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Make 2012 your best season!

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Plan to make your 2012 season the best one yet.  Recently I wrote this article for MTBRaceNews.com. You can read the article as published here, or simply read below for the full version.  Hopefully the article will raise a question or two, so let me know if I can help you further with more information.

Question:  “I know I don’t need to be training on the bike right now but what are some things I should be doing to stay in shape and ensure that I have a great 2012 race season?”

Thanks for the question! The cross training that you are doing now likely won’t have a big impact on your 2012 race season. Cross training will help keep you generally fit and ready to train, but it’s not likely to help you in the going faster department – to get faster you have to ride more and ride faster. The ‘off-season’ is the single longest period of time that you can use to boost your fitness for the season ahead, but you’ve got to do this work on your bike.  Don’t despair however, because it’s important to take a break too. As long as you’re having fun and keeping active your cross training will do its trick for the time being.

Now happens to be a great time to get away from the bike especially if your first high priority races might be sometime in the April or May window. There are some important things that you can (and should) be doing while you’re not turning the cranks. Let’s focus on what you can do while taking a hard earned break from the bike.

Outline the 2012 racing schedule

Outlining your race schedule is the basic first step. Which races do you plan to attend and which are those that you really want to do well at?  Write them all down and make note of each race’s importance in the grand scheme of your season.  This overview can always be adjusted, but it’s helpful to have a template to start with.

Evaluate and change your training routine

In order to maximize your bike training you need to take a close look at your normal day to day schedule.  How well did you balance your training with your other responsibilities during 2011? Modify your weekly schedule so that both ‘real life’ and your riding can benefit.  Perhaps planning for two or three days of no riding each week will allow you to train more and with better quality on the other days.  If you typically ride in the evenings, consider doing some of your training in the morning. This can free up your evening (bonus family time and/or less stress about getting out of work late) or it can allow you to double up and put in a little more training volume, thus adding to the workload you’re able to do in a given week.

Plan for better recovery too

As important as it is to balance life’s responsibilities with training, it is equally important to plan for good rest and recovery.  How much sleep are you getting each night?  Chances are you’ll train and race better with more of it. Adjust your evening schedule so that it might allow you to have a consistent bed time and a little extra slumber time. Evaluate what might be some of life’s biggest stresses and put some time and energy into them so that they might become less stressful. Also, how restful are your ‘rest days’? Make them count just as much as your hardest training days do.

Kick start your bike season a little earlier

Use your off-season as a great opportunity to generally catch up, evaluate things, and then prepare to implement changes once you resume training.   If your goal is to make 2012 better than the other years, I’ll encourage you to start your training a little sooner rather than later relative to what you’ve done before. The indoor trainer won’t replace singletrack, but it will certainly allow you to boost fitness for the season to come.

If you’re looking for an early season escape from the snow and cold, I’d encourage you to plan a training camp in a warmer location.  After taking a wintertime break, a training camp is an excellent way to refocus and get things started right for the new season. This can be a great chance to put in some bigger miles and catch up on some extra rest and relaxation.  Perhaps your teammates would be interested to do a camp with you, or you can consider joining Brian Matter and I at our Tucson Training Camp January 17-22, 2012.  We’ll be doing some great rides and helping riders like you sort out their season plans.

Wrapping it up

The most beneficial things that you can do during your break aren’t cross training related at all.  Invest the time to evaluate the bigger picture and figure out how your training and recovery might be able to work better with everyday life this season.  If you can do this, your training and racing will be better than ever.  While not training this time of the year, be sure to enjoy your time away from the bike. Keep active, have fun in the snow, and plan ahead for a bigger and better season in 2012. When you’re ready to go, all you’ll have to do is go for it!

Power Testing

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It’s helpful to check in and see exactly where your fitness is throughout the year. Testing doubles as excellent training too, so why not incorporate it regularly?

Having just wrapped up my cyclocross season I figured that it’d be a good time to test myself and see what my power profile is looking like.  The screen shot above shows efforts that were done at five and 20 minute durations, (testing VO2Max and Threshold fitness accordingly).  A second day of testing can be done to measure maximum one minute power and also your 10 second max effort, (which indicate Anaerobic Capacity and Neuromuscular Power respectively).

The collection of 10 second, 1 minute, 5 minute, and 20 minute data points is known as your Power Profile and can indicate where your unique strengths and weaknesses are.

Understanding what you can do for a single max effort is one thing, but how much fatigue are you able to withstand or how many repeated hard efforts can you serve out?  We can also test your fatigue resistance with workouts designed specifically to do just that.

Testing on a regular basis is a great way to measure the effectiveness of your training and the results can help us determine what training might be most appropriate for the next phase. Test often and train well!

-Travis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to Train for a Faster MTB Race Start.

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MTBRaceNews.com published this Q&A article, but I want to share it here too. Give it a read and learn how to train specifically for a faster start.

Question: I want to improve my starts and the first 5-10 minutes of my race. What are some good workouts to do?

Answer: The start of most XC races is certainly an important segment and is more critical than any other 5-10 minute portion of the race that we could otherwise consider.  Establishing your position early will allow you to settle into your rhythm without having to chase or catch back on to the competition later in the race.  However, it is also critical that you don’t start off too hard since it is possible to negatively affect the rest of the race if you do too much too soon.  Knowing yourself and what you are capable of doing will help you to gauge how hard to go at the start of your next race.  Fortunately, by training for race starts you also learn just how hard you can go and how various intensities affect your ability to withstand such an effort over the long haul.

During the first 5-10 minutes of the race you will rely heavily upon your VO2Max fitness.  How hard you’re able to go and how quickly you can recover from such intensity depends upon how well you’ve developed your maximum aerobic capacity.  By doing more VO2Max training you’ll be able to withstand more time spent above your threshold and you’ll also recover more rapidly from such efforts.  Let’s take a look at some workout examples that will help to improve your fitness at VO2Max.

