Turbo Training Strength & Power Sessions
The club run was never intended to be a pure training ride, it’s a social event really and that’s exactly how it should be treated. All ride at the same pace and the strong help the weaker and everyone has a good time. So when do we actually train then? On the turbo during the week of course, as this is where you’ll ‘keep strong’ by doing short interval based strength and power sessions.
Bike strength and power training might seem to be one of the same but they are not. Strength is muscle strength, using the legs, or mainly the muscle groups below the waist for endurance cyclists. Power means aerobic power using the respiratory muscles groups, the diaphragm, lungs and heart. We need to look for a good balance of muscle strength and aerobic power and what no better place to train it than on the turbo.
Either of these can be performed on open roads during the warmer/lighter months.
How do we train strength and power?
Quite easily, just a couple of fairly short sessions a week is all you need to do through the winter. A note of warning though before you begin. If you have current knee or back problems don’t attempt to do these sessions as they will definitely aggravate the injury.
Strength training is done in very short explosive flat out efforts lasting between 5-10 seconds maximum in a massive gear/resistance with long recovery periods of 2-3 minutes in between. The resistance and gearing must be far bigger than anything you would ever use during normal training on the road and you must ‘explode’ into each interval. Maybe do 3 such efforts the first time you try it and add one each week until you are eventually doing 7-10. Too much to soon will be counter productive so stick to 3 initially. Also never hurry the rest period, 2-3 minutes may feel to long, however your muscles will need the recovery in order for you to go again at full tilt. The 5-10 second effort should be ‘anaerobic’ here and isn’t long enough to drive your heart rate too high
The power intervals are done in a big gear but only a couple of sprockets bigger than you feel comfortable with and NOT massively over-geared as with the strength element. Intervals here last between 2-4 minutes with equal rest, i.e. 2 mins effort 2 mins rest. You should feel like you’re working quite hard in these intervals. Your heart rate may be 10-15 beats above your anaerobic threshold meaning you should feel a fair degree of breathlessness but nothing like racing. As with the strength intervals, start off with maybe 3-4 of these intervals and gradually build the number of reps as weeks pass.
Short and sharp is the key to the success of these sessions. All done within an hour including a warm up and cool down. Warm up well and spend plenty of time cooling down in a small gear otherwise you’ll have stiff legs the following day. Remember to train like this in full race position as this brings the race specific muscle groups into use.
Finally remember to consider your own level of fitness and current injury state before testing yourself with either of these strength or power sessions.
Happy training!!
If you liked this article, why not subscribe to TrispaceRSS Feed.
Alternatively subscribehere to receive new articles by email.
