Category : cycling

If you have a mid-year Ironman race, there is no better time to start building your routine for the long Ironman training ahead. This is the base period, and if you are an intermediate athlete, and have not lost much fitness in the off-season, this phase will allow you to immediately jump in a formal structured training plan. For intermediate athletes who have been doing this for years and have several ironman finishes on their resume, it is important not to start early and immediately build it up, to prevent an early peak and burnout prior to your A race.

In contrast, if you are an ironman newbie, it is imperative to train the body first before jumping to the formal 20-week ironman training ahead. That means a 8-12 weeks of basic training that will serve as a foundation in developing the motor skills needed in building up in intensity in later phases of the training.

Since more than 50% of your ironman training will be spent on the saddle, we will give out 3 key bike workouts in this building-a-routine phase of the 20-week ironman training plan. The repetitive nature of this period will teach your body to acquire the motor skills and improved strength that you will definitely need in the build stage of the program. The following workouts will be your staple for the 1st 4 weeks of your base period or Building-A-Routine part of your Bike Leg ironman training:

1. Bike Power Intervals
On stationary bike, do:

20min easy warm up

Full session: 20x POWER Intervals [1min at 40-50 cadence HARD RESISTANCE / with 1min VERY EASY recovery]

Cooldown: 10min EASY

Tip: Make each effort ALL OUT against VERY HIGH resistance! The cadence should be low (40-50 rpm per leg per minute) because you can’t push any harder because the resistance is so high! We are aiming for rubbery legs.

Note: Build up to the full session: On your 1st week, start with 5x interval. By the 4th week you should be able to do the full session. You can also do this interval set on a steep hill, seated on your bike with a very gentle touch of the brakes to stop forward momentum. This session works your cycling-specific strength without stressing your aerobic system too hard – so it’s important that you make each effort count! If you find your knees are sore after this, raise your bike seat slightly and ensure you use ice (see http://www.ironguides.net/all-about-ice/) and keep your muscles loose between sessions with gentle stretching and easy self-massage or a treatment from a masseur.

2. Weekly Time Trial Effort
60min on road or stationary, as:

20min easy w/u

Main Set:

WEEK 1: 60min easy cycling on stationary or outside
WEEK 2: 75min moderate cycling on stationary or outside
WEEK 3: 6x [3min FAST / 2min easy]
WEEK 4: 6x [5min FAST / 1min easy] •

Ride in Heavy Gear, cadence 70-80 • Easy gear for VERY EASY

Recovery 20min easy cooldown

Tip: You will build this, the week’s only high-intensity session on the bike, into a weekly Time Trial effort. When it says ride Fast – make it count!!! This is your only opportunity all week to push a hard time trial effort. You can ride this on a stationary or on the road, but try to hit a known, measured course that you can test yourself on once every 3-4 weeks after Week 4.

3. Long Bike
WEEK 1: 120-180min easy and flat
WEEK 2: 120-180min easy and flat
WEEK 3: 180min as 120min easy / 60min moderate
WEEK 4: 190min as 90min easy / 90min moderate

Tip: Push a bigger gear and keep your muscle tension high – but not maxed out! Aim for cadence around 70-80 – this will mean pushing quite hard at times.

This bike workouts if done in the first month of your ironman training will adapt your body and help you cope with the more demanding phase of the plan. The key tip here is to build it slowly. If you missed a workout, no need to make it up or add to the next work-out.

Enjoy your training!

After nearly two decades of being involved with triathlon, both as an amateur triathlete, professional triathlete and coach, I had the opportunity to train and learn from the best coaches and athletes in the world.
Whenever I train with a renowned athlete or work alongside a coach with good results, I try to learn something and when possible add that information to the training I pass onto my athletes.

However, unlike any magic formulas or secret training sets, most sessions end up being very similar, with a certain structure that although is different in detail, ends up being part of one of the three workouts below.
As much as there are differences in the sessions of long and short course racing, some sets are the core of every distance at some point in the training plan, be it during a general or specific preparation.

Before we get to the specifics of the workouts, we need to understand the basic physiology of the event in which you will participate:

Short Course (Sprint or Olympic Distance)

Considered “short” races in triathlon, these events are still predominant, aerobic, but you’ll spend more time close to your anaerobic threshold, which means that a lot of your workouts need to be done at that intensity.

Ironman or Half Ironman

You spend most of your time on the bike in these long races, and cycling fitness is also a good base for a strong run split. Once you understand that cycling is also your run training, it will be clear that you need to spend a lot of time on your bike to build endurance in order to finish the bike leg relatively fresh to start the run.

Your cycling workouts will also have an impact during the race on race day.
Types of training

1) Endurance (Resistance)

Main physiological benefits:

>Conversion of fast-twitch muscle fibers to slow- twitch fibers

>Increases muscle glycogen storage

> Increases fat oxidation

Endurance sessions are mostly easy to moderate effort training which you can spend hours on without feeling too fatigued. Short course athletes should do in between two and three hours weekly, mostly at a very low intensity to also absorb all the hard work they do on the other days of the week.

Long course athletes should do between four and six hours, at a lower intensity in order to improve their endurance and efficiency of the use of fat as an energy source. Then as they get fitter, race specific sets should be added to these rides.

Workout Examples:

>Three hours negative split (first half easy, second half moderate)

>Five hours alternating between twenty minutes easy, forty minutes moderate
2) Anaerobic Threshold/VO2

Main physiological benefits:

>Increase blood plasma volume

>Increase anaerobic threshold tolerance

>Increase enzyme count in the muscle mitochondria

Anaerobic threshold or VO2 workouts are intensity workouts of the week, usually on a time trial format (individual or team), and ideally on hill repeats or on the indoor trainer. If on the roads, make sure it is safe and quiet so you can focus on the intensity.

