(upbeat music)
- I like to do my training first thing in the morning,
if possible, luckily for me,
I have about an hour's commute by bike,
which is perfect actually for fitting in
this snappy little FTP session.
Now because I have a bit of a tendency to faff
in the morning, over a cup of tea,
I try to get everything ready the night before,
so I pack my bag if I'm taking one,
and I make sure I leave my socks on the radiator
so they're nice and warm.
So I have no excuses, because this is a three
by eight minute session, and I find that a bit daunting.
So, here we go, oh it's bloody raining as well.
(upbeat music)
Now, one key challenge with incorporating training
into your commute is traffic, of course,
because a lot of other people are trying to get to work,
or to school, at the same time.
So if your route to work is really busy,
maybe try to take a detour,
or an extra loop, to find a quieter section of the road,
and avoid, road rage.
I'm using this rather busy part of my route through traffic,
as my warm-up, because it doesn't matter,
if I have to pause or slow down
to be courteous to other road users.
Now, this key session is fairly straightforward.
It's just three, by eight minutes,
at a 110 percent of your functional threshold power.
Now that's easy to work out if you've got a power metre,
you could also go on heart rate, although be aware,
your heart rate will drift up, over the eight minutes.
I'm just gonna go on perceived exertion,
because frankly, that's good enough.
Now if you're going on feel,
it should feel hard, let's face it,
you're going at 10 percent over your threshold,
so you'll feel a build up of lactate,
but it's not sweat out,
so it's eight minutes of controlled effort.
Now, it looks like I have got to a fairly quiet section
of the road, so I'm gonna get started.
Right, here goes.
(upbeat music)
Oh man, sweet suffering, eh?
Well, for these,
long intervals, that are over threshold,
you'll need a decent recovery so that you can produce,
quality work, so I'm gonna spin for a good five minutes,
nice and easy, whoo.
(upbeat music)
Oh well that's the recovery everybody I guess,
time to go again.
(upbeat music)
Now for some reason, I always found it a lot easier
to do this session uphill than on the flat,
but if you don't live near any long climbs,
don't worry you can still do a training session like this,
you just need to find a long stretch of uninterrupted road
so that you can do the effort without having to stop.
Your legs and your cardiovascular system,
they don't know whether you're riding on the flat or uphill,
all they can feel is the work you're doing,
which is the stimulus they need.
Oh, it looks like it's time to go again, right, last one.
(upbeat music)
(coughing)
Oh, thank goodness,
it's so great when the last effort is over, isn't it?
And it's actually really nice feeling of satisfaction
to do a hard session well,
I mean I won't give myself a pat on the back,
but I'm just not that flexible,
now one real advantage I think
of putting a structured session into your commute,
is that it breaks it up and makes it more interesting,
and another thing is that today,
because I did about 24 minutes of hard work,
I might actually get in a bit earlier than normal,
and have time for a cheeky coffee before work.
I do really like a little coffee as a treat
at the end of training.
Now I hope this video helps you if you're trying to train
properly as part of your commute,
feel free to give it a thumbs up if so.
If you want to see more of the same,
you could watch out because you've got a whole series
of commuter training session videos
coming out every Saturday for a few weeks,
and there's also this video which you can check out,
down here, which is how to plan time official training,
for a sport eve, when you've got lots else on in your life.