Power

I a big advocate of training with power and have written many articles on the subject. I am trying to organise it slowley in to pages on Zones and Winter turbo sessions but on this page there is a collection of other ranndom bits and bobs for the time being! If your looking for equiment to buy to to hire check out my sponsors cyclepowermeters.com they are quite honestly the best for service and after over all the types of power meter so I loved working with them over the last few years. For a triathlon coach the is clued in check out John Dargies on the coaching page.

TURBO SESSIONS

90mins with 5x12min as 3min @60rpm(53×12), 3min @80-85rpm(53×16), 3min @75rpm (53×14) around 310watts for me

95 mins with 3x21min as 7min @75rpm (53×15), 7min @65rpm (53×13), 7min @55rpm (53×11) around 310watts for me

90 mins with 5x8min tempo (not too hard) around 330-340watts for me with 4min @ 250 in between

TIP: If your not an experienced cyclist be cautious with big gear workouts like these , start with higher cadences and certainly smaller gears.

TIP:  If you don’t use a power meter you should be aware tha it’s easy to increase the effort as you move to big gears. That is not the idea with these workouts, the effort should be fairly even. It is also the reason behind the myth that ‘spinning’ saves your legs for the run. . . pushing less power saves your legs for the run I say.

Too boring? Too long?

Try adapting some of these shorter sessions I have also done.

Threshold intervals for example 2 x (3 x 4:00min)  with 2-4min between reps and 5-10min between sets.When begining threshold intervals start short for example 3min reps and only 3-5. Build this each week adding time and reps.

TIP: Rest is mre important on the turbo trainer to avoid overheatin. Use cooling strategies like a fan, wet cloth ice in drink or iced water for your quads!!!!!

TIP: Pay attention to the intensity of your recovery. It should be moderate and ideally not drop off to much with more reps. Another way to progress these sessions is the intensity of recovery periods.

1-1-1 intervals 1min HARD anaerobic above threshold before dropping to threshold for 1min (this will hurt) then drop to a tempo pace but still solid. I have done these as 5 x 3 mins as 1 min 410-420 watts, 1 min 350-360 watts, 1 min 310-320 watts.   4 mins recovery at only 180 watts inbetween. These are hard but will improve youa bility to clear lactate while maintaining a high power output.

BACKGROUND

Over the last 18 months I have had 3 sub 9hr Ironman finishes the best being 8:23:39 at Roth. That wasn’t my bike PB though which is 4:33:20 set on the accurate Challenge Barcelona course in October 2009, with a flat tire! So you can still improve even after several years of doing similar hours in the saddle.

Some coaches think you need to ride 500k a week to achieve a 4:30 bike split but it’s not true. When I decided I wanted to race with the PROs I did two things. Firstly I hired an SRM power meter from cyclepowermeters.com and  Secondly hooked up with a coach who knew what he was doing, John Dargie of fusion-coaching.com. Less than six months later in July 2008 I finished 10th PRO at Ironman Austria in a time of 8:35:09.

So why did training with power make such a difference and how can you do the same? A power meter is more than just a tool to tell you how hard your pushing, to maintain a smooth power output you need to engage the right muscles at the right times so with practice it helped me improve my technique and efficiency. I was astonished to see how I really rode which was too hard on climbs and very uneven on the flat. Using the power meter I work on maintaining constant power on the flat and pacing myself evenly on climbs avoiding short bursts of intensity which will eat in to my run times. At the start I set training zones based on a blood lactate curve but the simplest way of setting zones is with 30min time trial (CP30 power) where your aerobic threshold is around 60-65% of this CP30 power and anaerobic threshold 90-95%. My first goal was to accumulate time in Zone1 and maintain even power to improve my technique, base fitness and push up my aerobic threshold. Below this level will have much less benefit so by riding with power I can ensure my limited time is maximised. Also doing base training above this level increases fatigue and can impact on my other sessions. In terms of CP30 this would be 60-70% CP 30 power.

For my specific Ironman sessions my goal is to accumulate power at the Zone1/ Zone2 boundary. Every ride I do has blocks of riding at a given target power, for instance a long ride at the start of my Ironman Austria build up included 2x 60 minutes @ 250+ watts. Your individual Ironman pace can’t be determined with any short test and will depend on your overall swim, bike and run fitness as well as the characteristics of the course and should be practice during long bricks sessions as part of your build up.

Having the ability to download your data means you can see exactly how you are progressing and reassess goals for your following sessions so before Austria I was achieving 2x90min at 270+ watts and more recently 280+ watts. I can compare this to how I rode when I first got a power meter to see how much my riding improved. Since Ironman Austria I have been including a weekly workout of 2x15min at my anaerobic threshold and have seen my average watts on these intervals rise by up to 1% a week. Over a season these sort of improvement add up. Having the power meter motivates me, especially when tired after work, to keep making these small but consistent improvements and track them over time. Anyone can do this but it helps to have an experienced coach to look at your files and help guide your progression.  John Dargie has extensive experience with power meter training;

“I know Graeme has a talent for long distance racing but I’ve seen a similar improvement of 10-20% in sustainable power output with all of my athletes who have started using a power meter”.

Graeme