 

# of Sets # of Intervals Intervals Duration Rest Duration Interval Intensity Rest Intensity
1 5-7 3 minutes 3 minutes 120+% of FTP, 9 or 10 RPE <50% of FTP, Easy!
1 4-5 4 minutes 4 minutes 120+% of FTP, 9 or 10 RPE <50% of FTP, Easy!
2-3 6-10 30 seconds 30 seconds 120+%  FTP, 9 or 10 RPE 76-90% FTP, 6 or 7 RPE

FTP = Functional Threshold Power, your maximum sustainable pace for 60 minutes

RPE = Rate of Perceived Exertion, using a 1-10 scale with 10 being a max effort

There are two types of VO2Max workouts that I suggest. 1) Continuous work intervals followed by full recovery of the same duration.  This is the typical interval training that most are familiar with – go hard for a set time, then recover fully for a set time before repeating. 2) Intermittent training will have you change the intensity numerous times prior to taking a full rest.  The intensity will oscillate between VO2Max and Tempo meaning that the sequence will eventually become very challenging.  Continuous work intervals are hard right from the start whereas the intermittent approach allows you to build into it before the workload really catches up with you.  Both VO2Max training approaches will be effective so be sure to try and include both in your season preparations.

I suggest doing numerous VO2Max training sessions within a two week block so that you can create a sufficient overload, but also one that doesn’t go on too long.  It is intense training so be sure to recover adequately between such workouts.  With improvements to your maximum aerobic capacity, you’ll certainly be more prepared to handle the first 5-10 minutes of your next XC race.  Establish your position early, but don’t burn all of your matches in order to do so.  With each VO2Max workout you’ll learn just how much you’re able to do so that on race day you can be wise with your pacing strategy.  Work hard, have fun, and the VO2Max training is sure to benefit your race starts.  Let me know how it goes for you!

USA Cycling Mountain Bike Committee

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Thanks to the votes received from other USA Cycling certified coaches, I was recently elected to the coach’s position on the USA Cycling Mountain Bike Committee. The committee exists to guide US mountain bike racing in the right direction and is comprised of eleven representatives, all coming from various realms within the sport.

I’m excited for this opportunity to serve USA Cycling members I and look forward to ensuring a healthy future for our sport. The first meeting that I’ll be attending will be October 10-12 in Colorado Springs.  As part of my nomination, here is the statement that I included:

“As an active USAC Level I coach and professional mountain bike racer, I am interested in fulfilling the ‘Coach’ position on the Mountain Bike Committee. Having the opportunity to work with juniors, seniors and masters alike, all of who compete at various levels and in various disciplines of our sport, I am highly motivated to serve USA Cycling members and ensure a healthy future for mountain bike racing.  It is important to me personally and professionally that USA Cycling serves the needs of its members and provides quality experiences for all of us to enjoy over the long-term.  As a full-time cycling coach who participates in races across the country it will be my goal to provide feedback and direction as to how USAC can improve upon its own work.  I am particularly interested in rider development and the pathways which exist for racers who are aspiring to compete on the National team. I appreciate your consideration and wish you the best of rides.”

Gear to be found in Over The Edge Bikes & Coffee.

Cross Training

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And we’re not talking about the off-season type of cross training here…  We are talking about cyclocross training!  Local races are starting in Colorado, Illinois, and on the East Coast. Cross will be taking over the cycling world soon.  With the first USGP and local races everywhere just a few weeks away,  now is the time to start getting specific.

First and foremost I highly recommend going out and doing one or two easy runs per week.  A lot of people think there is a lot of running in cyclocross, however most of the time this is not the case. On a majority of courses you are off of your bike for five seconds, you run 15 feet, and then you are back on your bike.  In some races you may run uphill, while in others it’s flat over the barriers.  No matter the particulars of the course, the amount of running is most often limited to less than 30 seconds per lap.  This equals only three to five minutes per race. We recommend running in order to get the muscles prepared for the pounding they’ll experience during those first few steps off the bike.  When dismounting for a barrier at 15 mph eccentric muscle contractions in the legs act as your brakes when transitioning into your run stride. To prepare the leg muscles for this type of stress, a little running will go a long ways. By building up your running and cyclocross transitions gradually, you’ll reduce the risk of overuse injury too.  As you get further along into the season running becomes less important since you are probably racing on the weekends and practicing during the week – thus you’ll have plenty of cross-specific running built in already.

Secondly I recommend that you incorporate some cross-specific workouts into your plan.  Nothing on the road can replicate the specific efforts of cross racing. Making big accelerations out of grassy corners, the transition over the barriers, dismounting and remounting are all skills that can’t be practiced on the road bike. Plan to get out to your favorite park for a midweek workout.  Set up some barriers (easily made from PVC and portable too) and a short five to six minute lap so that you can race your buddies like there is $1,000,000 on the line!

The best part about cross season is that while the volume of training might be less, the intensity goes way up!  Lots of AC (Anaerobic Capacity) Intervals, Micro Intervals, and VO2 Max Intervals help to replicate racing intensity.  My favorite workout is the 30:30:30.  Ride over to your favorite cross course and setup a 90 second lap.  You’ll do thirty seconds at full speed on the bike, dismount, go 30 seconds full speed running (uphill), remount, do ten hard pedal strokes, and then 30 seconds of recovery. Repeat this cycle for six or seven laps.  The more fit you are the more six or seven lap sessions you’ll be able to do. Building up to three is a great goal while starting off with a just single set works best for most of us.

Whether you are racing fast for the stars and stripes jersey or racing fast to make it to the next beer hand up, cross is here and the time to train hard is now!

-Coach Brian