the basis to any good training program.
This week the focus is on pushing yourself
harder than you have done before.
Introducing some new training sessions that I believe
are important to your training schedule,
and maintaining your off the bike focus.
Let's go.
(dramatic action music)
Now whilst we could jump straight into the training program,
if you've got the time and the opportunity to do so
I think it would be a really good
idea to test our fitness first.
What you ideally need for this is a climb
of around 12 to 20 minutes.
If you haven't got one of these then
two eight minute efforts on the flat.
That you can measure accurately,
record your time, your distance.
Basically you want to get as much information
as possible to build up a base starting point,
and from there over the course of the four weeks
we can test ourselves again or just at the end
to see if we've actually made the improvements
that we hope to see.
Now a 12 to 20 minute climb should
be ridden flat out, basically.
You wanna pace yourself so that you blow right at the end,
but it's not gonna be pretty either way.
So start hard and hold on as long as you can.
(smooth music)
Each week there are some key sessions
that we feel you should include in your training,
to help really take your cycling up another level.
Cycling performance is predominantly dictated
by an individual's ability to
perform an exercise aerobically.
So with that in mind the focus will be
on improving this energy system.
Some long efforts, some short intense efforts,
but we'll detail each week how long they should be,
what intensity you should ride
and how many of them to include.
Now before you start any training session
there's one thing to remember.
You need to warm up progressively
for around 10 to 15 minutes,
and the same at the end of the session.
You need to wind down maybe
a little bit less than 15 minutes,
10 minutes is enough at the end.
This will help your body recover faster,
but at the start he will help you
prepare for a hard training session.
So the first of the sessions is the endurance session.
This is kinda the backbone of the cycling week.
These sessions last from 60 to 300 minutes,
so it's a lot of contact time on the bike.
They're also quite social sessions.
So perhaps ideal for weekends out with your mates.
Your typical endurance session
should be at an intensity that
starts to get uncomfortable towards the end,
but for much of the ride you can hold a good conversation
and enjoy the scenery as well.
These endurance sessions are great
for improving your own efficiency on the bike.
How little fuel, or how much fuel you'll need
will largely be dictated by your fitness.
But the more you do you'll find
the more efficient you'll become.
The next session to focus on are your sustainable efforts.
You can include these on sessions
from 75 minutes, right up to four hours.
Generally I would advise intervals
of around 12 to 15 minutes, maybe up to 20.
You want to include two to three repetitions,
depending on the intensity you're riding at.
Now these are pretty painful.
They're the same intensity that you had
in your test, maybe a little bit less.
For these efforts you really want to total
30 to 40 minutes of continuous suffering basically.
It would be quite rare to get to the end
of an intensive session like this,
without some drop off in performance.
That's when you know you're doing it right.
When you get to the last few minutes,
and you're really grinding away and it's hurting.
Next up are your VO2 efforts.
These are around four minutes in duration
and you can squeeze them out to seven
if you were really feeling up to the task.
These are repeated three to five times,
and if you get to effort number four
and you don't feel a drop off in performance
I don't think you've gone hard enough.
You want to include at least one of these sessions each week
and it wants to be around 90 minutes in duration.
So it's a short but sharp session,
and if you get to the end of it
you'll certainly know you've done it.
The important thing to remember with this session
is the workload matches the recovery load.
So it's seven minutes on, seven minutes off.
Four minutes on, four minutes off.
You really wanna total around 30 minutes total
of intervals for this workout. (gasps)
Right, this is the worst one for me,
anaerobic buffering effort.
I start by doing 30 second maximum sprints,
but only once every 10 minutes.
As you progress through the series
you can decrease the recovery
down to two and a half minutes,
and these are absolutely brutal.
But you'll see really quick fitness gains
and you can't deny, everyone likes a quick fitness gain.
So here we go, 30 seconds.
(country rock music)
Wow that was grim, and this is by far the worst session.
I wouldn't include this one more than once every 10 days.
But I like to thank a former coach for introducing me
to the horrific pain, that is this training session.
The important thing to remember
with this session is it's only six reps but I promise,
six times 30 seconds really adds up
after well, after one really.
So we've talked you through most of your training week now.
You've got your intense intervals,
the longer intervals, the endurance ride,
but there's one important day
that I haven't yet told you about,
and that's the rest and recovery day.
Time to put your feet up.
There's no point training harder and harder,
day on day without recovering.
Your body, it just won't cope,
you'll run yourself down and you won't improve.
So one to two days a week should be
put aside for rest and recovery.
Now that you know what sessions
to include in your training week,
we need to work out how to structure the week.
As a general rule I would include one to two
endurance rides spread evenly throughout the week.
Ideally Saturday, Sunday and one
in the middle of the week if possible.
As a guideline I wouldn't do more than three days on
before including one rest day or recovery day.
These are the days that your body will adapt
to the training that you've put it through.
Without rest and recovery we won't get fitter,
we'll just become more tired and worn down,
and nobody wants to feel tired and worn down on a bike.
Don't be scared to include your interval sessions
the day before an endurance ride.
You're only likely to feel better on the endurance ride
for having done some intensity the day before.
Conversely, don't be scared to do the intervals
the day after an endurance session.
You'll feel tired, loose and a bit leggy
but you'll still get a really good,
quality workout by pushing through the pain.
And once again don't forget day four
should be set aside as a day of rest and recovery.
Three days on, one day off, two days on, another day off.
One final thing to remember with all of this training
is to keep track of what you're doing.
Record it in an online diary, on a notepad, in your phone.
You have a computer perhaps on your bike,
that you can use to download the data,
upload it onto the internet.
Whatever you do keep track of it.
Keep track of how you felt, how fast you went,
how far you went, how long you were gone for,
energy levels, motivation.
All of this information is really key
to helping you throughout the program.
So there you have a few key sessions to really
get stuck into over the next coming week.
Don't be afraid to change which
days you do which intervals on.
The only thing that I'd warn against
is changing the quantity of which type
of intervals you're doing each week.
Be sure to include the key sessions
throughout the week, evenly spaced,
and you'll be well on track to improving your cycling.
I hope you've enjoyed this weeks video.
If you have be sure to give it a thumbs up.
For more tips, or to read my fundamentals on training,
click down here.