It is advised that you often break the main set down in short repeats as these intervals help athletes to maintain a high intensity which would not be possible if they are a little fatigued from the accumulated training and do the training continuously as a one repeat set.

The combined volume of repetitions should be between fifteen minutes for VO2 sets, up to forty minutes to your anaerobic threshold. The ratio should be 1: 1(work: rest) to VO2 sets (eg: for each minute of work, you also get one minute rest) and the ratio of 2: 1 for the threshold set (eg: four minutes with two minutes rest).

Workout Examples:

>30 minutes alternating between three minutes maximum with three minutes of active rest (very slow)

>Ten reps of four strong minutes, with two minutes of rest
3) Strength

Main physiological benefits:

>Increased neuro muscular strength

Strength training is usually performed at a low cadence(between 30 and 60 rpm) or uphill, but short in time and high intensity. It is usually underlooked by most triathletes who train only based on heart rate zones, as during this type of training heart rate is irrelevant since the focus shifts to muscle load rather than aerobic load.

As explained before in previous articles published by ironguides, we favor a relatively low cadence or at least lower than the run cadence. We believe it is the most efficient way to race a triathlon event considering also the high aerobic load you get from swimming and running.

This strategy shifts the focus of cycling training, which should be largely related to strength training but bike specific. What are the best ways to improve strength on the bike? How to incorporate them into your week of training? Plus, what is the periodization during the year?

An easy way to explain the benefits of strength training for our triathletes is making an analogy with a sales strategy of “Pay for 1, take 2”, as when you work on strength on the bike, you will also improve your aerobic fitness and endurance.

Workout Examples:

>10 repeats with a maximum time of 30 seconds in low cadence, preferably up a hill with three minutes of rest

>30 to 60 minutes alternating between 1 minute hard in a low cadence with one minute rest
Periodization of your training cycle using the above training

In general, it is interesting to always schedule one workout of each of the systems described above for almost every week of the year. The only exceptions are race weeks, when you must consider the energy system to be used in that race as you don’t want to fatigue that same system too much on race week. If anything, just a quick recruitment session to keep it all firing is enough.
Short course athletes should avoid threshold/vo2max work during race week.

Long course athletes should avoid endurance training during race week.

Another important observation is in relation to the training details. The above examples show only the essence of each of the 3 important types of training, but your coach should adjust the amount of repetitions, length of them and intensity in your plan considering:

Your strengths and weaknesses
Experiencein the sport
Race day goals
Training goals for each training block

This way, you keep a little stimulus for all the main systems throughout the year, but you change the focus of your training and overload a specific system depending on the training goal for that program.
Enjoy your training!

Vinnie Santana

ironguides is the leading Lifestyle Facilitation company for athletes of all abilities. We provide coaching and training services, plans and programs, as well training education, health and fitness products to help you learn and live a healthy lifestyle. Come get fit with one of our monthly training subscriptions, event-specific training plans, coaching services, or a triathlon training camp in an exotic location! ironguides also provides Corporate Health services including Corporate Triathlons, Healthy Living retreats and speaking engagements. At ironguides, your best is our business!

Train with ironguides!

Personalized Online Coaching:  Starting at USD190/month

Monthly Training plans (for all levels, or focused on one discipline): Only USD39/months

Event based training plans:

Sprint Distance (USD45 for 8-week plan)

Olympic Distance (USD65 for 12 week plan)

Half Ironman (R$95 for 16-week plan)

Ironman (USD145 for 20-week plan)

X-Terra (USD65 for 12-week plan)

Running Plans (10k, 21k and 42k – starting at USD40)

When coaching any sport for performance we need to be looking at the specific elements of fitness and any other specific factors that might effect performance. We then need to make sure we are building these specific factors into the training program.

When it comes to specificity timing is everything, we do not want to be looking at specific work all year round as the focus on this always sees a decline in general fitness. We also see that once specific work starts in any program that the body adapts very quickly to any change and within a short period of time we stop seeing any noticeable improvements.

For example if you are racing on a hilly bike course then we would need to be looking at incorporating hills and technical descent training into the program. Riding hills simply asks the muscles to contract in a different pattern to when we ride on the flat and also we will ride at a different cadence we need to make sure that we are used this on race day or else we will fatigue quickly and not perform to our best. If we watch events like the Tour de France we see the riders really suffer when they leave the flat riding of the opening week and head into the hills – they need a day or 2 to find their climbing legs – these riders will have prepared in the hills before the race but so many hours of flat riding in the opening week of the race sees the legs get used to this pattern of riding and its a shock to their legs when they suddenly face the demand of climbing.

Using the above example of a hilly bike course on race day, a lot of athletes will look to make they endurance ride hilly as this would seen to make sense in increasing bike fitness on the hills, if we look at the stats of this type of ride for sure we will get more hill riding but what goes up must come down and during a hilly ride there will be a lot of dead time in terms of fitness. A 3 hour ride in the mountains for example might see only 2 hours of real riding time due to all the descents and free wheeling, a 3 hour ride on flatter terrain would get more general fitness development and the hill specific work could be put into a shorter session during the week so we preserve the fitness development of our endurance rides.

Timing is everything and really when we are looking at specific work like this then the final 5-6 weeks into the race are when we need to start hitting the specific work that will allow us to race to full capacity on race day.

Putting specific work into the program not only needs to be carefully looked at in terms of its effect on general fitness but there is a safety aspect too. Specific work also brings extra demands to the body and increases injury risk. From a technical point of view crashes happen, there is a very true saying in cycling – “there are those cyclists who have crashed and those who are going to crash” – descending hills/ mountains is dangerous, we are travelling at much greater speeds and that brings with it risks – no matter how technically good you are as a rider there is still a risk – you can hit a stone, get a puncture or hit a wet section of road and crashes happen.

