I used to be coached by Steve Trew, a British coach… one of his staple workouts was the longer interval sessions. They would start with 6x6 minutes hard with one minute rest in between and a 15 minute warmup and cooldown on each side of the workout. Over the course of the preseason they progressed to 7x6 minutes, then 7x7 minutes, etc… I was doing 8x8 minutes hard when I started to get really strong. It was once a week or so. I came down with glandular fever in March and didn’t realize what was wrong with me till May, so I didn’t get to see how the progression would have continuted. Towards the first Olympic distance races of the season I was doing 1 hour time trial simulations (at a slightly lower than TT effort) to prepare for staying locked in the aero position at high intensity for 40k.
As a variation of the 6x6 mentioned by Zinc, my coach has me currently doing 5x105% of CP30avg/55-60rpm until HR =CP30avg+3bpm(172 for me) or 6min, whichever comes first. I’m doing it on a computrainer. That is a really tough workout, especially trying to maintain decent spinscan #s AND maintain watts at 105%xCP30avg +/- 3 watts. I’ve increased my workout wattage 30 watts in four weeks of workouts and todays sets ended up at 6:00, 6:00, 6:00, 5:48, and 4:30.
Next we’ll move to shorter/harder intervals of 30sec beginning at CP6/30sec off for 4 weeks and then back to the 6min intervals, but at normal cadence. I’m not sure whether we’ll add intervals or time or both to each interval as I progress at that point.
Whatever…its quality work like this, added to group and long rides that will make the difference in your cycling.
I’m unfamiliar with your terms. What’s cp30avg and cp6 mean?
I hope this won’t become excruciatingly obvious to me after posting.
Thanks
Obviously Zinc, we just don’t agree. Saying that you can’t know how to push your body hard, or know what it is to really suffer…you can’t suffer in a road workout?? Hm, I guess that’s why pro cyclists from North America spend all the off seasons NOT in Europe training the courses they’re going to race, but staying at home on their turbo trainers in the garage. It’s actually mentally tougher to maintain focus in a road TT than it is on the trainer because you have to focus on your workout while responding to factors beyond your control that will also affect you on race day.
Riding on the road does not mean you’ve resigned yourself to being slow, making that assertion in your post is just plain arrogant. “Your way is the only way” is not a very intelligent way to look at things. As for that little posturing comment at the end, congrats. I went from being a non swimmer, non biker, recreational runner to being in the top half of my age group at worlds in two years. With what you said, I can’t believe I did it without even owning a trainer. (it’s rollers all winter for me) Thanks for the workout tip (the 8x8 minute/1min rest), sounds great, I’ll give it a go while the snow’s still on the ground.
Enjoy the view from your “pain cave”, I’m going to do my TT’s in the sun.
Read http://www.sportsci.org/jour/0101/cf.pdf and it should give you some ideas.
CP6, CP 30, etc. etc. are terms coming from training with power. CP stands for Critical Power. If I say my CP30 is 300watts, then 300 watts is the average power that I can hold for a 30min TT. Power devices are only recently becoming available to the masses, but there is a lot of theory out there on how to apply power to training. My coach happens to be a Friel associate and applies the theories coming out of that camp. He only tests CP30, and makes formulaic guesses at the other CPs for purposes of designing training.
fantastic stuff… no more zone 1 and 2 training for me!! just kidding… I’ve always done interval training for both cycling and running, and have had fantastic results. Now there seems to be some controlled studies to support my results.
Strange how the 30 second /w 4.5 min rest and 4 min /w 1.5 rest produced the best results for 40k time trials. Which points to anaerobic work benefitting aerobic efforts!!
mike
Just to stir the pot a little…
Well I was obstaining from posting for a while, but I wanted to comment on this one. I have been training 3x per week on the traininer (plus 1 long TT road ride) for the past 10 months. I think that is is very efficient training and has greatly improved my strength. Oh yeah, I live in San Diego as well and can ride year round (although it is raining right now).
My only concern right now is keeping my motivation high to compete year round. I go into “burnout mode” every once in a while, probably because I train/race 2x per month all year. I am going to try and get some addl road time in to see if I can pep up and get back into it.
there’s probably some truth to that article, but there is no way someone without a cycling background will be able to effectively finish a 100+ mile ride without regular longish rides… your body needs to be exposed to those distances. This guy trained with pro-roadies in Spain, no wonder he kicks ass on the bike. He’s already built a huge “base”.
