OPTIMISING LONG RIDE QUALITY FOR BUILDING AEROBIC ENDURANCE. The biggest challenge during this base training period is getting the intensity right on long rides. Even during a solo ride, cyclists have a difficult time zoning in on the correct intensity. Turn what you usually do on its head: Using perceived exertion, it should feel easy up hill (because you usually hammer it), moderate on the flat and hard downhill (because you usually do nothing). Use a combination of perceived exertion and heart rate to remain at the correct intensity - or ride with a power meter! It should feel like you are ALWAYS pedaling. Your body prefers to be on the gas and off the gas so this is the opposite of what it wants and is used to. To build your engine, the load needs to be continuous and consistent. This is NOT low intensity, 2-3 hours of this and you feel ready to go home. When you hammer up hill and go anaerobic, youre not doing a base ride / building aerobic endurance. When you are forced to recover downhill or simply tap off, youre not doing a base ride either, despite what your intentions were when you sat on the bike. As Charles Howe put it, Its an aerobic sport, damn it!, and this is prime aerobic endurance season. Do short bursts year round... This will seem counter-intuitive but short sub-maximal sprints of around 10 seconds should be done now and year round. Separate each sprint by 15-30min through your ride. These bursts are too short to build any significant lactate and hydrogen, so wont interfere with your base training volume and quality. What these efforts will do is increase speed of muscle contraction and therefore release of energy as well as neural recruitment of muscle/activate more muscle. One simple way to up the quality of your base training!
Posted on: Wed, 05 Mar 2014 08:06:14 +0000
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