Brunswick Cycling Club

It’s a big word and it’s something that will help you as a racer in any of cycling’s disciplines.

For the vast majority of us we are capable of a blistering Flying 200 but fade as the sprint rounds progress, or, we have only one good attack in us during a scratch race and find ourselves hanging off the back when a counter attack is launched.

How can you improve your consistancy?

Before we jump in at the deep end, there are some important issues you need to write down… that’s right, you have to write stuff down!!

The weakest part of any cyclist is their memory.

If you record your training you can reliably assess if what you have been doing is working for you or against.

So the first step is to identify what the areas are you need improvement in, let’s say it’s sprinting. You can ride a 14 second Flying 200 but then 15 minutes later you can only do a 14.5, then 15 etc.

There are a few methods that you could try when training to improve your fitness and consistancy in this area.

Russian Style

You could simply go to the track once a week or so and smash out flying 200′s till you drop dead in the gear you would normally use.

Slightly better than Russian Style

You could do flying 200′s and time each effort with a 15min recovery period between efforts till you drop dead in the gear you usually use.

Slightly Scientific Method

You could do flying 200′s and time each effort with a 15min recovery period between efforts in the gear you usually use, except you apply the 10% measure. What you do is you continue with the session untill your time drops by 10%, so if your first effort is 14 seconds then you end the session when your time slows to 15.4 secs. You keep count of how many efforts you complete and as your fitness and technique improves the number of efforts you complete should increase.

There is one negative with this type of training, you usually don’t see a significant improvement in your time.

The pretty scientific method.

You could do 200-250 metre efforts, however you set out a session program that starts with you doing these efforts in a smaller gear than the one you would race on and time each effort with a 15min recovery period between efforts.

You still apply the 10% measure. 

So if you are an U17 and race on a 81″ try starting on a 74-76″, if you’re an Elite and race a 92.6 try a 84-86.

Start with flying 200-250′s from the top of the banking and work on increasing your cadence.

Progress to doing flying efforts but stay in the sprinters lane, these efforts will work on your strength because you don’t get the free ride off the banking and helps simulate actual match racing.

Mix it up and keep track of the times and number of efforts.

Over time you can increase you gear size and this can help you work out which gear best suits you, it could be a 92.6 for qualifying and a 90 or 91.8 for the sprint rounds.

All this doesn’t happen overnight and you should include this style of training when out on the road as well.

By next summer you should be a rider who can bang out 13.5″ times all day, you’ll notice an improvement in your points race performances as well.

The critical thing is to maintain a balance in your program, don’t neglect any part of your training and KEEP A RECORD OF WHAT YOU DO.

These are some basic techniques to identify and improve your weaknesses, everyone will have their “secret method” so pick one that makes sense to you and resist chopping and changing half way through a program, give it time for your body to adapt (3 months) and if you realistically believe that you have more improvement in you then consider a change.

I reckon we only want a coach so we can blame someone when we lose!!!

onya, cam

This entry was posted by C. McFarlane on Thursday, February 18th, 2010 at 10:32 pm and is filed under Training.