I’m sticking with a one intense interval indoor trainer session, another fast roadie ride mid week, and a long ride with tri buddies on the weekend… throw in some technique work occasionally.
mike
Gary,
Congratulations on your success achieved by training indoors. My question is this: do you think you could do the same workouts on the road that you did on the trainer? The general feeling I’ve been getting is that people think a trainer ride is the only way to keep themselves honest in a workout. Wondering if that’s the same feeling that you have.
Riding indoors all the time does seem to wear on the motivation, though (as you mentioned), as does competing all year. Coaches I’ve talked to (and the opinion of Slowman on this site) is that there should be a definite ‘rest period’ during the year to keep the motivation up, especially mentally.
Smitty,
I do all my riding outdoors, even today in the rain but I will be under cover. WIth the ocean breeze flowing in - I set up the traininer at lunch in the shade and ride outside. It is the most valuable piece of equipment I own, really. Right now my times have been off because of stress, but I have greatly increased my leg strength and ability to ride at LT for extended periods of time.
That said, when I started on the traininer it was really difficult to ride for 1+ hours at a hard pace. Now it is a daily routine. Generally my training program consists of:
(this is my real program that works best for me)
- 1 day of low rev BIG gear strength training, 1.5 hr
- 1 day of short high level interval repeats, 1 hr
- 1 day of 1 hour at 80% mhr at 80-85 rpm
- 1 day on the road for a 2.5 to 3 hr TT ride, with a 1 hour warmup, 1 hour variable TT session, and 30 min cooldown.
I might mix in some running to do some summer sprint Du’s and road 50 miler races, most of my racing is 20k, 10 mile and 11 mile time trials.
Gary (PS I use a Kinesis)
Two weeks before a important race my coach puts me a from 5 to 8 max effort series of 4 km… 1 km rest between them…
This works fine to me…
Now that I’m training for 1/2 Iron sometimes I do some sprints of 8km max effort…
“If you’re ever in Toronto, let me know and we can chase each other around”
Living in rural Ontario,I have to ask where do you guys ride in Toronto? I hate driving my car there with all the traffic. Can’t imagine riding a bike there, at least not safely.
Honestly, I question the safety of doing hard interval workouts on the road… I know that there have been more than a few times when I’ve been too shot to trust myself to ride the bike straight. In an actual TT race this isn’t as much of an issue because the roads tend to be closed the course marshalled. In tri’s it’s not an issue because you’re never riding to your limit in a triathlon (if you care about your run, that is).
The ten mile time trial outside will teach you pacing and improve vO2 max, LT, etc. The 5mile TT inside on rollers will imrove your vO2 max, and pain tolerance 
tommy
“Living in rural Ontario,I have to ask where do you guys ride in Toronto?”
I actually used to ride right in the heart of downtown in rushour while going to school. Keeps you awake, that’s for sure, especially in the snow. Definitely don’t recommend that on a road bike. But, finding a road with a bike lane that takes you down to the lakeshore isn’t too difficult (Royal York in the west) and if you ride outside on the weekend mornings, everyone’s asleep 'till at least 10 anyway. There are roads or paths all along the lakeshore that can be ridden to get you out of the downtown core. If you want to do a flat TT type workout, it can be done on the Commissioners St circuit near the Leslie Spit and Cherry Beach. It’s pretty much deserted on the weekends.
However, my riding partners and I will often drive outside the city or leave from work (in Mississauga), to get to the great roads around Milton, or the Forks of the Credit near Orangeville.
Don’t know, man. I guess riding on the rollers has taught me to die in a straight line…
(or the drivers are getting more courteous…naw, can’t be that)
If I could add anything to this discussion, it would be this, and it pertains more to ironman cycling than the olympic distance.
When you are doing your long rides, it is essential that you do not stop every 20 miles or every hour to refill bottles, screw around, go to the batchroom, stretch etc. In the beginning of the season and during base training it is good to go on group rides with your buds that are more social and include goof off stops. However, toward the end of my ironman build up last year I started doing all my long rides solo and with the camelbak (which I absolutely can’t stand to wear). This would allow me to do long rides of 100+ miles and only stop 2 or 3 times. You need to do this to learn how to ride within yourself and hold the pace on race day when you will have your butt planted on your seat for 112 miles straight. Also, learn how to “evacuate” your bladder on the bike even for training rides.
I live in Madison, WI where we have a plethora of country roads without stoplites or traffic to faciliate this appoach. If you live in a metro area, then maybe the trainer is the place to pull this off. But I can’t personally imagine riding for 5+ hours on rollers or trainer.