What are the tried and true bike sessions that got you to a strong bike leg in Olympic distance tris? Thanks in advance for the input.
I would be curious to see some ideas on this topic as well, but dont hold your breath on this site though. Most of the posting and workout tips are for IM and 1/2 IM. Good luck
I like intervals for shorter distances. I have a local park that is ideal - it’s a 7 mile lap with a couple of decent hills, not too much traffic and no crossroads, lights, etc to interrupt the training plan. Some workouts I enjoy:
- 3 laps of the park at high effort with 5 minutes active recovery between laps. Aim is to maintain a pretty consistent effort throughout each lap. Each lap isn’t exactly a maximal effort but by the end of the 3rd lap I should be in a place where the 3 mile flat cycle home seems like a challenge. I normally find the 2nd lap is quickest if I judge it right
- Shorter intervals - I mix these up a bit but a typical example would be 5 minutes on, 2 minutes off. I sometimes do intervals based on landmarks on the route rather than time.
- All-out effort for one lap (normally followed by a slow lap to recover). Normally do this every 4 weeks or so as a gauge of my cycling fitness.
- 3-4 laps, mostly aerobic, but attack all the hills. Sometimes this means staying in a pretty high gear, getting out of the saddle and driving up them at ~50rpm, sometimes it means dropping to a lower gear but really spinning up them at >100rpm.
I also agree with the shorter intervals suggestion. I like 10 X 3-5 min intervals on a fairly flat stretch, with similar rest in between to let the HR get back down–done at about 1-2 mph faster than goal race pace for the 40K.
Another great workout is the 10-12 mile TT, done all out.
I agree with this…if you are snowbound by winter, there is a great trainer DVD by CTS for TT/Triathlon training. It’s an hour long, and it’ll cook your legs if you push hard.
I agree, 30 min all out TT with 15-20 min on each end to warm up and cool down is a great workout for both speed and power.
20 to 30 min warm up
10 X 3min hard 1 min easy
20 to 30 min cool down.
It’s harder than you’d think…ask slowbern 
jaretj
Warm up then 45 minute to 1 hour drafting a motorcycle or fast group ride at mod-hard to hard / Z3-4 effort.
Warm up then 3-4 x 10 minute @ goal pace / threshold with 3-4 minute recovery
2 x 20 just under threshold effort, 5 min recovery
moderate effort hill repeats
warm up then 1 hour + mod-hard effort (5-10 beats below LT threshold effort)
A 40 K time trail on the trainer - balls out - I record splits for 30 min, halfway, 60 min and finish. (In racing season) I try to beat my record every time.
I like and used to do those main sets and also:
4x8km-10km slightly faster than race pace with complete recoveries between each effort.
3x15km mod-hard with little recovery between each effort
on the trainer-53-15 (the gearing you aim to use on the race) for 8’ and than 2’ one gear harder, till you complete an hour or so.
Marcos.
I do plenty of longer rides, but my favorite power workout is only 30 mins long:
5 mins warmup
1 min all out
2 min recovery
Repeat steps 2-3 until 26 mins into the workout
4 mins cooldown (sometimes I’ll hold this for another 10-15 mins if I feel like it)
I do this on the CycleOps trainer and get the bike up to 38 mph during the 1 min intervals for the first few. I basically go as hard as I can in the hardest gear.
I also occasionally do the 1 hour CTS TT DVD that was mentioned in a previous thread.