Getting Faster on the Bike (For Triathlon) Part 1…

Been meaning to to write this for a while but have been busy riding my bike (and sleeping). I often get asked how can I get faster on the bike so thought I would pop down my 10 top tips. In no particular order the first 5…

1. Get a bike Fit. 

The riders Drag (the resistance to the air) makes up 80% of the total drag of the rider and the bike. Therefore it makes complete sense to start here. I often see people throwing a set of tribars onto their road bike and expecting to go faster. They sometimes end up higher in the air and presenting more frontal area then they would have done riding on the drops of their road bike. Go and see a good fitter! A good fitter will assess your flexibility and your goals and set you up correctly. In addition if you are thinking of buying a new bike you can go and see a fitter before hand and avoid making a very expensive mistake. Not all bikes are created equal and I have seen many people on bikes that are too long or too short for them. I have used and I recommend:

Home

http://www.bike-science.com/precision-bike-fitting/derby-booking-c-295_354.html

2. Get a pointy hat.

Remember that 80% we just talked about? Quite a bit of that comes from your head hitting the air. A typical road helmet has lots of vents and creates lot of drag. A teardrop shaped Aero helmet can help you punch a smoother hole in the wind. Choose one that blends in with the shape of your back when you are riding in your race position. Aero helmets have been shown to have a bigger time saving then buying a really expensive frame or set of wheels. One caveat with pointy hats is that you should really be able to keep you head relatively still and the tail of the helmet down against your back to create the best airflow. The other advantage is that you look silly which means you have to ride faster!

3. Tight Fitting Clothing

Things that flap around cause drag and slow you down. Wear tight fitting clothing and if you are time trialling then get a one piece skinsuit. The most critical area for this is where the air both hits you and leaves you. I.e. chest and shoulders and your lower back/glutes. Normal cycling jerseys are especially bad here, pockets in just the wrong places. Keep it tight and smooth…

4. Good tyres

Tyres can have an enormous contribution to your bike speed. Going from training tyres to race tyres can get you 90 seconds over the course of a 40km triathlon bike leg or 25mile TT. I recommend either Vittoria Corsa CX II or Continental GP4000s. If you have really narrow wheel such as a HED3 you may be better off with something like a 20mm Continental Supersonic.

5. Latex Inner tubes

Most inner tubes are made from butyl rubber. Latex inner tubes are more supple and allow the tyre to conform to the surface of the road better. This reduces the energy needed to push the tyre along. Plus they make a lovely humming noise as they go along.

Next 5 coming soon…

Heart Rate Training and Max Heart Rate testing

Something I posted on the Beeston Cycling Club website. It came about from discussions within the club.

So a number of people are riding/training to heart rate zones. There’s nothing wrong with that really and I may have come over a little strong in previous posts. However my personal opinion is that unless you are training for something specific there is little point and you may as well just enjoy riding your bike.

Using perceived exertion is probably more reliable than HR training but needs a bit of experience. If you are going to train by heart rate I would still recommend going to a lab and getting a full test done so that you understand the whole picture. However if you can’t or are unable for some reason then then read on…

This is something I have cobbled together so is by no means exhaustive or complete and there are a number of ways of doing it. In addition I’m sure there will be comments and further clarifications that are worth reading through. I’ll edit this a bit as they are made and discussed. Please note that this is all my opinion and I am not trying to be descriptive or prescriptive about how people want to ride or train.

Heart Rate is a good indication of the stress the body is undergoing. Note that this is stress and not output. Hence heart can be unreliable for understanding the amount of work you are doing when riding. Like all scientific training you need to get a little scientific if you are going to use it.

Stress can be caused by a number of things including Work, relationship, tiredness, sleep, caffeine and adrenaline. That being said most of us can’t afford a power meter so if we want some way of measuring our performances and training then it’s the next best thing. It can also be useful to make sure you are working hard enough for your hard sessions and easy enough for your steady sessions. Heart rate varies greatly from day to day due to the factors outlined above so can be very inaccurate again. It also takes a while to raise to an effort level and stabilise, around 3-4 minutes is normal so it’s useless for short efforts and intervals.

If you’re going to use Heart Rate to train by or as a reference tool then it makes sense to establish a baseline to work from. Getting into a lab would be the best thing but this can be difficult and costly. The old way of 220 – your age is grossly inaccurate and can lead to you working much too hard or much too easy hence removing the point of HR training in the first place. I have seen people who are over 20 beats different from their 220-age predicted to their actual. However you can find your own Heart Rate yourself using a couple of simple tests.

In all cases I would make sure that you have someone with you both as motivation and to make sure that you are okay. In addition I would advise talking to your doctor as going to heart rate max is intense and could risk your health. This is done at your own risk! Your helper may also be needed to take your HR if your monitor does not have a max function. In addition make sure you are rested for a day beforehand. Your helper may well need to shout at you to keep it going. This will hurt! If you are not prepared to do this then rethink your use of a heart rate monitor due to the accuracy issues outlined above. You can do a sub-maximal threshold test which is a little more complicated which I may go into another time. It doesn’t really matter which test you do and as long as you go really really ahrd you can do your own thing.

