"Colin Campbell" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:I'm tired of my buddies taking all of the city limit sign sprints, and I'm
tired of having trouble getting back onto wheels just in front of me, so I
plan to improve my sprinting this year.
Does anyone have some tips for me?
Should I just throw in maybe three fast intervals on an otherwise normal
ride? Should I go out a day or two a week with sprinting specifically on
my mind for that day? Should I return to riding at the Velodrome a couple
of days a week, as I did a few years ago?
How do _you_ train for sprinting?
I asked a similar question a few years ago and John Verheul gave this
reply...
Subject: Re: form sprints
From: John Verheul
I don't pretend to speak for Friel, but here's what form sprints have
traditionally been: Sprints which focus primarily on form (as opposed
to sprints which focus primarily on strength, power, speed, or winning -
all of these being valid forms of training sprints).
To do form sprints, you start at a slow to moderate speed in a small
gear. You then accelerate (either seated or standing, depending on the
form you are trying to improve) for 5-10 seconds, concentrating on
using proper form. The small gear is so that it doesn't become a
strength/power drill, you are training your nerves to fire in a certain
way here, not trying to make your legs tired. The other reason for the
small gear is that it forces you to be truly balanced on top of your
pedals, since there's not much "back pressure". When using a high gear,
you can thrash your body all over your bike, but if you try the same
thing in a low gear you'll crash - since you're moving around so much
faster.
You only go 5-10 seconds because it's not a legspeed drill, you might
max at only 120 rpm or so in a form sprint, whereas in a legspeed drill
you hold the highest cadence you can for at least 30 revolutions (that
will be over 10 seconds for most people). Legspeed drills really just
isolate your legs, form sprints focus on the entire body form as you
sprint. Not a bad idea to do form sprints on the same day as legspeed
drills.
The goal of form sprints is to teach your body to sprint with proper
form. Hips balanced over the pedals, shoulders low, hands on drops,
head up. I see a lot of newer racers lean too far forward, or too
upright (with hands on hoods), or not moving the bike correctly when
they sprint - thus they are not as fast as a weaker person with correct
form.
Quoted message said:and
Quoted message said:what might 2-2.5 hours of speed work look like over the course of a
week in the
Quoted message said:prep and base 1 periods?
Form sprints are only a small part of "speed work". Some factors
involved in speed (i.e. - making the bike go fast) are form, strength,
legspeed, and power. Form sprints train one of these. It's important
that form becomes second nature, because you can't be thinking about it
when you're in a real sprint - there's too much other stuff (timing,
line, etc) to think about then.
Legspeed drills and form sprints can typically be done with just about
any other type of ride, since they don't really tax your body like
strength or power work does. How you train strength and power is a bit
more important in terms of schedule. I'm sure Friel's book deals with
those, if not my team manager is a Friel associate and I'll be happy to
put you in touch.
John Verheul
--
JF
"Bad will be the day for every man when he becomes absolutely contented with
the life he is living, with the thoughts he is thinking, with the deeds he
is doing, when there is not forever beating at the doors of his soul some
great desire to do something larger, which he knows that he was meant and
made to do because he is still, in spite of all, the child of God. "
- Phillip Brooks