We need to factor this into rides, we need to develop technical skills but we want to minimise risk – if the day of your hill ride comes and its pouring rain then maybe you need to change plan and save that ride for a dryer day – yes we have to ride in the rain on race day but in training the risk is not worth it.

When we look at specific work it needs to be specific – its no use training in extremely steep hills if race day is going to see you riding long but shallow gradient hills. For example if we are training for the bike course at Ironman Nice which sees long but gradual hills then you need to simulate this in training – riding on the flat in a slightly bigger gear would actually work really well here competed to training in the hills if you only have access to short but steep hills.

When it comes to cycling the turbo trainer is a great tool that allows us to simulate hill riding, we can raise the front wheel slightly to get the bike into a climbing position – this does actually effect how you sit on the bike so is worth doing, resistance from the trainer is not the only thing we have to consider!! Have a go at riding a 30min hard effort on the trainer with the front wheel on flat ground and then try again with the wheel raised 3-5 inches – you will notice a big difference in how the muscles work and how you sit on the bike.

Specificity is not only about the course you will face on race day but also the weather conditions, an athlete training in the cold or dry climate who is travelling out to race in heat and humidity faces a big challenge on race day. Again though this is something we can work into our training program in the final weeks before the race.

If we are racing in humidity and cannot access that weather close to home then again the turbo trainer comes into play. We need to create a humid environment in which to train, this can be done on differing scales depending on resources. I have seen sports labs at universities use perspex boxes in which the athlete and bike is placed – the humidity within the box is high as the athletes is perspiring and working. We can recreate the same thing on a budget by simple erecting a tent at home and placing the bike inside for the session – very unpleasant but very similar to race day conditions.

As with the climbing example this sort of specific training comes with benefits but also risks. The demands of riding in such environments are extreme on the body, we are going to sweat more and loose more body salts – this is good for training as it allows us to get used to taking on more fluid and test race day nutrition but it also depletes the body a lot more than training in cooler dryer climates and if we do not factor this in then we will end up suffering not gaining from the specific work.

When we look to simulate race conditions like this we need to factor in that recovery time from such sessions is going to be longer than regular, that means we need to look at the structure of our plan around these sessions to make sure we are recovering fully and not compromising our bodies too much with the specific work and end up losing general fitness.

To race to your full ability you need to make sure you have great general fitness and that you have incorporated specific work into your plan in the final weeks leading to your race so you are ready to perform and enjoy your fitness!

Enjoy your training.
By Alun “Woody” Woodward
–

Train with ironguides!

Personalized Online Coaching:  Starting at USD190/month

Monthly Training plans (for all levels, or focused on one discipline): Only USD39/months

Event based training plans:

Sprint Distance (USD45 for 8-week plan)

Olympic Distance (USD65 for 12 week plan)

Half Ironman (R$95 for 16-week plan)

Ironman (USD145 for 20-week plan)

X-Terra (USD65 for 12-week plan)

Running Plans (10k, 21k and 42k – starting at USD40)

By Shem Leong 

“ALL OUT” means (slightly more) “ALL OUT”

I recently had my eyes opened by Matt Fitzgerald’s article in Inside Triathlon- “You are a Quitter”. He references Marcora’s ground-breaking study that suggests that our decision to pull the plug on any strenuous endurance effort, weather in training or racing, is a voluntary decision that originates from an “off” signal in our mind, a psychological phenomenon, and not a function of any bio-physiological determinant of our potential maximum exertion effort.

Immediately after a high intensity endurance ride to exhaustion, Marcora’s research subjects were able to triple of their power output in short 5 seconds bursts. (Similar to having a sprint finish at the end of a marathon). According to the conventional model of endurance fatigue, that proposes an involuntary decline in performance when some physiological limit is encountered, this would not be possible.

In short, this new theory states that our mental tenacity to “hang tough” and endure discomfort, rather than our ability to clear lactic acid/ absorb and carry oxygen/ store glycogen is a more significant determinant of true maximum potential performance.

This information plays special significance when training by perceived effort, as ironguides athletes on The Method do. As we have experienced, our ALL OUT efforts are not defined by wattage or speed or even heart rate. Instead, our efforts are entirely determined by the intimate communication between mind and body and this is a powerful realisation to make. Here’s why:

An ALL OUT effort is just that- whether on your 1st 25m sprint of a swim strength session or a 10 min time trial effort at the end of a 4 hr ride, “ALL OUT” should describe your mind set and attitude more than a certain speed or lap split. It should imply a readiness to pull your body and mind to a slightly new level of discomfort. That place will be somewhere you have never been before, somewhere that requires the sprouting of new blood vessels and recruitment of dormant muscle groups, somewhere that forces gaseous exchange at new maximum levels. More importantly, that someplace will cause you to redefine your perception of effort. It is here that you learn to handle new levels of discomfort. It is here that you force yourself to hold perfect running form/ a powerful pull through on your swim stroke or a smooth, even and powerful pedal stroke.

The question is how you respond when you’re there- “in the moment”? When every ounce of energy you produce is begin channelled to forward propulsion and you’re tethering on the verge of blowing up. Mental attacks rain down in the form of split second thoughts to let up and catch your breath or to get off the front of the pack; thoughts that- once you give in to them- bring a flood of relief and comfort. I challenge you to override these signals- like carrying a bowl of hot soup- your fingers are burning, yet somehow you resign yourself to holding on until your broth is safe and sound on the dinner table. You flick your fingers to cool them down. They’re a bit red but everything is alright. Your body’s reflex to let go of the bowl is a feed forward safety mechanism that kicks in way before any real threat to your physical make up materialises.

In the same way, those invading signals to your brain telling you that holding this pace is too tough or that one more ALL OUT repeat is too much are just pre-emptive safety mechanism signals that, given the right practice, can be dealt with effectively and positively. So resign yourself to finishing that ALL OUT effort your coach may have set you, as best as you can.

