Workout Wednesday – Spring Tempo Ride

The time to build your aerobic base, your aerobic engine is now, in the spring.   There are a couple different ways to accomplish this goal. 

Spend time in the saddle.  The long weekend rides at a “conversational” effort level are great for base building.

Shorter rides at this easy level can accomplish the same purpose, but a more time-efficient way to build upper level aerobic base is through the use of Tempo Training.

If you train with heart rate, Tempo is roughly 10-20 beats below your threshold heart rate (which is determined by the average heart rate while performing a race-effort 30-45 minute time trial).  If you train with power, the tempo zone is roughly 76-90% of your threshold power.

Riding tempo is a very efficient workout, in that you spend extended periods in this fairly high level aerobic zone.  This is fantastic training for triathletes and riders practicing for long time trials, as this is a typical race effort for longer events.

You’ll find yourself extremely fatigued after a long tempo interval.  Not burned-out fatigued like after a series of short, explosive intervals, but just wiped out.  But you’ll find that your endurance level will improve rapidly after several tempo sessions, so early in the year you should plan to spend at least 1 day per week focusing on tempo intervals.

The goal for most age-groupers is to work up to a 45 minute continuous tempo interval.  No resting, no breaks, no recovery interval and ideally no stop lights and stop signs.  So depending on your fitness level, start with intervals of 10 minutes or longer and gradually increase your interval lengths.  If you can ride a 45-60 minute interval, you know you’re ready for higher level work.

Here’s the power file of the tempo ride I just did. 

http://www.trainingpeaks.com/sw/WFBI5FVPVQIRR3B3366V5NDPWQ

Put the curser on the left hand side and the power output will remain on the graph.  You can see the graph is relatively smooth and is constant throughout.  It is a little more choppy toward the end, however, which is an indication that I was getting fatigued and having to work harder to maintain the effort. 

Long tempo intervals can be a workout of their own, or they can be incorportated into your weekly long ride as well.  These give you a big “bang for your training buck” so make them a regular part of your training schedule.

Add your comments below or contact me with any questions.  Then GET OUT AND RIDE!