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  JANUARY 

BASE 2

Hopefully you are now well into your training programme and haven't had too much of a blip over Christmas and New Year1 Obviously the weather now plays a part in how much training we can do on the road - but hey!, isn't that what the turbo is for! I never compromise my safety just because I am supposed to be doing a 2 - 3 hour road ride and it's freezing and icy. It's too easy to come off, pop a shoulder and you are back to square one. However, that doesn't mean you have to go on your turbo and replicate your 2 - 3 hour ride. How mind numbing would that be? No, an hour max - even 45 mins will do at a reasonable pace (although remember to keep it at a level so you can hold a conversation fairly easily - we are still in the base phase). To alleviate the boredom I change gear every 3 mins and work my way up and down the sprockets, adjusting the cadence to keep my effort in check. I find that breaking it into little segments like this makes the time pass pretty quickly. Another top tip is to make sure you have music! The new MP3/iPod type players are brilliant and you can make up your own playlists for different types of sessions. For example - have a heavy, fast beat for high cadence work, chill out music for cool downs and, oddly, I find heavy metal works for the tougher interval sessions that will be coming soon!! Finally, a fan and a smelly towel to soak up the sweat are pretty essential. Not using a fan tends to drive the heart rate up a lot faster as well due to heat build up and the effect it has on the bodies temperature regulation' system. Obviously this will then tell you you are working harder than you actually are - which kind of defeats the object of controlled training.

 

JANUARYS TRAINING

BASE 2

Follows the same structure as Base 1 in that it is a 4 week cycle, building up in hours for the first 3, then followed by a recovery week. DO NOT miss out the Recovery week even if you feel great. This is the most important of the 4 weeks as adaptation takes place here. Without doing it you will not progress - trust me on this one if nothing else. So your weekly hours should look something like 9, 11, 13, 7 or whatever hours you can afford. Always follow the same pattern though. Base 2 is also a continuation of some of the Base 1 sessions plus the addition of a muscular endurance session which I will detail below. Your training week should consist of:
3 x aerobic sessions as base 1 (this is to include the 'cadence envelope' session for one of them), 1x leg speed session, 1 x muscular endurance interval session and 2 x recovery days. Given that a typical week could look something like this:

Mon: Recovery (presuming you have done a long ride Sunday) 1 hour on road or turbo in a tiny gear (39 x21 or 23) - absolutely no effort whatsoever.

Tue: Aerobic session on road of about 2 hrs. Again keep it on rolling terrain if possible avoiding big hills at this stage. (If you do have to ride the big hills, smallest gear and ride it steadily). Keep using different gear - spin the flat and downhill's, use bigger gears on the drags but stay seated and concentrate on pedalling smoothly with no upper body movement.

Wed: Muscular endurance session. If you are going to be time trialling you either need to do this on your race bike (with winter wheels) or clip some tri bars onto your road bike. If you can't do either or are targeting road racing do this session on the drops. This is to bring the different muscles into play that are used when racing. For the session you need to find a circuit ideally 20 - 30 mins per lap not too far from home and again rolling rather than hilly if possible. After a good warm up ride for a MAX of 20 mins for the first week in an aero position. The effort wants to be above your normal aerobic ride pace but not flat out 10 mile TT pace. In other words you should not be able to hold a conversation and you will have to totally concentrate to keep the effort going. Try to pedal a mid range gear (say a 53 x17) at 80 - 100 revs. Add fifteen mins for the next 2 weeks and then drop back to a 20 min effort in Week 4. Cool down for at least 10 mins.

Thu: Recovery day on road or turbo as above.

Fri: Aerobic road ride. Do the 'Cadence Envelope' session as detailed in Base1 and ensure you keep the intensity down, especially in the big gears, by adjusting cadence.

Sat: Leg speed on turbo. Do the 'Spin Up' session as detailed in last months programme but add 1 or 2 more intervals this time. You should notice a slight increase in the cadence you can maintain now.

Sun: Aerobic ride - do whatever you feel, could be a club run if you want. If it is DO NOT get involved in any tear ups at this stage - let the winter racers go! You will be caning their arses when the season comes round.

Good luck - remember be consistent, safe and smart. Catch you next month when the pain starts!!

Eddie

Next time we will move onto BASE 3. Until then, happy riding.

( 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!!!