Initially any form of structured training will help us to improve. Ride for more hours during the week and we’ll get stronger, but to continue improving and to train specific areas or components of fitness we need to focus more of our time on these specific areas. This is where a well designed training plan comes in.

Analyse your event

Instead of just riding more and hoping that we’ll get stronger, sit down and analyse exactly what it is you need to get better at. What are the important characteristics of your event?  Which of these are you already good at? Which ones do you need to get better at? For instance if your targeted event is a hilly road race, you will need to be at least good enough at climbing to get over those challenging hills with the main bunch. If the race ends with a major hill, then climbing becomes even more important in determining the result. You’ll need to be a very good climber to have a chance of winning that event.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Generally, before the season and in the early season we will spend more time working on our weaknesses, and less time working on our strengths. How much time we dedicate to each depends on a whole host of factors, but a generally accepted starting point is spending approximately two thirds of our time working on our weaknesses with a third of our time working  on our strengths.

Training blocks or phases

Once you have established your training focus for a block of training break this down into the components of fitness you need to work on to improve it. For example, if your aim is to improve your climbing, one of the components of fitness you will need to work on is strength (or more accurately, force production).  In your plan for this block, schedule in enough sessions focussing on this component of fitness to enhance it. One session a week won’t cut it- that’s hardly a focus and is won’t bring about optimum training benefits! Depending on how many times a week you train you will need to schedule in at least two, 3 or 4 sessions a week specifically focussing on strength.

Designing sessions

These sessions don’t have to be identical – just focus on the relevant component (eg strength). For variety, you might do a turbo interval session focussing on low cadence, high force production one day and perhaps add low cadence strength work to your longer rides outside at the weekend.  This doesn’t have to be in the form of set time intervals, but you could accumulate a set amount of time by riding each hill over geared (at approx 55-65 rpm), for instance. Each week you could then aim to accumulate more time working on strength in each session – eg 30, then 35, then 40 minutes. Get creative with your sessions – variety not only keeps it interesting, but also produces better physiological adaptations. In the ‘real world’ on the road our cadence, power output and force production is constantly changing, so allowing your training to reflect this can only make us better equipped to cope with the demands of the road and racing.

Training Focus

Ideally every time we sit on a bike we will have the focus of the session in mind – what exactly are we trying to achieve? We tend to focus our training in blocks or phases because the more we do something, the better we will get at it. Conversely though, that means that other areas or components of fitness will inevitably suffer. It is important to remember that whilst focussing on one or two components of fitness in a phase or block of training, other components need to be maintained. Remember to spend a little time working on all those other aspects throughout the training week too!

Do you prefer to plan your own training programme? A coaching consultation and training review is a professional, objective look at all your hard work which will help you to get the best out of your valuable training time.

Starting with a review of your training history, previous results, current training methods and looking at your future goals, I will analyse your heart rate and power files, providing advice on particular areas to work on and suggest alternative ways of training to get even more out of yourself and enable you to reach your full potential.

I will highlight some of the features of Training Peaks that are most useful so that you can continue to plan and review your own training programme even more efficiently and introduce you to a couple of really useful features on Golden Cheetah to offer a deeper insight into some areas of your performance.

To ensure that you continue to progress I will set some benchmarks for you and introduce field testing or perhaps other personalised indoor tests to take your performance to the next level.

The coaching consultation and training review is backed up with a report including suggestions regarding which aspects of your training to pay particular attention to, alternative example sessions and training ideas, and all the ‘tools’ you need to continue self coaching, analysing your training and improving your performances in the future.

Get in touch now to kick start your training!

No Pain No Gain?

Training hurts. Racing hurts. Often it feels like it hurts so much that we just have to stop. We can’t finish that session, those intervals or have to ease off and drop out of the leading group on a hill or in a race. We just can’t push any more….or can we? Are we being stopped by the pain, or is it all in the mind?

The old adage says ‘No pain no gain’ but this is far from the truth. In fact it’s just the opposite. PAIN is bad – pain is the body’s sign that something is wrong, perhaps an injury. It’s the body’s way of telling you to stop. I often tell those at my indoor cycling sessions when stretching ‘a stretch should be uncomfortable, but never painful’ and it’s exactly the same for your training. So if you think it ‘hurts’ think a little more carefully – is it truly painful? We very rarely get true pain in training.

So in the middle of those killer intervals or barley hanging on to that wheel, when you feel like you just have to stop or ease off, ask yourself this simple question; ‘Is it PAIN or is it just uncomfortable?’

Usually its discomfort. There is a huge range of discomfort. When  training hard it can be very uncomfortable, or even very, very uncomfortable – but it is NOT painful. Pain is a separate thing and it’s important to recognise this fact and learn to tell the difference.

When it’s ‘merely’ uncomfortable, keep pushing until you simply can’t do any more! That’s where motivation comes in….how much are you prepared to push to get the results you’re after? For me, an element of competition means that I can push far harder than when training alone. Whether I’m in a race or merely trying to beat a friend up a hill in training, competition motivates me to take more discomfort and push through it. In training alone it is generally harder to summon up the motivation to embrace the discomfort and perhaps one’s limits when training alone are not quite so high as when in competition.

So don’t make the mistake of thinking you’re in pain and HAVE to stop. Ask the question – is this truly PAIN or just very uncomfortable? If it’s uncomfortable – even if it’s very, very, very uncomfortable, there is no reason to stop!

You will be able to push yourself that much harder in training sessions and racing situations once you recognise that there is an important, fundamental difference between pain and discomfort and learn to distinguish them, and when it ‘hurts’ remind yourself that there is no NEED to stop – no matter how uncomfortable it is!

This is a great article from the Training Peaks blog which is well worth a read

 

Is your training working? The only way to find out is to test and retest yourself to measure your progression.

You need to know what you are testing and why for the data to be useful! A six second sprint test might not be as important as an ftp test for a time triallist, and vice versa for a track sprinter.

Testing with a power meter is definitely the way forward as it gives the most accurate and informative results. Remember to recalibrate your power meter though, before every test (I usually recalibrate before every ride).

Indoor tests on ‘Smart trainers’ are usually best as you can ensue all other variables are the same for more accurate results. For instance the wind and weather conditions don’t come into play, so can’t skew the results.

Then again a good field test can give you a real insight into how you perform in real life, which can be very different from our performances in the sterile environment of an indoor turbo set up or lab. Even without  power meter you can get some really useful information about how you are improving as long as you think hard about reducing any random variables such as wind strength and direction. Testing up a sheltered hill, for instance, or on a circular loop, can keep these outside variables to a minimum and so provide you with a good indication of how you are improving out on the road.

Interpreting the test is not just a case of reading the data. A good coach will be able to tell you so much from the test than just the raw numbers. They will be able to give more of an in depth analysis and importantly tell you what you need to work on, how to improve it and what this means in terms of real world performance.

Here is a great video that explains some of the basics of fitness testing.