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Training Programmes
Fred Muskett and I are both qualified
coaches and are happy to prepare individual
training programmes for riders for next
year, you’ll need to let me or Fred (0116
2404956) know by the end of September, as
you really need to start establishing the
groundwork by November.
If you want a programme, you’ll need to
bear a number of things in mind:-
You need to have a specific target - e.g.
top 5 position in a road race, improve your
speed in a 10 mile or a 25 mile time trial.
You need to be honest with yourself about
the time you are able to spend in training –
it doesn’t need to be a lot, but it does
need to be a volume that is manageable to
you week in, week out.
You do need to be on your bike at least 3
times a week and at least one of these rides
needs to be on the road – if you can’t get
out on the road in daylight on winter
weekdays, a turbo trainer is a godsend – the
club may be able to lend you one if you
don’t have your own.
You need to bear in mind that at the
start of a programme, the work may well not
be as intensive as you think, while towards
the end of the programme, it may be much
more intensive than you think (no pain, no
gain).
You need to keep in weekly contact with
your coach – by phone, e mail, or in person
– training programmes are a two way thing.
We need to discuss what you find hard, what
you find easy, what you like, what you don’t
like.
You don’t need to be good, but you do
need to dedicate yourself to the programme
and you will improve.
The coach needs to enjoy it too – we
enjoy the regular contact – a training
programme that works well is a partnership.
We don’t like having to keep chasing riders
for an update on their progress – not least
because they’ve usually not been doing the
training as agreed. They’ve bitten off more
than they can chew – and they feel guilty
about it.
A touch of the DOMS?
DOMS or delayed onset muscle soreness is the
pain which appears the day after, or in my
case, two days after really hard exercise.
This condition has commonly been blamed on
the build up of lactic acid in the muscles
but this theory is being increasingly called
into question. The argument against it goes
like this:-
Lactic acid builds up in muscles during
exercise, roughly speaking, the more intense
the exercise, the more the lactic acid,
therefore the greatest soreness should
result from the greatest effort.
Now forget cycling for a moment and think
running or hill walking. Which is the
greater effort? – walking/running uphill or
walking/running downhill? The answer is
obvious – running/walking uphill is harder.
Which makes your muscles the more sore? I
and everyone I’ve spoken to about it agrees
that it’s downhill. Apparently the tension
on muscle fibres as they contract is greater
as you are going downhill and it is soreness
associated with this tension and breakage of
some of those fibres.
O.K., I hear you saying, it may not be
lactic acid, but it’ still sore. What do I
do about it? Different things seem to work
for different people – a day off training,
then a day’s easy exercise before resuming
hard training, works for some. Some may feel
better for two days off but don’t do hard
training again until your legs are fully
recovered, or you won’t be able to work hard
enough to make the difference a hard session
should make.
And another thing about lactic acid – a
build up of lactic acid is often blamed for
cramp but I would hazard a guess that people
most commonly experience cramp when they are
in bed. While not wanting to pry into what
you get up to in bed, exercise-wise, I’d be
surprised if it would lead to much of an
accumulation of lactic acid. ‘On bike’ cramp
usually occurs at the end of a long ride,
and not necessarily one of high intensity,
but the lactic acid build up in the muscles
of endurance cyclists is nowhere near that
of short distance track cyclists, but cramp
among the latter group, following exercise,
is rare.
What is a threshold? - my dictionary
defines it as ‘the starting point of an
experience’ or ‘a level or point at which
something would happen, would cease to
happen or would take effect….. '
If you can think ‘graphs’ for a moment, a
threshold might be expected to show in a
graph as a ‘kink’ or ‘deflection’, beyond
which the gradient might be different.
It has been widely held that riders, in a
ride of rising intensity, reach a lactate
threshold, beyond which they can’t ride any
harder for more than a very short period
–like a sprint for the line. The problem
with this idea is that a graph of lactate
concentration in muscles against exercise
intensity in measured conditions, as in a
ramp test, produces a smooth curve rather
than one with a deflection in it. So we can
consign ‘lactate threshold’ to room 101, so
there’s another excuse for poor performance
down the drain. It’s also likely that the
able to produce lactic acid and quickly is
actually a benefit for short distance track
riders – I’m sure Mike Reay produces it by
the litre!
Apparently the concept of an anaerobic
threshold is fraught with just the same
problem – measurements suggest that it
doesn’t exist. If you don’t know, it’s
supposed to be the level at which the
intensity of exercise gets so high that you
can’t sustain it for more than 2 or 3
minutes at a stretch. It’s generally held
that you reach the threshold at around 92%
of your maximum heart rate. For me, that’s
152bpm. If I ride well in a 10 or 25 mile
time trial, my average heart rate is between
153 and 155, so I must be spending much more
time than I’m supposed to be able to above
that threshold. You try it – and if you’re
reasonably proficient at flogging yourself
in a time trial, I bet you’ll find the same
thing.
So if you accept the arguments for my
demolition of a couple of sacred cows, why
can’t we go faster than we do?
To go faster, we need to train at higher
intensity – this will increase our ability
to consume and oxygen i.e. VO2 max.
Thankfully, everybody agrees on this, but
it’s not the only thing. Mental preparation
is all important. Now read on!
All of the above is culled from the most
recent journal of the Association of British
Cycling Coaches which I find very
informative. What follows is lifted from the
BCF E coaching journal, which I find rather
patchy, though this article, by Christina
Jacklin, a sports psychologist, is very
good.
Mental preparation
There is a term ‘in the zone’ which is
used to describe the ultimate performance,
where everything goes right, with almost
effortless ease. You’ve probably been near
to it in races when you can’t remember where
you’ve been, but it seemed to be over very
quickly, and you’ve performed out of your
skin. In other words, you’ve been in an
almost trancelike state.
So how do you get ‘in the zone’?
Train hard and specifically, so you are
confident that you are well prepared for the
race.
Know the course you are about to race on
– either ride it or drive it – to suss out
the hard bits and decide how you are going
to tackle them.
If it’s a road race, and you know the
opposition, think about who might do what in
the race and decide on possible strategies
for beating them.
Develop a pre race preparation routine
which suits you, and use it every time you
race. It might start two days before by
checking your bike, then eating the same
foods at the same times before the race,
arriving at the headquarters a set time
before your event begins, having a set warm
up routine. The last is hard to achieve in
time trials, and it’s a good idea to take a
turbo trainer with you for that purpose.
Concentrate on the race ahead – try to
visualise the course and how you’re going to
tackle it – don’t chat with the opposition –
there’ll be plenty of time for that
afterwards.
Treat the event as special
Having looked at this list of ‘must
dos’, you might very well think that life’s
too short to do them all before every race,
and I think you’re right. You can however
target a few races and do all that you can
to be ‘in the zone’ for these.
Birch the unsociable
Call me a miserable old killjoy if you will,
but I’m horrified at the pre-race
preparation of many of our riders at club
time trials. Given that those races are the
main races they do, it seems odd that so
many riders spend twenty minutes or so
chatting in the Kibworth layby prior to
their start rather than taking themselves
off on their own, continuing or starting
their warm up and trying to focus on the
race and how they are going to approach it.
I’m sure it would pay dividends, and not
lose you too many friends.
Dave Birch
August 2005
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