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- 02:29, 12 January 2010 RoboCoach (hist) [1,813 bytes] John Poplett (Talk | contribs) (Created page with '== What is RoboCoach? == RoboCoach generates a personalized training plan to help you achieve your cycling goals. You supply it with a modest amount of information, e.g. your ag…')
- 15:32, 27 December 2009 Radonneuring (hist) [1,972 bytes] John Poplett (Talk | contribs) (Created page with '= Radonneuring = Radonneuring is a French word, denoting a long-distance cycling sport. Its history is almost as old as the bicycle itself. One of the oldest clubs promoting this…')
- 04:41, 13 December 2009 Moderate Hills Workout (hist) [546 bytes] John Poplett (Talk | contribs) (Created page with 'A workout for workout type::strength conditioning. Ride over a course with hills of up to a six percent grade that take about three minutes to ascend. Drive up the hills at …')
- 01:36, 13 December 2009 Tempo Workout (hist) [507 bytes] John Poplett (Talk | contribs) (Created page with 'A workout that emphasizes workout type::muscular endurance. Ride continually in zone 3 at time trial cadence. The intensity factor is around 80%, i.e. 80…')
- 01:08, 13 December 2009 Aerobic Workout (hist) [747 bytes] John Poplett (Talk | contribs) (Created page with 'A workout that emphasizes the aerobic system and [[workout type::endurance]. Ride over a hilly course at fairly high cadence.<ref>The Cyclist's Training Bible. 3rd Edition. Joe F…')
- 01:34, 19 July 2009 Training Stress Score (hist) [335 bytes] John Poplett (Talk | contribs) (Created page with 'Training Stress Score (TSS) represents a calculated number that takes into account the duration and intensity of a workout to arrive at a single score of the overall training loa…')
- 02:13, 18 July 2009 Training Stress Balance (hist) [971 bytes] John Poplett (Talk | contribs) (Created page with ' Training stress balance is a performance metric that refines the ideas on the effects of training on performance known as Banister's impu…')
Featured Article
Intervals
Intervals are fixed length workouts where the athlete goes all out for a given distance or duration and then eases the pace to recover. The intense period or “interval” is always followed by a recovery period. The recovery period is almost always equal to the interval period or greater. Typically, the duration of an interval is inversely proportional to its intensity.
Recovery periods can also be deliberately short so that the rider does not recover completely before the next workout. Many coaches and athletes advocate partial recoveries, especially since they mimic actual race conditions [1]. For endurance athletes, partial recoveries may lead to more efficient workouts[2].
The measure of recovery takes different forms. It might be a fixed duration or distance; it is common too to monitor the heart rate and wait for the heart to slow down past a given threshold (e.g. 120 BPM) before starting the next period of intensity.
Virtually all amateur and professional cyclists will have their favorite "bread and butter" interval workout. Chris Hoy, British Olympian and World Track Champion, likes to perform a sequence starting with 3 30-second sprints and followed by a set of 3-minute all-out-efforts with long recoveries in between[3].
The physiological benefits of intervals are well-documented and substantiated by research. A casual web search will quickly yield up a number of scientific studies.
Energy Systems
The duration of the interval is associated with the energy system that the athlete is trying to focus on, viz. anaerobic capacity, lactate threshold work, or power [4].
| Interval Duration | Recovery Duration | Energy System | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-30m | Same as interval duration | Lactate threshold | Even tempo at or just above or below lactate threshold, average power or heart rate |
| 3-8m | 5m | Aerobic Power | Longer intervals above lactate threshold. Not recommended on consecutive days. |
| 30s | 4m | Anaerobic capacity | Increase anaerobic capacity |
| 10-20s | 5-12m | Neuromuscular Power | Short sprints, jumps or standing starts. Increases peak power. |
Over/Under Intervals
This type of interval training can boost an athlete's lactate threshold. During the recovery portion of the workout, the athlete pedals at a rate just under his/her lactate threshold. For the interval effort, the athlete rides at a rate that exceeds his/her lactate threshold. The cyclist monitors lactate threshold either with a heart rate monitor or a power meter.
An example over/under workout is two minutes at 95% lactate threshold followed by 30 seconds at 120% of lactate threshold, repeated six times over 15 minutes.
Pyramid Intervals
Or just "pyramids", for short, are intervals inspired by the shape of the famous Egyptian tombs. The idea is to steadily increase the duration of the intensity period while keeping the recovery period constant. Once a maximum interval duration is reached, the cyclist descends the pyramid, shortening the duration of each successive interval.
= 3 minute =
= recover = = recover =
= 2 minute = = 2 minute =
= recover = = recover =
= 1 minute = = 1 minute =
Christian Vande Velde, the famous American Tour De France cyclist, advocates the pyramid workout. The variation in durations engage the athlete in training different energy systems.
Optimal Intervals
At least one study suggests that an athlete, based on his/her conditioning, can compute optimal interval intensity, interval duration and recovery duration[5]. The technique hinges on a couple of measurements, viz. a cyclist's peak-power output (PPO) and Tmax.
One way to compute your PPO is to take a test on an ergometer like a Cyclops trainer or a CompuTrainer. In this test, after a warmup, the cyclist starts out at 100 watts and increases the wattage by 30 each minute. The wattage a cyclist's churns out just before exhaustion is his/her peak power output. With that figure in hand, the cyclist takes a few days to recover and then embarks on a second test to compute t-Max. For this test, the cyclist remounts the ergometer, warms-up and then goes as long as he can at his recorded peak power output. The time he is able to sustain peak power is his Tmax. The interval regimen based on these figures is as follows:
Interval Intensity = PPO Interval duration = .6 x Tmax Recovery duration = 1.2 x Tmax Number of intervals = 2-8
Studies claim impressive results for this approach [6].
30-30s
Mostly a track-specific workout that, after an appropriate warmup, follows this sequence:
- 30-seconds all-out in a big gear
- 30-seconds all-out cadence in a spin gear
- 4 minutes recovery
The transition between the two 30-second halves is usually made by dropping from the big chain ring to a small chain ring on a bicycle with derailleurs. This workout was reputedly a favorite of Bill Clay's, Bronze medalist in the 1995 World Team Sprint event[7].
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