Turbo Week 17 – 26th March 2014

End of the turbo session and it’s more zone 5 STME intervals:

Warm up was a 20 minute routine as practiced by British Cycling. This warm up would also be good prep for a time trial rather than an unstructured ride up and down the road:

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	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

Main Set 1

 

	Zone	Time
Tempo Zone 3 Prep for intervals	3 Comfortably hard	5:00
Interval 1 sub LTHR Add 1 gear to LTHR Increase cadence to cross LTHR into Zone 5	4 5 5+	4:00 1:00 1:00
Recovery	2-3 Light exertion	2:00
Interval 2 sub LTHR Add 1 gear to LTHR Increase cadence to cross LTHR into Zone 5	4 5 5+	4:00 1:00 1:00
Recovery	2-3 Light exertion	2:00
Interval 3 sub LTHR Add 1 gear to LTHR Increase cadence to cross LTHR into Zone 5	4 5 5+	4:00 1:00 1:00
Recovery	2-3 Light exertion	2:00

 

Main Set 2

	Zone	Time
Tempo Zone 3 Prep for intervals	3 Comfortably hard	3:00
Hard effort 1 min	5	1:00
Recovery	2/3	1:00
Hard effort 1 min	5	1:00
Recovery	2/3	1:00
Hard effort 1 min	5	1:00
Recovery	2/3	1:00
Hard effort 1 min	5	1:00
Recovery	2/3	1:00
Hard effort 1 min	5	1:00
Recovery	2/3	1:00
Hard effort 1 min	5	1:00
Recovery	2/3	1:00

Followed by a 10 minute warm down and stretch.

Include 3 x 10 second sprints in the cool down at 70% effort to help avoid blood pooling

Main set is very hard, if too hard consider making the 4 minute intervals in set 1 3 or 2 minutes

In set 2, lengthen recovery intervals if required

Club Ride - Saturday 29th March

This weeks ride is a 60 mile loop to Stockbridge and back. We’ve done this ride a couple of times recently and feedback has been good about the ride and the coffee stop in Stockbridge so plan to use it more often.

The plan is to use our 3 main start points at 0900 and all converge at Bolderwood and then ride together to Stockbridge. For those wanting a shorter ride drive to Bolderwood for a 0930 start and that will give you 45 miles. Chance for quick cake / coffee stop in Stockbridge for those needing to refuel.

All rides depart from 3 points at 0900 to meet at Bolderwood for 0930

Brockenhurst ride follows Rhinefield Road.

Ashurst ride via Lyndhurst and Emery Down

Burley ride follows Lyndhurst Road, A35, Ornamental Drive

GPX file for the Stockbridge part of the ride is at http://connect.garmin.com/course/5338995

Pace will be 17MPH depending on the group(s). If there is a large group (more than 12) at Bolderwood split group into two with slightly varying paces.

I won’t be there this week as I’m on a BC course but will be back next week.

Regards

Barry

Club Ride - Saturday 22nd March 2014

Apologies to all but I’ve not been able to plan a ride this week. I’ve seen the weather forecast which doesn’t look brilliant.

Suggest those that want to ride meet at Brock for 0900 and make their own plan depending on weather and who is time trialling on Sunday.

Have a good ride

Barry

Club Ride - Saturday 15th March 2014

This weeks club ride will be a 50 mile 3 hour loop starting from Brockenhurst with an option to cut short for those wanting to save their legs for Sundays TT. Start time 0900. If group is large (over 12) split into 2 groups to make pelotons manageable and easier for traffic to pass.

Route as follows:

St Saviours Church Brockenhurst, Burley, Crow, Moyles Court, Ogdens, Hyde, Penton Hill, North Gorley, Red Shoot, Ocknells Plain (Airfield Road), Fritham, Bramble Hill, Furzey, Woodlands, Ashurst, Ipley Cross, Beaulieu, Hatchet Pond and Brock.

http://connect.garmin.com/course/5926236

For those with Garmin’s set an alert if average speed goes above 17MPH and that will help with the pacing. Remember I’m stalking most of you on Strava!

Please keep average speed to 17MPH and that will ensure the majority of you are riding in zone 2.

