Leg Speed - Page 4

They do NM training because I look at the overall development of the rider. It is on the list of priorities just a wee way down.

I give the example of a US based Professional and World Level Track Endurance Rider. His peak power output is 1690watts.

In a 1.04 Kilo his peak power was 1585watts
In a 4.51 Pursuit his peak was 1121watts
Final sprint of a Pro Crit was 1329watts
Going for Sprint Ace had peak sprint of 1304 but most sprints ave of around 1000watts.

So where in his training should NM training take a higher priority than aerobic training seeing at no point here does he come close to his peak power let alone his 5sec power.

I am sure if we looked at the peak power generated in Boonen, Bettini and Vos's world championship sprints it would be no where near their max power if the were to do a 15 sec sprint while fuly rested.

Guess where I am coming from is bang for buck a roadie or track enduro should be investing more time in their 5min, 10min, 30min, 60min max power. My riders do NM training but at present (16weeks from Track Nats) the enduros are doing 3 X 50m standing starts a week. The sprinters for whom 5 sec power is crucial are doing about 30 6sec efforts a week among other things.

In fact one sprinter is a little concerned that this is too much 6sec power training and is more focused on her 15-20sec power!

Hamish Ferguson
Cycling Coach

I thought the plural of anecdote was anecdotes

Hamish-I will again take the laymans approach to all of this, but improving your NM power should in my mind make you more powerful and if your more powerful, thats good for everything isnt it? In other words, being more powerful at peak should make your more powerful at 5 sec, 10 sec, etc shouldnt it?

That's a good point and we see the Aussie sprinters apply reverse periodisation and do 6 sec sprints, max strength and max power work all year round and add speed endurance at the end.

The NZ National Track Coach told me years ago that from his trips overseas he learned the Aussies were training their roadies like pursuiters, pursuiters like Kilo riders and Kilo riders like sprinters.

It's what we see on this group where people are now more focused on 20-60min Power than getting in as many 100mile rides per week. This is a good thing. I just think that endurance cycling is an aerobic sport and making 5sec power a high priority is not as effective as trying to improve ones functional threshold.

I have three years of SRM data from the above rider and at no point does he do any dedicated sprint training yet has won US Pro Crits, was sprint ace in last years Tour of Southland, won a World Cup Teams Pursuit round and regularly beats up the NZ sprint team.

If I was trying to improve my road sprint I would focus on 20-30sec power. I am sure as Sanchez tried to set up Valverde that Bettini didn't have the luxury of waiting to the last 75m to unleash his sprint and at the end of 6 hours of riding would have probably been 200-400watts away from his peak power. Would be a nice file to check out.

Hamish Ferguson
Cycling Coach