In our quest to go even more ALL OUT, it helps to break it down into the smallest little portions. Here are some tips to help you out with this:

1. Break it down into even smaller bits. When you are in “ALL OUT” mode, dissect your pedal stroke- think and feel. Are you applying power all the way round through 360 degrees? Which part of the circle needs evening out? Play around and feel the difference between activating the different cycling muscles involved- your glutes, hip flexors, hamstrings. A tiny shift in your saddle can help awaken under-used muscle groups. It’s a great feeling to “find” and develop a new set of muscles that will eventually help you pedal more efficiently. Don’t doggedly sit in the same position mashing down over and over again, as hard as you can until your quads cramp. When you eventually develop a coordinated pedal stroke with all the involved muscle groups firing in the right sequence with the right timing, you’ll find yourself flying along in the big gear, with your HR sitting comfortably low and your legs churning out smooth, even circles.

2. When running, towards the end of a tough intervals/ hills set, you’re close to your limit- break it down. Don’t think, “How hard is this?” Or, “I’m dying…” Instead set your focus on just 1 thing- could be simply driving your elbows to maintain a high stride rate, or breathing that tiny bit deeper to get in more air, or reminding yourself to “Run tall… Run tall or focusing on picking up your heels quickly for a faster foot strike. Whatever proprioceptive cue you’ve called upon, bearing an ALL OUT effort when it’s unbearable, breadth by breadth, second by second, lifts the ceiling of what you had previously thought possible. The next time your body is under the same physical duress, your mental “ALL OUT” signal is only going kick in a little later, or at a slightly higher pace.

You can imagine my disappointment, on urging one of my athletes to “Think about how you want to run the next hill rep”, when I got the sarcastic and uninspired answer “Uphill.” : )

3. It’s the same with swimming- when your arms go cold and are filled with useless deoxygenated, lactic acid blood, when you want to stop in the middle of the pool and just cruise in- Dig Deep. ALL OUT means you’re reaching for more water at your fingertips, ALL OUT means your focusing on thrusting water back with your triceps because your Deltoids and Lats gave up 10meters ago, ALL OUT has you exhaling 3% more air so that you can inhale 3% more.

My advice is that you heed this subtle shift in endurance training paradigms that has us moving away from a pure numbers game, towards a “Brain Training” approach, and tune into what you’re thinking and feeling the next time you are ALL OUT. Always look to redefine perception of effort and go slightly more ALL OUT.

Here I am, doing just that…

ironguides is the leading Lifestyle Facilitation company for athletes of all abilities. We provide coaching and training services, plans and programs, as well training education, health and fitness products to help you learn and live a healthy lifestyle. Come get fit with one of our monthly training subscriptions, event-specific training plans, coaching services, or a triathlon training camp in an exotic location! ironguides also provides Corporate Health services including Corporate Triathlons, Healthy Living retreats and speaking engagements. At ironguides, your best is our business!

Shem Leong is our ironguides coach in Singapore. He has been hooked on triathlon ever since winning his age group in his first Olympic-distance race. Many top performances later, Shem still enjoys the challenges of training and racing at a high level, while balancing this with work and family. He is a firm believer in the benefits of an active lifestyle and loves being able to positively affect his athletes’ lives in this way. In the four years that Shem has worked as an ironguides coach so far, he has helped more than 60 athletes achieve their goals. They range from newbies hoping to complete their first sprint race, to 70.3 podium contenders, to seasoned Sub 10-hour Ironman athletes. Shem’s care for his athletes and his attention to detail set him apart. He completely understands the varied pull factors of life’s demands as well as the fiery motivations that drive everyday age groupers and is able to craft sustainable, effective training plans for their time-crunched schedules. An Honour’s Degree in Health Science has given Shem the knowledge to explain and expertly administer The Method. This, in turn, helps his athletes understand how each session contributes towards their ultimate goal; as a result, countless personal bests have been improved upon as his athletes continually get fitter and faster.

Train with ironguides!

Personalized Online Coaching:  Starting at USD190/month

Monthly Training plans (for all levels, or focused on one discipline): Only USD39/months

Event based training plans:

Sprint Distance (USD45 for 8-week plan)

Olympic Distance (USD65 for 12 week plan)

Half Ironman (R$95 for 16-week plan)

Ironman (USD145 for 20-week plan)

X-Terra (USD65 for 12-week plan)

Running Plans (10k, 21k and 42k – starting at USD40)

By Shem Leong, Coach in Singapore, ironguides.net

Do you have a power meter but isn’t quite sure on the best way to use it? Are you considering buying a power meter? Are you getting burn out from all the data oriented training your training have became since you started using the power meter? If you answered yes to any of these questions, this article is for you.

INTRODUCTION

This article is addressed to 2 groups of people; 1) Triathletes toying with the idea of getting a power meter and 2) Triathletes with access to power data either from a bike mounted system or on a turbo  trainer/ spin bike but have no idea how to interpret it.

You’ve read about how power data is more accurate than speed and heart rate and that using power data to pace yourself is like ‘cheating’ on race day. You’ve no doubt heard the Fast Guys shooting off about their FTP and So-and-So’s power to weight ratio, their scary ‘Ironman Watts’ sessions that have been built according to Training Stress Scores and so on. Current power meter manuals will also instruct you how to use power data in many ways, including:

• Simple ‘zoning’ of effort levels as a percentage of Functional Threshold Power (FTP – more on this below)
• Pacing over the various distances of triathlon
• Gauging fatigue levels and predicting the arrival of your physiological peak.
• Determining what type of cyclist you are and your strengths and weaknesses
• Aerodynamic testing

While all this is good and to true, most everyday triathletes will struggle to use this information meaningfully. All you know is that the harder you pedal, the higher the power readings climb.

