Athlete Series: Cycling Training Block
With 14 weeks to go until Ironman California, Kelly is deep in training. The next few weeks will be big blocks of volume and intensity, as he is well into the Build phase of his training cycle now. Sprinkled into the mix will be a few shorter distance triathlon events to knock out the cobwebs and practice transitions and race timelines. In my last post, I discussed that we would be doing a bike focus block next, so let’s dive in!
Cycling Training Block
One of Kelly’s season goals was to raise his FTP and really develop his power on the bike. After months of base building and endurance miles, it was time to ratchet up the bike focus and dive into more intense bike sessions to help him meet this goal. We began a block of high intensity bike work to boost his FTP. Since training for Ironman is still his priority, we’ve been careful in how we go about doing this.
Inevitably, when you have a heavier focus on one discipline, you have to cut back a little bit in another area. To help offset the increased intensity on the bike, Kelly went down to one “intense” run session a week and the other runs were aerobic or recovery. He still gets in miles, but we lowered the intensity so he could have recovery days from the harder bike sessions.
The Workouts
Each week, Kelly has had a mix of tempo, threshold, and lactate threshold workouts. Let’s define these workouts below to help you better understand the plan.
Tempo - Tempo riding is at 76-89% of your FTP (functional threshold power). It is that spot just above endurance riding and just below your threshold. Tempo riding is used to build up your ability to ride at higher intensities for longer durations.
Threshold - Threshold riding is at 90-105% of your FTP. You could also say it is your FTP, which is theoretically the highest amount of power you can sustain for a full hour. Threshold riding is used to work on sustaining your threshold power and working on your lactate tolerance.
Lactate Threshold - Lactate Threshold riding is working on the bodies ability to become more efficient at clearing and buffering lactic acid. You can think of this training as boosting your suffering threshold! It’s a fine line of training and is best done after having a very solid aerobic base.
Sample Workout
Here is your traditional Threshold Workout. This workout is kind of a standard threshold set, but it does the job. Kelly would see this from time to time. And because he is a triathlete, he had to run after it!
Warm Up: 20 minutes in power zones 1-2. Continue the warm up with 5x10 second sprints, 50 seconds recovery.
Main Set: 5 x 5 minutes at 100% FTP with 3 minutes recovery in between at zone 1.
Cool Down: 15 minutes with a high cadence in power zone 1.
Since we have started this block, I’ve already seen in improvement in his cycling. At the beginning of the cycle his power was hanging around the lower end of the power targets given. Now, he is sitting mid to high end of the power targets given for a workout. It’s about time to test! By the end of this training block our goal will be to see an improved FTP number, which trickles down to that higher zone 2 number. Zone 2 will be where Kelly will be riding for Ironman. So now we’ll bump that up which means more watts for longer!
What’s Next
Coming up, Kelly has a couple of races to shake out the cobwebs. In the next blog I’ll recap these events and then talk about what comes after that. Hint: BIG DAY!
Have questions about cycling training or how to structure a specific training block around three disciplines? Send me a message and I’d be happy to talk you through it.
-Happy Training!