Winter Turbo Sessions - Provisional Plan

This winter the club will be providing another series of winter turbo sessions with the specific aim of preparing riders for the time trial and race season. The structure of the programme will be a progressive set of sessions to build aerobic endurance, raise lactate threshold and replicate the efforts of time trialling so that riders can practice the level of sustained effort they can manage. There will also be a series of warm up drills and exercises to practice that can be used before a time trial or road race.

The first sessions will be on the 18^th November and will run to the 23^rd December. Restart 6^th January and run to the 23^rd March.

In order to get the maximum benefit from these sessions it will be useful to know your heart rate and/or power training zones. One way of determining these is to do a Lactate Threshold Heart Rate (LTHR) test or a Functional Threshold Power (FTP) test. Please ensure that you have had 1-2 recovery days before this test to ensure you obtain the most accurate results and don’t be disheartened if it takes 2 or 3 attempts to get the test right.

The protocol for this test is very well explained at:

http://home.trainingpeaks.com/blog/article/joe-friel-s-quick-guide-to-setting-zones

Don’t forget to do a progressive 20 minute warm up before this. The standard British Cycling warm up protocol works well:

Time	Cadence (RPM)	Instruction/Focus
5 minutes	90	Smooth pedalling
2 minutes	95	Smooth pedalling
2 minutes	100	Smooth pedalling
2 minutes	105	Smooth pedalling
1 minute	30 seconds	110 Smooth pedalling
30 seconds	120-130	Maintain form
2 minutes	90	Relax and recover
6 seconds	150+	Max rev out
1 minute	90	Smooth pedalling
6 seconds	150+	Max rev out
1 minute	90	Smooth pedalling
6 seconds	150+	Max rev out
2 minutes 42 seconds	90	Relax and recover

The sessions will be designed to provide some quality training during the base training period and will provide participants with training sessions to build aerobic endurance, increase leg speed, raise lactate threshold and increase muscular endurance. All adaptations that are required for the cycling race season.

There will be the opportunity to discuss training methods, the theory behind the sessions and specific questions during the recovery periods. From previous years’ experience riders found it more beneficial and more motivational to train in a group environment rather than their own shed / garage.

These sessions are not spinning classes, they are cycling specific classes aimed at club cyclists looking to improve fitness and performance. We will aim to make them both enjoyable, progressive and beneficial.

These sessions will be held at Tiptoe Church Hall, Vaggs Lane on Wednesday nights at 1930. Set up time will be 15 minutes and the sessions will start at 1945 and last for 75-90 minutes. There will be no session the week commencing 28^th December but homework will be set!

In January the focus will change to a combination of sweet spot, short term muscular endurance and strength training. The plan here will involve setting two sessions per week, one on the Wednesday at the group session which riders will be able to repeat the following Monday at home so that two different sessions are completed each week.

Make sure that you’re well hydrated and fuelled throughout the day. As with any session over an hour it’s good to keep glycogen levels up and this will also aid recovery.

Entry is £4 to club members,

Please remember that the hall has a wooden floor and in order to protect that no cycle shoes of any description are to be worn in the hall at any time except on your own mat. All riders will put a mat or carpet under their bike and change shoes there. It goes without saying that all participants will share the cleaning up of the hall and their own mess afterwards. We want to keep using the venue and we must leave the hall fit for its next use when we depart.

Please bring the following to each session:

• ·       Own bike and turbo trainer
• ·       Mat for bike and turbo
• ·       Large towel
• ·       Warm clothes to change into afterwards
• ·       Heart rate monitor
• ·       Drink

I look forward to seeing the return of last season’s regulars and greeting some new participants.

Barry Wootten