If, however, you’re an advanced athlete that has already mastered the finer points of using power data, I urge you to move swiftly on from this very rudimentary approach to utilizing what is, at its full potential, a very sophisticated and refined training platform.

Instead, this is article aims to give the reader a simple way to start using power data so that it is relevant to your daily training and that does not require the plotting and analysis of any graphs by you or a power meter expert. The methods underlined below are basic, not technical and obvious. In fact, this article simply reflects how I, a strictly ‘Perceived Effort’ kind of guy, have started using power data in my own training and with some of the athletes that I coach.

GETTING STARTED

Spend a few weeks rolling around with the power meter to get used to the relative magnitude of ‘a bunch of watts’. Note your typical range while riding at different perceived effort levels (Easy/Moderate/Moderate Hard/ Hard/ All Out) through various riding situations; Climbing, Descending, Sprinting, Time Trailing, Sitting in a draft, Riding into a headwind, Taking a pull, etc.  Don’t rush into it; give yourself time to get familiar with a brand new currency.

The scope of this article will only require you to broadly grasp 2 technical aspects of training with power.

• Functional Threshold Power (FTP) – is defined as the highest sustained power a rider can hold for 40 – 60 mins.

Essentially, a rider’s FTP is a point of reference for their current level of bike fitness. For the beginner, raising your FTP is a good starting point – a tangible and quantitative goal to work towards. Knowing your FTP will also allow you to ‘zone’ different effort levels according to the ‘percentage of FTP’ that you are working at.  Current literature has defined 7 separate training zones but to keep this article simple, I only refer to the Lactate Threshold zone, which is most beneficial for increasing FTP.

*Down the road, as you become familiar with training with Power, FTP can also be used to benchmark a particular point in your bike fitness. For example, if your FTP was 240 watts at your fittest just before an A race, and you are coming off an off season break with a current FTP of 200 watts, then you know how much room you have to improve before approaching race fitness.

While there are several widely accepted procedures of obtaining FTP, the one outlined below is my preferred method. It is a relatively simple, albeit strenuous, procedure. Mount your bike on a trainer and complete this session as follows:

Warm up:

20 mins full warm up done as:

3 mins easy – mod build /3 x 1 min very hard, 1 min easy/ 4 mins easy

Main Test:

30 mins best effort Time trial

• Perform at the cadence that allows you to put out and hold your best effort.
• For most triathletes, this will be in the 75 – 85 rpm range.
• Lap the Power Meter at the start of this section.
• Start slightly conservatively and build through the whole 30 mins
• Beak it up mentally as follows
  • 0 – 10 mins @ 7/ 10 perceived effort
  • 11 – 20 mins @ 8 / 10 perceived effort
  • 21 – 25 mins @ 9/ 10 perceived effort
  • 26 – 30 mins @ All Out, empty the tank.
  • Finish with a very easy spin cool down

Your FTP is the wattage from this Time Trail. Armed with this knowledge, you will now be able to perform a variety of training sessions at the right intensity to elicit certain physiological adaptations.

• Normalised Power (NP) is the second concept that you need to understand. In simple terms, a rider’s NP is the average power, but adjusted for the range of variability (starts, stops, climbs, descents) over the course of a ride. Basically, it’s a more accurate reflection of average power when collecting data from longer rides out on the road. We can also use NP for tracking efforts on the trainer.

TURBO TIME

Power meters will be most useful for athletes that have already incorporated interval training into their weekly schedule. While it matter less where you do them (on the road or on the trainer), than that you do them, I believe that the quality of training you get from bashing out a set on the Turbo exceeds what you can get from doing a similar set on the open road.

For the purpose of this article, I will highlight the 2 most important types of sessions for triathletes and how to use power data to get the most of out of them.

1. Bike Tolerance

Lactate Threshold sessions, done regularly, are designed to increase your FTP by developing both your cardiovascular tolerance (the ability to hold your effort at ‘redline’ for an extended period of time) and your neuromuscular skill (the ability to pedal at ‘race cadence’ in smooth efficient circles by training your muscles to fire in a coordinated fashion).  With a power meter, the intervals can be done at the prescribed intensity of 91 – 101% FTP. This will give you real time feedback within the session, if you’re pushing too hard or not hard enough or just the right amount.

For Example:

4 x 12 mins at 91 – 101% FTP / 4 mins easy spin off recovery between efforts

Your power data can help you ‘fine tune’ the execution of these types of session. The goal for a rider with an FTP of 240W is to perform each of these intervals is between 218 and 242 watts. Say the 1^st 3 intervals go according to plan at 220, 228, 234W but he fades on the last one and despite his best efforts is only able to put out 196W. We can deduce that if he had held back a touch on the 2^nd and 3^rd efforts, this would have improved his chances of getting that 4^th interval within the prescribed 91 – 101% FTP.

Without power data, the same session would be written as follows:

4 x 12 mins hard / 4 mins easy spin off recovery between efforts

While the results would have been very similar, the athlete without power data would need to reply on ‘perceived effort’ to adjust the intensity of the intervals in the following week in order to put out a ‘perfect’ session. But because he still reaps the physio-mental training stimulus of performing the session, his time on the turbo has not gone to waste. The addition of power data simply helps him to learn how to execute this session better. Of course, we assume that the athlete is teachable and thoughtful and indeed adjusts his efforts the following week(s) to finish the set ‘perfectly’.

A stubborn athlete on the other hand, no matter what the power data tells them, will charge headlong into the session and execute it in exactly the manner, producing exactly the same result.

The second way to use this data, is for the athlete to track their progression by comparing the average Normalised Power across all 4 efforts from week to week. An athlete without power data would need to rely on their own sense and feel as to whether they were getting better at this set of intervals or not.

