Winter training focusing on 10TTs

I am certainly at the novice end of the cycling scale so excuse the lack of technical jargon here, lol.

I have spent the summer doing an almost daily fast paced 11.4m circuit, fairly flat & open therefore though often open to winds. My time will normally be around 34-35mins av/20mph, my av/cad is 74rpm, av/HR 158bpm, max/HR normally 170-180bpm. I am 38 (39 in Oct '11) I am 5'11", weigh 193lbs(87.7kgs) so i know i'm maybe 20lbs+ heavier than i'd like.

I completed the last couple of club 10's, achieving a best out of the two of 28.47 on a reasonably flat (with long but gentle hills) circiut with a 12mph return h/wind.

My aim is to get my time down as much as realistically possible (obviously!) A 26min time would be great. I can spare 45min-1hr per evening during the week, with a rest day either sat/sun.

During the winter (from now onwards) i'll be pretty much limited to my rollers etc in the garage. What i'd like to know is, what would be my the most effective way of achieving my goal ? And should i try to loose the weight first then start on the 'proper' training ? Or best to concentrate immediately on fitness training letting my metabilism eat away at those lbs ? I have done a 20min session on the rollers in the past as part of a general 'gym' session (ie, free weights, rower, mat work & punchbag as i used to do Muay Thai) & used to break it into 5min warm up, then 1min max effort following by 2min recovery. I could do 2x20min sessions but am unsure what kind of workrate/HR i should be working at etc. to make the most of my time ??

Some may comment also on my low cadence, which is something i have tried to increase when i've been out riding though my body just seems to prefer the lower pedalling rate & when i pedal faster i just slow down, lol.

Many thanks.

 

A few thoughts:

- For many riders, but particularly someone focusing on short to mid length time trials I'd strongly suggest a training program focusing on Tempo/SST and Threshold work. Search these forums and the web for information on SST (Sweet Spot Training). The basic idea is to do a lot of quality work at a hard but sustainable pace. So you'll do some 2x20 sessions at a pace that requires focus is challenging to maintain for 20 minutes, gets you breathing deep but not completely ragged, and is difficult but easy enough that you can actually finish both the individual intervals without backing off and can complete the full set. It doesn't really matter whether you use HR, perceived exertion (RPE), a power meter or speed on the rollers to pace your efforts. Just try a few starting with a pace you think you can sustain, bump up the pace if it's too easy or you finish the first effort without requiring a lot of focus, back off the second effort or efforts on following days if it's just too hard to finish without backing down. This stuff self corrects really quickly so you don't have to hit perfect pacing on your first attempt.

- Time trialists can often push bigger gears at relatively low cadences very effectively. 74 rpm is definitely approacing the low end of the scale but some of my best time trials have resulted from plugging away at big gears around 80 rpm. Not everyone goes fastest at 90 or 110 rpm. If you want to do more varied racing then it can pay to expand your useful range of cadences at which you can generate solid power. In fast road races and criteriums it can really pay off to spin lighter gears and to be able to snap up the leg speed quickly to cover gaps. But if you really just want to race time trials it's not quite as important. I'd still do some days, maybe longer Tempo days where you work on leg speed a bit but I wouldn't worry too much about cadence, I'd concentrate more on intensity, pace, speed and power if you have a way to measure it.

- Look around for Charles Howe's power training guide. The principles apply just fine with or without a power meter. It's a free download and gives really good insight into training with Tempo/SST/L4 and that's a really good idea for a TT specialist.

Good luck,
-Dave

 

Great reply, I guess i've kinda been doing this so far ie, going at it hard enough to make it hard work but being able to actually maintain the pace for the 2x20min sessions.

I'll look further into it as suggested too.

Thanks.

 

You can hit both the weigh and power issues in one big swoop...

As Dave pointed out the 2x20 minute sessions are great for raising power but I find that just backing off just a tiny bit on the intensity and doing 3x20 or 3x25 racks up a bunch more KJ used (mo' calories!) but doesn't really require any on-the-bike feeding. I typically just use water - and typically find it easy to lose weight doing these sessions. Just eat normally off the bike.

If you have an hour during the week then spend 10 minutes warming up/cooling off (5 mins each) and ride for the other 50 minutes - maybe start with the intention of a 20 minute effort, 5 minute rest followed by a 25 minute effort... but if after 2 minutes of the rest you feel fine then put the hammer down and have at it, start the next effort a little early in you feel mentally and physically refreshed.

If you can find a way to squeeze in an extra 15 to 20 minutes or so to do the 3x20 it'll be worth it, even if you have to use part of the first 20 minutes to ramp up the effort and somewhat combine the warm up in that.

Cadence. If you're doing short distance time trials and have no requirement for several hard efforts during the day over a couple of days then you should be fine. 80 rpm would be a fairly good lower average as it still allows for a slight rev drop when you hit slight grades in the road or a bit of a breeze. Although you're indoors on a traininer - your training has to reflect in someway shape or form what you intend to do outdoors. As long as the effort does degrade into something that feels like weightlifting on the bike, all should be fine. Remember to relax. Personally, I find that cadence increases as I get fitter and when I get more training done that's specific to my goal.