I really don’t like the term “base training” because it
produces images of long, slow distance training with watts at 60% of your
threshold as you putter along. Too many athletes and coaches believe we have to
do base training first before any other type of training can be started.
Now, I’ll concede that if you’re a pro cyclist training for a huge season in Europe next year, then yes, you should be doing some serious base training right now; riding your bike four to six hours a day at endurance pace will help continue to develop your aerobic system and prevent you from peaking in January. But everyone else? Forget it. We don’t have the time to put in four to six hours a day at a slow pace, stopping at coffee shops along the way and enjoying the sights.
Now, I’ll concede that if you’re a pro cyclist training for a huge season in Europe next year, then yes, you should be doing some serious base training right now; riding your bike four to six hours a day at endurance pace will help continue to develop your aerobic system and prevent you from peaking in January. But everyone else? Forget it. We don’t have the time to put in four to six hours a day at a slow pace, stopping at coffee shops along the way and enjoying the sights.
Most of us have only an hour or two each day to train, and
we have to make the most of those hours and optimize our training for the
highest ROI. If we spent those few hours riding at endurance pace, what would
happen? We’d lose fitness and get slower. There’s a relationship between time
and intensity that must be respected; the lower the intensity, the longer you
should ride in order to stress that energy system. If you really want to
improve your endurance system, riding at endurance pace for four or five hours
is what you need to do. A two-hour ride won’t be long enough to create the
necessary stress on the body to cause it to adapt and improve endurance.
So what is the correct intensity for your one or two hours
of available time? The tempo zone, Level 3 on Dr. Coggan’s power level chart,
76-90% of your functional threshold power (FTP).
Riding at tempo pace is a challenge, but it won’t make you
peak in January, either. By pushing yourself a little harder this winter in
your shorter sessions (many of us are stuck on the trainer all winter, too),
you’ll be able to stress your aerobic system appropriately enough to continue
improving throughout the winter. Riding at the tempo level this winter is one
of the keys to moving to the next level, as it creates the training stress you
need as your power foundation, which is what I prefer to call winter and
pre-season training; it doesn’t conjure up those dreaded thoughts of LSD
training, and it focuses on the power side of the equation, since your winter
goal is to increase your power at threshold. We all want to improve our overall
aerobic fitness every season, since more fitness equals more fitness, and
you’ll be riding faster than previously.
What types of workouts should you do this winter to make
sure your power foundation is sufficiently challenged? Below are three
suggestions that are perfect for both indoor and outdoor workouts, as each one
can be adapted to either environment.
Workout One: Tempo with bursts and big gear efforts
This workout is designed to make you ride at a relatively
high intensity, keeping your aerobic system taxed but not so much that you
can’t do the big gear efforts afterward. The big gear intervals are done
afterward since your muscles will already be fatigued from the tempo work, and
you’ll have to summon more strength to do the work. The big gear efforts are
there to help you create some additional muscular strength and translate any
weight training you might be doing onto bike specific work.
WU: 15 minutes.
MS: Nail it for 60 minutes at 80-83% of your FTP, with 20
bursts (one every 3 minutes) for 10 seconds at 120% of your FTP. Ride easy for
10 minutes, then do 20 minutes at 80-83% of FTP and do big gear intervals: put
it in your 53:13 at 50 rpm, and every 2 minutes (10 times total) slow down,
stick it in the 53:13, stay seated, and use strength to push it to 90rpm. Once
you reach 90 rpm, return to your tempo pace.
CD: 10 minutes easy spinning.
Workout Two: Tempo and sweet spot intervals
This workout is designed to fatigue both your muscular
endurance and cardiovascular system. By doing two longer, 30-minute intervals
at your sweet spot (88-93% of FTP or upper tempo/lower threshold pace), you’ll
really have to work and stay focused, but it will be doable. After you do the 30-minute
efforts, you’ll have to ride at tempo for 45 minutes but at a lower level tempo
pace, which again will be challenging as it stresses that muscular endurance
system.
WU: 15 minutes steady.
MS: 5 x 1-minute fast pedals over 110rpm, with 1 minute of
recovery between each. Then do 2 x 30 minutes at 88-93% of threshold, right in
your sweet spot. Ride easy for 5 minutes after each. Finish with 45 minutes at
76-80% of FTP; nice tempo, but not hard.
CD: 15 minutes.
Workout Three: Solid tempo workout
This is your bread-and-butter winter workout. It’ll give you
plenty of tempo work and will challenge your cardiovascular system. It’s sure
to make you red in the face with some early hard work to wake you up.
WU: 15 minutes steady and smooth, getting the legs going.
MS: Do one 3-minute effort all out to get the carbon out of
the legs, shooting for 115-120% of your FTP. Then do 5 x 1-minute fast pedaling
intervals with 1 minute of rest after each. Ride for 20 minutes at endurance
pace at a cadence faster by 5 rpm than your normal self-selected cadence (legs
spinning just a little faster than they want to). Then do 60 minutes at tempo
pace, not race pace; a notch below uncomfortable, but doable and at your normal
cadence. (Tempo pace is 76-90% of FTP.)
CD: 10 minutes.
These workouts are just a few of the great variations on
tempo that you can do this winter. The goal is to keep improving without
peaking in January and to build your foundation so you’ll be ready for more
intense threshold work later. These are for riders who don’t have four to six
hours to ride each day. They’ll keep your fitness higher throughout the winter
than normal, but you won’t have that far to go to peak for your key event in
the spring. Give these workouts a shot; you’ll be pleasantly surprised with
your new higher threshold this spring!
Hunter Allen is a USA Cycling Level 1 coach and former professional cyclist. He is the coauthor of Training and Racing with a Power Meter and Cutting-Edge Cycling, co-developer of TrainingPeaks’ WKO software, and CEO and founder of Peaks Coaching Group. He and his coaches create custom training plans for all levels of athletes. Hunter can be contacted directly through PeaksCoachingGroup.com.