2. Bike Strength

Excluding non- swimmers, the biggest gap for new and intermediate athletes is often their strength on the bike.  This issue requires immediate attention and the best remedy is to introduce a healthy dose of big gear work on the trainer. This involves working your legs against a much heavier resistance than you would normally encounter while riding steady on a flat road.   Think of this as doing cycling specific weight training. I start beginner athletes on 1 minute intervals done at 50 – 60 cadence.

For example:

20 x 1 min All Out / 1 min very easy spin off recovery

• Maximum Cadence of 45 while @ maximum effort
• Resistance on the recovery is as easy as you need it to be.
• The more experienced athletes can go down to 30 cadence on longer intervals once the supporting structures in their legs and back have adapted to the higher load.

When doing big gear work on the trainer, pushing very hard against a very high resistance will yield lower than expected power figures, relative to the level of exertion, because the resultant cadence of these types of sessions is so low. Therefore, in terms of matching perceived effort to power output, it is NOT useful to plug in a %FTP training zone, when doing Big Gear strength work, because the power figures, will not feel as though they match the effort you are putting out.

Furthermore, pacing your efforts throughout the duration of Strength sets is not important at all (compared to Tolerance sets where the goal is usually to churn out paced power across all intervals). Strength sets is usually done pushing each effort as hard as possible (All Out) without regard for the next interval. As a result, the power figures from each subsequent interval should decrease as you progress through the set as your legs fatigue. In fact, I would be concerned that you were not pushing hard enough if you were able to hold the same watts over a whole series of strength intervals. After all, the main goal of this kind of session is to end with rubber legs!

Instead, the average Normalised Power across all the efforts, ignoring the data from rest intervals, can be tracked each week for significant increases in strength over the course of a 6 – 12 week block.

LONG RIDES

As an athlete approaches Race Day, their long rides should start to closely resemble their race day efforts, in terms of Nutrition and Pacing and Power. With the lack of long continuous unbroken bike routes in Singapore, using multiple laps of a ‘low traffic, low stoppage’ loop will go a long way towards dialling in an athlete’s race day effort. The same looped effect can be achieved on a straight forward single out and back route by lapping the unit at predetermined points in the ride (every 15/ 30 / 45 km) depending on how you structure the ride.

For power data collection on a race simulation, I like to break the ride into laps because:

• It allows me to negate the first and final 20 – 30 mins of warm up and cool down riding to and from the start of the looped route.
• It allows me to mentally break a long ride into shorter sections for better focus and pacing.

With the exception of some of the hilliest half and full Ironman distance races, the best strategy is to ride at your best even paced power across the whole distance. This is where athletes with a better ability to gauge perceived effort will have an advantage over those that don’t. At the start of the bike, on fresh legs, your perceived effort will be lower than for the same power output in the middle of the ride as fatigue starts to build. Perceived effort will be higher again that tail end of the bike ride as the rider’s legs are already shot. Therefore, in order to ride an even paced bike leg, the athlete will need to control their effort continually and carefully, starting at a lower perceived effort and building naturally to a higher perceived effort to account for the accumulated fatigue as you progress through the ride.

For athletes that are poor at intuitive pacing, a power meter can be a useful tool to help rewire the ‘Brain-Body Connection’ that controls pacing. Much like how data was used to perfect the set of Tolerance intervals mentioned above, so too can the power data on a lapped long ride help to accurately match perceived effort and power output across the duration on the long ride.

For example:

Using 12km loop done 6 x continuously (effectively a 72KM time trial) for 6 – 8 weeks leading up to a Half Ironman, is a nice way to replicate the race day scenario. Lapping your power meter after each lap will allow you to view your Normalised Power for each lap.  Here is an abbreviated set of data pulled from a longer 8 week progression of race simulation rides.

Charting the data this way allows an athlete to cross-reference how hard they feltthey pushed against a set of data telling them how hard they actually pushed.

For example on Lap 3 on Week 6, the rider went for a ‘hot lap’ to test the consequence of a 20 min surge in preparation for such an occurrence on race day. While he was able to recover at race pace through Laps 4 and 5, his legs were too fatigued to hold this effort on the last lap, where his NP dropped significantly.

After numerous weeks of ‘race-simulation’, and making the necessary tweaks to efforts and nutrition over the distance, taking the average Normalised Power across all laps, on a well-paced and well – fuelled ride (Week 4) gave this rider an NP of 177W that he can aim for in his coming race.

The attentive reader will infer that the power data collected over this period has only played a partial role in his arrival at this level of race preparation. It was vastly more important that the rider was;

• consistent with this weekly Race Simulation long ride
• continually fine tuning his nutrition plan
• controlling the training conditions to replicate race day conditions (i.e. drafting and cadence)
• aware of the changes in his perceived effort as he progressed through each ride.

All these elements that go into perfecting a Race Simulation are achieved without, and can sometimes be disrupted by the addition of power data. This athlete’s arrival at his NP target of 177W on race day is simply the ‘cherry on the pie’; a cherry that he could easily do without on Race Day, if the Race Simulation Progression was indeed completed in a satisfactory manner.

IN CONCLUSION:

A Power Meter is not essential or even necessary to improve on the bike. In fact, the majority of beginner to intermediate triathletes out there would benefit more from simply committing to:

• Repeating, at least, 1 set of bike intervals a week –Spin Class does not count!
• Executing their Long Rides, especially in the 8 weeks prior to an A race, in a structured, thoughtful and focused manner with an emphasis on race specificity.
• Adjusting and fine tuning their effort levels purely according to feel

Personally, I believe that Perceived Effort is a more intuitive way to train and develops a superior Brain-Body Connection; that understanding of what your body is capable of at its current fitness level. This is a critical and elementary skill that should be nurtured in all athletes at the earliest stage of their development because it gives them confidence in making training and race day decisions.

