FEBRUARY 

BASE 3

Hopefully all of you who have been following my training plan are now starting to see the benefits of following a structured, progressive programme. You should be feeling fairly strong with the big gear work from the cadence session and you should now be able to comfortably pedal at 100 rpm plus on the road in small gears. You should also have been testing yourselves slightly, without going overboard, on the tempo session using the muscles you will be employing in your race position.

I have been following the plan myself and everything is going well. I did suffer from sickness over Xmas and New Year, and this is a hazard at this time of year, but I dealt with it well and am now back feeling fit. My first tempo ride last week was done on a good rolling 5 mile circuit with no real flat sections but I managed to average around 23mph. As this was my first effort since finishing racing in early October I was very pleased and felt very strong and smooth. This is a result of my favourite session, the cadence ride, where I my average cadence in the small gear has been above 110 rpm and the big gear stuff has all been in the 53 x 12. That said, the effort has not been above Level 2 (conversation pace) at any time. As I have told you before you must adjust your cadence accordingly or you will suddenly find you are doing 25mph and your heart rate is going through the roof. Discipline is the key - it almost feels too easy at times. I always feel it in my legs after this session though.

Base 3 sees a shift in emphasis in that we will now be adding more speed in bigger gears, hitting hills on the aerobic rides and unfortunately doing some pretty unpleasant intervals on the turbo. It should also be the biggest block time wise of the year. Over the first 3 weeks use the same progression in hours as you have before but try and do the maximum you can allow. For example, Wk 1 10 hours, Wk 2 13 hours, Wk 3 16 hours and Wk 4 10 hours. If you can manage more great, but I would suggest these are the minimum. (It is only for three weeks after all and this will make you bombproof for the season ahead). I have to admit that the intervals in base 3 are my least favourite of the year and I always seem to struggle with them. However, they are essential in getting you prepared to race.

 

FEBRUARY'S TRAINING

BASE 3

Will consist of the following

3 x aerobic road rides, 1 x Sprint interval session, 1 x Cruise interval session and 2 x Recovery rides. Given that a typical week could look like this: (adjust hours on aerobic rides to suit but try and do at least one long one):

MON - Assuming you have done a long ride on Sunday I would do another aerobic ride today around 2 - 3 hours in length. Keep the intensity as before but now start to hit a few more hills. Ideally they still shouldn't be mega steep but steadier, longer ones. If you struggle to find hills like this you can do 10 minute sections a couple of times during the ride in the big ring, say 53 x17 - 15. Remain seated as this will use the same muscles as climbing.

TUE - Sprint interval session. This MUST be done on the road, not the turbo. You need to warm up well for at least 20 mins, preferably a bit more. Then find a straight, slightly downhill bit of road. Decide your starting point and complete 6 x 15 second sprints with 5 minutes recovery in between each one. For the sprint, use 53 x 17 or 16 max. From a rolling start hit the interval hard, out of the saddle for 8 - 10 seconds then sit down and concentrate on getting the maximum cadence out over the remaining seconds. Form is absolutely crucial on these sprints - when you sit down do not thrown yourself all over your bike, remain as still as possible, just focus on spinning the legs. I find I can get up to about 54 - 58kph over the time on a very slight downhill in the 17 sprocket. If you use a bigger gear you will struggle to get it turning properly in such a short space of time and will end up feeling underdone. (In Wk 2 do 8 sprints, Wk 3, 10 sprints and just 5 in Wk 4). These intervals will definitely benefit your top end speed.

WED - Recovery ride on road or turbo as previously. Max of 2 hours for this session.

THU - CRUISE intervals on the turbo. These are basically intervals done at time trial pace and are pretty unpleasant at this time of year. Make sure you are mentally focused before doing them. Prepare by warming up for 20 mins in small gears (I usually throw in 2 or 3 15 seconds sprints at about 80%, not flat out, just to ready myself for the effort required). When you are ready you will be completing 4 x 5 minute intervals at your perceived TT pace (I wouldn't rely on a heart rate monitor to gauge your effort as there are too many variables - do it on feel alone, try and get the power through evenly, concentrate on your technique by staying smooth and strong). Recovery time between each interval must be a minimum of 3 mins but it is essential to take as long as you want to fully recovery - we need each interval to be of the same quality. You will find that if you do the first one too hard (which is easy to do) your heart rate will go up but your power will drop in subsequent efforts. I use a power based turbo and I have experimented loads of times on these type of intervals and I have found that if I start too hard then I can be doing up to 100 Watts less on the following efforts, even though heart rate continues to go up. In a race this equates to roughly a minute lost over 10 miles and as much as 4 minutes on a 25. In order not to go into the red straight away ,as most people do, I use a gear that feels a bit too small for the first minute (by that I mean one that you can push at around 100 rpm - I use 54 x 16 but everyone's turbo is different). After 1 minute I put it in the 15 for another 30 secs before hitting my race gear of 54 x14, this way I'm still putting the power through but I am not getting the immediate lactic build up you get with bigger gears. I now use this tactic very successfully in racing - I haven't blown for years. In Week 2 do 6 mins, Week 3, 8 mins and back to 4 mins in Week 4.

FRI - You will definitely need a recovery day after yesterday - keep it to a maximum of 1hour.

SAT - Aerobic road ride of around 2 hours as above

SUN - A longer aerobic ride if possible

That's it for now - remember, try and be consistent and above all ride safely.

Eddie

Back next month with BUILD 1

(Any queries: you can email me at eddiehumphreys@fireservicecycling.co.uk)

NOTE: FIRESERVICECYCLING recommends that you consult a Doctor before undertaking any training regime, The advice given here is for the serious rider wanting to race and improve performance, If you use any of the information provided in this article, 'on your own head be it' and you also accept not to hold 'FireServiceCycling' responsible for any injuries or mishaps, That's just FATE!!!