Level: Beginner
Throughout the early part of the year you have been building your base fitness and endurance, but, as the season progresses, your training becomes more about maintaining this base and adding some specific power and speed. This will allow you to push harder uphill and improve your average speed over typically hilly sportive routes.
To increase your race pace and maintain your fitness, the British Cycling Sportive Training Bonus Plans will give you the option of longer steady or interval rides. The interval sessions for this week are based on developing your higher end power, giving you the ability to stamp up short steep climbs.
Improving your short steep climbing ability requires interval sessions that have strictly defined duration, intensities, rests and repetitions. A power session will include the following:
Duration: Intervals to increase your short term anaerobic capacity will typically last between 30 seconds and 1 minute. To recover from this type of interval you will need at least 4 minutes recovery if you have hit the required intensity and in order to maintain consistent performance throughout the set.
Intensity: This type of effort is predominately an anaerobic effort, where your muscles will produce power largely without oxygen. During the recovery you will have to repay this “oxygen debt” before you are able to repeat the effort.
Repetition: The aim for the session is to achieve five consistent repetitions at the required intensity. If you find that you can do more then it’s possible you haven’t pushed quite hard enough on the earlier ones or, if you’re struggling for five, you might have gone too hard.
These type of session will make it easier to roll over short climbs, ride at the front of groups and even bridge from one group to the next up the road.
Information on training zones in the British Cycling Sportive Bonus Training Plan can be found in the Insight Zone, where you will find more information about interval training sessions and how the British Cycling Sportive Training Plan will improve your performance in your upcoming Sportives.