For newer athletes, that have not yet learnt how to listen to their body, a Power Meter could in fact sabotage this learning process and cause confusion and frustration along the way. Consider these 2 scenarios:

• While pure road cyclists can boast that they accurately track their level of fatigue and the onset of an approaching physical peak with power data derived Training Stress Scores, the Triathlete’s fatigue is a comprised of the sum of their swim, bike and run training loads. Currently, there is no simple way to quantitatively and accurately track the Stress Scores of swim and run training. So for triathletes, it is much better to be aware of your personal fatigue levels at any point in time, than to rely on a ‘bike only’ stress score.

For example, a Power Meter will tell you that you are not meeting the prescribed wattage for a particular set of intervals but it is only the Brain-Body Connection can attribute this decreased performance to the tough long run that the athlete battled through on the day before, or a poor nights rest or a dehydrated state or whatever combination of the above.  Without the Brain-Body Connection, the athlete would start questioning their ability and get frustrated at their apparent lack of improvement. On the other hand, the enlightened athlete would be content and assured to simply tick off that session and get on with taking the remedial steps to ensure that the next day does not become another ‘off day’.

• Using a power meter to pace over long rides is one of its key selling points; just find your NP over a certain distance and plug in and play, right? In theory this is how it is supposed to work, but the ‘on-road’ reality plays out differently.

On even a slightly rolling route, it is difficult to generate enough power while descending to match the rider’s target NP so we’re told to push over target NP on the climbs preceding them to compensate for this. While there are guidelines on how to handle various gradients and lengths of climb, I would go so far as to say that it would come as second nature, and be handled better by an athlete with a sound ‘Body – Brain Connection’.

Don’t get me wrong, for all the power meter bashing that you may think I am doing, I do believe that a it can be a worthy investment if you are already fulfilling the training criteria above and are looking for a means to track your training quantitatively and to motivate you to producing and then subsequently building on that ‘perfect’ set of intervals / Race Simulation long ride, week after week.

In the end, all I am saying is if you buy a power meter, or already have one; learn how to use it simply before getting bogged down with the advanced jargon and tricky functions. K.I.S.S!

***

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Shem Leong is our ironguides coach in Singapore. He has been hooked on triathlon ever since winning his age group in his first Olympic-distance race. Many top performances later, Shem still enjoys the challenges of training and racing at a high level, while balancing this with work and family. He is a firm believer in the benefits of an active lifestyle and loves being able to positively affect his athletes’ lives in this way. In the four years that Shem has worked as an ironguides coach so far, he has helped more than 60 athletes achieve their goals. They range from newbies hoping to complete their first sprint race, to 70.3 podium contenders, to seasoned Sub 10-hour Ironman athletes. Shem’s care for his athletes and his attention to detail set him apart. He completely understands the varied pull factors of life’s demands as well as the fiery motivations that drive everyday age groupers and is able to craft sustainable, effective training plans for their time-crunched schedules. An Honour’s Degree in Health Science has given Shem the knowledge to explain and expertly administer The Method. This, in turn, helps his athletes understand how each session contributes towards their ultimate goal; as a result, countless personal bests have been improved upon as his athletes continually get fitter and faster.

In this article, we will explore the possibilities and benefits of indoor cycling training, which is a reality for many because of the convenience, security and lack of easily accessible locations in major cities for cycling workouts.

Possibilities for indoor training and their characteristics

Spinning: I had the opportunity to ride with the inventor of Spinning, Johnny G. He was a professional cyclist who was looking for a way to practice indoors and not satisfied with the traditional stationary bike or roller training. Later he created his own indoor bike which was bought by Schwinn.

The spinning bike has the benefit of a smooth ride since it works through a fixed pinion. That is, as you accelerate and make more power, the bicycle resistance that accompanies acceleration and simulating what happens on the street. The athlete then has the option of putting more load increasing pressure on the bicycle resistance.
The benefits of spinning is a possible bike setting in a very similar to its real bike geometry, and offers SPD pedals that allow the use of clipless pedals causing the pedal stroke to be almost identical to the street.

Exercise: The traditional stationary bike carries a bad reputation among triathletes compared to other options, but it offers some unique benefits over others. The main thing is the possibility of reaching a very low pace because of high strength which is only possible in the most modern ergonomic combining a magnetic resistance and electronics. This enables an extremely low cadence even if the athlete is doing a sprint at maximum effort, which is one of our favorite workouts and mentioned at the end of the article.

Various turbochargers do not allow such resistance, and some spinning wheels, because they are mechanical, make pedaling become more “square”. So in practice we call ‘big gear’ or heavy gear, an excellent choice in exercise. Another advantage is also greater availability compared to the spinning bike, especially in hotel gyms. Now you no longer have a valid reason to stay without pedaling on your next business trip.

Turbo: The greatest benefit of the turbo is using your own bike for workouts. It is basically resistance on the rear wheel only, transforming your own bike for exercise. You will ride in a position identical to training on the street and competition, in the convenience of your home. Some brands also allow you to connect the turbo to a laptop or TV, and access the data from your workout. You can even sync the turbo to certain simulated paths on the laptop screen such as cycling the Hawaii Ironman route. The turbo increases the resistance on the route climbs and at the same time releases on the downhill.

Roller: Allows the athlete to have a ride that is almost real. Can be compared to a treadmill, because both wheels are in motion and a unique feature compared to the other three possibilities to practice indoors, it is that it requires the athlete to balance on the bike in a range of 25 to 50 centimeters. This causes the concentration to be high, and also increases the possibility of an accident. Another specific negative for the roller is that it does not offer the possibility of increased resistance.

Personally, I do not choose the roller for quality training because it makes it difficult to frame reps and for intervals since at the end of each repetition, in extreme situation of fatigue, you need to focus on stopping the bike without falling.