Why do I keep banging on about base training and keeping to zone 1 and 2 for these winter rides? Refer to learned coach Joe Friel:

“When you ride for two or more hours (or less for new riders) at a steady pace—a typical base ride—your body responds with changes that allow you to use more oxygen and burn more fat as fuel, says coach Joe Friel, author of The Cyclist’s Training Bible. For starters, these rides build more ­capillaries, the tiny blood vessels that deliver oxygen-rich blood to your muscles. Your mitochondria—the parts of your cells that produce energy—also multiply and enlarge. And you churn out more enzymes that help turn stored fuel into energy. The result: You can ride faster and longer.”

Don’t worry if it feels easy it’s the adaptation from the training that you are after and it will give you more opportunity to do better “quality” work midweek.

So, keep efforts light, ride tight as a peloton, ride through and off across the airfield if it’s safe to do so and maybe on the Colbury / Ipley Cross road.

For those that want to do some aerobic intervals aim for zone 4 on the hills but wait at the top to re-group or ride back down and do it again.

Have a good ride

Barry

Turbo Week 16 – 12th and 19th March 2014

Turbo Week 16 – 12^th March 2014

Nearing the end of the turbo season and now its time to top up the short term muscular endurance with some hard (zone 5 efforts)

Warm up was a 20 minute routine as practiced by British Cycling. This warm up would also be good prep for a time trial rather than an unstructured ride up and down the road:

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	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 main set was a repeat of zone 4/5 efforts with short recovery’s.

Stage	Task
1	5 minutes baseline to get to zone 3
2	3 minutes zone 4
3	3 minutes recovery
4	3 mins zone 4
5	3 mins zone 5
6	3 mins recovery
	4  repeats of stage 3 to 5

Followed by a 10 minute warm down and stretch.

Include 3 x 10 second sprints in the cool down at 70% effort to help avoid blood pooling

Club Rides and Base Training

Following on from the chaotic club ride last Saturday I thought it appropriate to send out a note as to why base training is important and how we should go about it. Base training is the foundation for all the hard training that we do pre-season and during the race season. Go hard during base training and you’ll go fast for a short while and you’ll build aerobic fitness that will last a short time and then taper off. Then when it comes to the times when you need to draw on that aerobic fitness it won’t be there.

The benefits of aerobic training are an increase in aerobic endurance. We achieve this by lots of Long Steady Distance (LSD) training which we do predominantly in zone 1 and zone 2. I saw numerous downloads from HRM’s from last weeks club ride and I can tell by listening to breathing and conversation that last Saturdays ride was not zone 1 and 2 for most of the riders.

Riding in zone 3 (tempo) has the lowest return as far as adaptation from training. We will gain most by doing our base training at a comfortable pace and then when it comes to doing the Short Term Muscular Endurance (STME) intervals that we need to build race / TT speed and raise our LTHR we can do those harder. In summary, make your easy sessions easier and your hard sessions harder. Don’t ride medium hard all the time if you want to make progress.

There is also another key point about riding too hard on the base rides, the net effect is that the group becomes fragmented and instead of looking like a skilled and polished team of club cyclists we look like a rabble of tourists or sportive riders. Part of the club rides is about improving skills, group riding ability and ensuring that the stronger riders take more responsibility for taking the wind and that they have the skill to maintain the appropriate pace.

I shall be away on training camp or on courses for the next three Saturdays so can I please ask the experienced riders in the club to take responsibility for controlling the pace of the group, keeping the group together and following the scheduled route.

I look forward to resuming riding with the group in April and seeing a well drilled team of expert riders.

Barry

Club Ride - Saturday 8th March 2014

Now that the Sunday time trials have started, the club ride will be a two lap affair to give those wanting to race on Sunday a shorter option.

Lap 1 will start from Brockenhurst at 0900 outside St Saviours Church as usual and take in the newly resurfaced Shirley Holms on the way to Pilley, Norleywood, Sowley, Bucklers Hard, Beaulieu, Exbury, Lepe, Blackfield and back to Brock via Hatchet Pond. That will be 40 miles.

Then optional second lap around the chain gang course which has also had most of the pot holes filled in J, Rhinefield, A35, Lndyhurst Road, Burley and back to Brock via Wilverley. If all goes well the second lap should finish about 1220.

Weather looks good so hope to see another strong turnout.

GPX file at: http://connect.garmin.com/course/5872490#

Barry