Either…

Test 1: Indoor on a turbo, warm up well for at least 15 minutes gradually raising your effort level. Then do a 10-15 minute (your choice) max Time trial effort, for the last minute go as hard as you can and then sprint the last 10 seconds. You should get pretty close doing this. Make sure you keep pedal ling and warm down down another 10-15 minutes. You may need to repeat this several times to get an accurate result and get your pacing right but leave several days in between.

Or…

Test 2: Outdoors. Warm up again for at leat 15 minutes, find a hill that you can ride up for at least 500m and has a ramp at the end. In addition in would be useful to have a good long approach so you can get your speed up. Ride up to the hill at solid tempo and then attack the hill as hard as you can, Stand when you reach the ramp and go for it. You may need to repeat this a few times to really find out where you can get to. You may have to vary your approach speed to fatigue yourself properly. Be careful of traffic and other road users!

So what do I do with the data! There are many ways of setting zones/levels and each is only appropriate for you. But you have to choose one. I use the British Cycling Training Intensities. The zones are given in %age of max heart rate and then there is an RPE (perceived exertion) and a suggestion of a training duration with each one. This is just a suggestion and alternatives are out their that are less complicated.

Recovery – less than 60% – 1. very light – less than 1hr

Easy – 60%- 65% – 2. Light – 1.5 – 6 hrs

Steady – 65% – 75% – 3. Moderate – 1-4 hrs

Tempo – 75% – 82% – 5. Heavy – 45 mins – 2 hrs

Threshold – 82% – 89% – 6. Heavy – 30 mins – 1 hr

Maximal – 89% – 94% – 7. Very Heavy – 14 -40 mins

V02 – 94% + – 10. Extreme – 4-10 mins / intervals

Sprint – n/a – n/a – 30s + intervals

Now what you do with all that information is entirely up to you! Everyone is different and seeking different goals so it’s virtually impossible to make any general recomendations.

Periodisation of Training

Just some notes from a talk I just did for TFN Tri Club. I’m getting more into block training now, but I think this still works fine for novice and intermediate athletes as well as working AG athletes.

We talked about some ways of planning a year. If you just want to train all year round then that’s great too. Basically periodisation is planning to peak at one race or for a short period of time. You could aim for a double peak if you wanted to qualify for an event or fancied having a really good crack at a couple of races in a year.

We then all had a go at filling in a planner. We worked backwards from our goal race to see when we need to start structured tri training. Until the onset of structured training Coach Chris has some really good advice on winter training above.

TFN_Season_Planner <—– Download this excel file and you can fill it in too.

There are many ways of doing it. Lets talk about the similarities.
• Consistency is key.
• Involves some sort of progression
• Made up from various cycles
o Macrocycles – Yearly Training Plan.
o Mesocycles – A block of training (2-8 weeks). Often a calender month.
o Microcycles – A repeated segment of a mesocycle. Typically a calendar week.
o Some intensity all year round

Lets talk about the differences and issues
• Many Periodisation plans come from strength and power sports and are then adapted for endurance sports…
• What works for a pro may not work for an age grouper. Especially with ones that work full time, have a partner and/or a family.

So where do we start?

Macrocycle. On your planner identify 1 or 2 key races! These are your A races and ones you will taper and work towards. You can also have B races that you will rest a bit for and C races that you will train through.

Mesocycle. What do we do with our year plan?

Taper.
• Sprint/Standard
o 7-10 days
• Middle to Iron distance
o 10-14 days
• Reduction in volume to allow the body to rest and refuel. 50 – 75% of your normal, remember to include your race!
• do short sharp sessions at race pace.
• No Weights

Specific
• 8 Weeks
• Overall volume remains constant
• Introduce some sessions at race pace, can steadily increase duration/reps
• Maintenance weights, once a week
• great time for cycle Time Trials/ Park Runs / short road races

Base
• Sprint 1 x 4 week block
• Standard 2 x 4 week blocks
• Iron and middle distance 3 x 4 week blocks.
• Steady and gradual increase in volume to a sustainable level.
• Most sessions done steady or easy.
• Some intensity
• after the first four week include 2 x 4 week block of hills!
• technique and efficiency focus
• Strength work! Especially older men, most women. If you come from a strength/power background then maybe not.
• Good time to loose a bit of weight

IM and novice athletes can happily do base all year round!

Microcycles – What to do with your week?

First thing to ask is do you need to use a calendar week?
• 7 day (3 weeks on, 1 week easy)
• 10 days rolling, many pros use this (rest built in)
• 11 days on 3 days off (built in rest every microcycle) – really good for AG’rs

Priorities!
• Date night!
• Playing with your kids
• Staying employed

Sessions
• Build it round the core.
o Long Ride
o Long Run
o Race pace Brick
• Then the stuff you can’t move.
oClub swim sessions
o OW sessions
o Track sessions.
• Everything else is gravy!ß