Benefits of indoor cycling

Endurance

Unlike on the street, an indoor workout is completely uninterrupted; you do not stop pedaling for a moment unless it is part of training. You have no traffic lights, downhill, pedestrian crossing, stops for water. Training yields more and this makes it extremely challenging. It’s a great way to simulate completely flat courses and develop your endurance.

Intensity

Because it is a workout that requires little technical skill and is not too hard (except the roller), workouts indoors allow you to achieve a sense of effort and intensity that is not like on the street because you can literally close your eyes and focus on your maximum effort, without worrying about what’s ahead.

Safety and convenience

The biggest plus of training indoors is the possibility of training within your own home or in a gym that is close to your work or convenient for you. Few athletes have the option of a safe place that is close to home for training during the week, so the indoor training allows you to have quality in a short time. In addition, it also provides you security in every way, away from cars, burglary, rain and even holes in the same street or other objects (or small animals!) That can cause falls and accidents.

If security is at the top of your priority list, consider making virtually all your workouts indoors and just do some drills, more keys on the street in the last training block before your main event.

Negative points of indoor cycling

Safety and convenience are the main benefits of indoor training, but there are also some negative points you need to consider in your training program:

Little use of stabilizing muscles

Hundreds of small stabilizing muscles (referred to as core muscles) are recruited when you pedal on the street. Making a sharp turn, pedaling standing, with side wind, all shift the focus from stabilization of your trunk. When you train indoor you do not have that need or reflection of using the stabilizer muscles.

This can result in problems on race day, because being small muscles, these tend to fatigue faster. On race day it may feel difficult to keep in a more aggressive position in the clip due to pain in the shoulders, neck or back, or just feel a general fatigue.

Less wind resistance

The indoor training allows you to train at very high intensity due to security, you can literally close your eyes and focus on the effort and intensity of each shot. It is almost impossible to find a place in the street or road that will offer you that opportunity.

As much as your legs and lungs “burn”, wind resistance and the street are not part of the equation, making the ride a little different. Overall, indoor cadence becomes a bit higher than on the street, also causing problems on race day.

Hills

The indoor training can be adjusted to simulate uphill, just use a lower cadence and a greater intensity. Some athletes also like to raise the front of the bike (only possible in the turbo) to simulate some changes, especially in perception when dealing with climbs. But nothing will bring you the same benefits as the real climbs.

On the other hand, the indoor training will develop your endurance very well because you just cannot stop pedaling. Expect your performance on flat courses to increase, while on courses with ascents you encounter difficulties.

Technical skills

Ride on the street, becoming a more technical rider, not necessarily a stronger rider, increasing ability on the bike as well as increasing ability to behave in situations of training and races. The more skillful you are, riding in a race will be less stressful, just as you possibly gain time on technical descents compared to the rider that makes the most of training indoors.

Much of the above problems can be solved with a weekly pedal on the street or road, preferably on an undulating course or mountain climbing. As much as you like to train indoor, make an effort and go weekly to the street.

Best practice to be done indoors

Strength Training:

20min easy warm up

10 to 20x POWER interval [1min with 45-55 rpm HEAVY RESISTANCE / with 1min VERY EASY recovery]

Drop at will:

Notes: Make every effort MAXIMUM, very heavy resistance! The cadence should be low (40-45 rpm per leg per minute), you will not go faster, because the resistance is too high! We will leave your legs “rubbery”!

Aerobic conditioning training (VO2):
15min progressive heating
Series:
1x (4min maximum / 4min loose spinning)
2x (3 min max / 3min loose spinning)
3x (2min maximum / 2min loose spinning)
4x (maximum 1min / 1min loose spinning)

– At a higher cadence which proves short (~ 90)

Treat every rep as if it were the only and last of the day, do not hold for the following reps, eg make the first 4 minutes as if the training was over then. It’s OK if your power falls towards the end of the workout.

Endurance training – double or challenge

And if it is raining on a long training day and for safety reasons you choose to train at home or at the gym? You have 2 options:

If something casual and motivation is high, do this workout as a personal challenge, and cycle up to 2/3 of the planned time (eg 2 hours in the original training are 3)
Distribute the training in two sessions, one in the morning the other in the evening, two drills at 1 hour duration will result in a greater intensity and greater motivation than 1 training for 2 hours.
Enjoy your training!

By Vinnie Santana, coach, ironguides.net, Bangkok

ironguides is the leading Lifestyle Facilitation company for athletes of all abilities. We provide coaching and training services, plans and programs, as well training education, health and fitness products to help you learn and live a healthy lifestyle. Come get fit with one of our monthly training subscriptions, event-specific training plans, coaching services, or a triathlon training camp in an exotic location! ironguides also provides Corporate Health services including Corporate Triathlons, Healthy Living retreats and speaking engagements. Atironguides, your best is our business!

More info at www.ironguides.net

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Train with ironguides!

Download our free e-Book “Triathlon Secrets” – Training methods of olympic medalist, ironman and world champions revealed

Personalized Online Coaching:  Starting at USD190/month

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While watching any triathlon race or videos, have you noticed how the professionals triathletes are always riding in a group, close to each other but still not getting any drafting penalties? Learn in the below video, how this dynamic works for high performance triathletes and how you can benefit from it, while still respecting the races rules.

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Train with ironguides!

Personalized Online Coaching:  Starting at USD190/month

Monthly Training plans (for all levels, or focused on one discipline): Only USD39/months

Event based training plans:

Sprint Distance (USD45 for 8-week plan)

Olympic Distance (USD65 for 12 week plan)

Half Ironman (R$95 for 16-week plan)

Ironman (USD145 for 20-week plan)

X-Terra (USD65 for 12-week plan)

Running Plans (10k, 21k and 42k – starting at USD40)