Workout Wednesday – Never get dropped again!

You’ve trained diligently all winter.  You’ve done long rides in your aerobic zones to build your aerobic engine.  You’ve done some rides with long, steady tempo intervals.  You’ve ridden some long threshold intervals.  So you think you’re ready for your first race or group ride with the “fast” group.

You roll out and the attacks begin immediately.  The accelerations are relentless, and you have very little time to recover between each one.  You push hard to keep up, but eventually you simply don’t have the power to accelerate.  So what happens?  You blow up, you shoot off the back and you’re done for the day.  You’re totally cooked.

What happened?  You put in the hours and trained hard, and you think you should have been better.

Well, what happened is that you spent all your time with a steady diet of long, steady work.  This is great for building your various systems, but you didn’t do anything to prepare you for the specific demands of racing.

Road or MTB races (or fast group rides) are marked by constant power changes.  You accelerate with everything you have for several seconds, then you soft pedal for a few seconds.  Accelerate/soft pedal.  Accelerate/soft pedal.  This routine never ends.  So until your body is trained to perform under these circumstances, you’ll continue to get dropped.

Change that starting TODAY.  You can be a rider that can not only stick with these accelerations, but can actually be one to continually push the pace and drop others. 

Today’s workout will focus on speed/power changes, coupled with short recovery periods.  Many of these short, explosive accelerations are 15-90 seconds in duration, so today’s interval ride will include exactly these.

A workout like this can be created an infinite number of ways.  The variables that can be changed include interval duration, recovery duration, number of interval repetitions and number of sets.  Here’s one example:

WARMUP: 

• 5 minutes easy spin.  Heart rate should come up gradually.
• 5 x 1 minute “fast pedal” drills (110+ rpm), each followed by 1 minute easy spin recovery
• 5 minute sub-threshold effort.  This is warm-up only, so don’t overdo the effort.  The purpose is to warm up your muscles, open blood vessels and raise your heart rate, not to have you tired out for the main part of the ride.
• 5 minute easy spin recovery

MAIN SET:

• 90 seconds at “race pace” or VO2 Max level
• 90 second soft pedal recovery
• 75 seconds at “race pace” or VO2 Max level
• 75 second soft pedal recovery
• 60 seconds at “race pace” or VO2 Max level
• 60 second soft pedal recovery
• 45 seconds at “race pace” or VO2 Max level
• 45 second soft pedal recovery
• 30 seconds at “race pace” or VO2 Max level
• 30 second soft pedal recovery
• 5 minute recovery interval, then:
• 30 seconds at “race pace” or VO2 Max level
• 30 second soft pedal recovery
• 45 seconds at “race pace” or VO2 Max level
• 45 second soft pedal recovery
• 60 seconds at “race pace” or VO2 Max level
• 60 second soft pedal recovery
• 75 seconds at “race pace” or VO2 Max level
• 75 second soft pedal recovery
• 90 seconds at “race pace” or VO2 Max level
• 90 second soft pedal recovery
• 5 minute recovery interval, then repeat if you’re able.

If this is a new type of interval workout for you, longer recovery intervals initially will help you get through it.  For example, you could recover 2 minutes between each interval.  As you get stronger, reduce the recovery time between each.  For example, rather than recovering equal time to the interval, reduce recovery time to ½ the interval duration.

You can also perform additional sets, depending on your specific level of fitness and race requirements.

COOLDOWN:

• Ride easy for 5-10 minutes or more.  Spin in a small gear with low pressure to flush your legs.  This was a tough ride, especially if you’re note used to it.  Your legs should be pretty well fried.  If so, finish up and take a recovery drink immediately.  But you can add some additional z1-3 endurance time if you’re up to it. 
• As noted, there are an infinite number of possibilities to an interval ride like this.  Think of what you need to excel in your events, and then create your own workout to mimic these demands.  Add your favorites in the “Comment” section below, then GET OUT AND RIDE!