[music] Mark Threlfall: Push harder to go faster;
it's more or less as simple as that. If you're looking to improve your time in a triathlon,
a 10 mile TT, or simply beat mates in a club ride, you'll be wanting to improve your power.
There are some smart ways in which you can achieve that other than simply riding hard
all the time. Here are six ways to boost your cycling power.
Now, the first protocol I head to when I'm trying to improve my own power on the bike
or someone's that I'm coaching is including a contrast into their training. That means
a mix of high-intensity intervals, threshold work, strength work, and also that nice easy
aerobic work too. It's very easy to fall into the trap of just riding hard all the time
when we're trying to improve our power on the bike. Anyone that's done that before will
likely know from experience that you just run out of steam and you don't actually end
up hitting those high power numbers that you were hoping to in the first place.
The best method is to include a little bit of structure in your training and not forgetting
to include some of those easier rides and the recovery too. That leads me on to perhaps
my favorite workout for kicking my legs into gear and getting them better at churning out
this big power. That is microbursts. It's simply what the name suggests really, they
are microbursts of power. We're talking literally 10 to 30 seconds in duration tops but all-out
effort. Now, this doesn't need to necessarily be a
killer workout it could simply be 20 seconds max effort once every five minutes for half
an hour, for example. I used to really enjoy doing these workouts and just seeing how high
a power I could hit for those efforts or 20 seconds, whatever duration you go for. It's
a really good way of improving your neuromuscular function and just getting your body used to
hitting these high, high power numbers. In turn, that's really going to help to boost
your overall power on the bike. [music]
Now, aside from the training and the workouts that you're doing, it's also worth taking
a look at your position on your bike. I'm talking about your saddle height here, your
saddle tilt, how far forward, how far back your saddle is, your handlebar height, your
aero bar height, your cleat position, you name it. Have any of these wrong and you could
end up essentially fighting your position on the bike and wasting energy rather than
literally putting out the best power that you really can. If you suspect that any of
these are wrong for yourself or you're simply uncomfortable, I'd really advise seeking some
expert advice or perhaps even getting a professional bike fit.
Also worth pointing out, that just because you may be the same height as a mate of yours,
it doesn't mean that you can just ride on the same bike or in the same position. We
all have different range and mobility. That means that we all need different positions
on the bike to allow us to put out that power. For example, my saddle height is a lot lower
than most people advice for me but I know that's the best position that will allow me
to power the best power I possibly can. [music]
Then we have hills. Riding uphill is a great way to improve your muscular endurance and
your power because to ride uphill we need to ride at a good power, a moderate cadence
for an extended period of time which is exactly what we're looking for today. You can simply
start by riding hills. Maybe target 1000-feet of climbing in a single ride and progressing
to even something like 3000 feet of climbing in a single outing. You could even take it
a step further and start doing some short intervals on hills.
This is probably the first point I will look to when I'm trying to improve my own power
on a bike or someone else's. I'm talking short 60 to 90 seconds of really high power, high
intensity, turning around at the top, descending back down to recover, doing that five to six
times, and then maybe even progressing to something like 10 to 12 with time. Now another
method that we often look to to improve our power on the bike as endurance athletes is
something called sweet spot intervals. Now, this is an intensity or interval just
below our functional threshold power which you may have heard of before. It's a pretty
big benchmark number for cyclists and triathletes. Theoretically, your functional threshold power
or FTP is the maximum power or intensity that you can sustain for an hour. Anything above
that and you start to produce lactic acid at a faster rate than your body can remove
it. These intervals are just below your functional threshold power which means you can actually
start to rack up a serious amount of time at a pretty high intensity and high power
which gives the name sweet spot. It's something that pro cyclists and triathletes do a heck
of a lot of. Now, to do this effectively, you do need to
find out your functional threshold power or functional threshold heart rate. To do that,
I mean there's a number of methods out there but probably the most common is a 20-minute
all-out effort and then you take 95% of your average power from that. Then for those sweet
spot intervals, you're looking at 88% to 94% of that functional threshold power or 75%
to 85% of your max heart rate. [music]
Finally, we can't forget strength work both on the bike and off the bike. For years, cyclists
have used a method called over gearing where you essentially ride in a harder gear than
you ordinarily would therefore causing you to ride with a lower cadence which can put
more stress on the muscles. It's a pretty old-school approach but I've actually found
it quite beneficial for myself in the past. Also, off the bike-specific strength work
could be amazing for boosting your power on the bike. Initially, most athletes will benefit
from simply practicing the movements, activating the correct muscles, and improving their mobility.
As you progress, you can start adding weight to that and really working on improving your
power through those specific exercises. If you'd like some ideas on some of those specific
exercises for cycling, we have a video on that already. I'll throw you to that just
now but you can also find the link for it in the description just down below. Well,
I hope you have found that helpful today. If you've enjoyed today's video, please do
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