Training sessions that make masters cyclist faster climbers

What's the point of training, Why don't we just ride our bikes to get fit?

From experience coaching master cyclists and myself using the methods I'm just about to talk about they are all stronger, faster better climbers than anyone who "Just rides their bikes"

If you want to improve your average speed over longer distances and climb hills faster stay tuned

My core focus in my own training and the cyclists I coach is to 

Grow strength
Increase Vo2 Max 
Increase lactate Threshold 
Increase Lactate Clearance
Develop an aerobic engine to go faster with less effort 

All this is possible as we age. You know that to be true because there are master cyclists out there still smashing in exceptional times in sportives, Time Trials and cracking out stunning PB's on KOMS

One thing is for sure older cyclists who stay fast and strong up hills are not JUST RIDING their bikes week in and week out they are being focused, specific and consistent 

In this episode, I talk about the training that got me fast and give examples of sessions that helped me stay fast up hills. I'm trying a new shorter format. I hope you like it. 

Transcript

What's the point of training, Why dont we just ride our bikes to get fit?

Well  you can, especially if you're coming from a low base of fitness just riding your bike will improve your fitness but eventually you plateau 

Because growing fitness, power, average speed gains and strength on hills and becoming faster on climbs is more than endless base cardio conditioning 

Other things to consider here. As we get older we start to lose strength, Vo2, Lactate threshold and even bone density (even more so as pure cyclists) 

Here's the thing I keep saying and will continue to keep hammering home. You can hold back all of this age-related decline, get and stay fast on your bike well into your late 50s' you just need to train specifically for it.

And that's the point of training with focus

From experience coaching master cyclists and myself using the methods I'm just about to talk about they are all stronger, faster better climbers than anyone who "Just rides their bikes"

If you want to improve your average speed over longer distances and climb hills faster stay tuned

My core focus in my own training and the cyclists I coach is to 

Grow strength
Increase Vo2 Max 
Increase lactate Threshold 
Increase Lactate Clearance
Develop an aerobic engine to go faster with less effort 

All this is possible as we age. You know that to be true because there are master cyclists out there still smashing in exceptional times in sportives, Time Trials and cracking out stunning PB's on KOMS

One thing is for sure older cyclists who stay fast and strong up hills are not JUST RIDING their bikes week in and week out they are being focused, specific and consistent 

And here's the cool thing, being specific rather than "Just riding your bike"  it's often less time-consuming and develops your fitness faster

keep watching because Ill go deeper into the why and types of sessions I use that keep me fast

In the last episode, I talked about why strength and base endurance training are the foundations of speed, power and strength on a bike.

Now let's talk about the harder training that makes me and you faster over longer distances and gets you quicker up hills. You notice that there are some cross-over training sessions that benefit other energy systems. 

Vo2. 
Vo2 training increases the volume of oxygen to working muscles. I've talked about why and how I do this in another video. I'll add the link to that at the end. 

Harder sessions such as Lactate Threshold and Lactate Clearance Training 

This is all the rage right now, especially with the Norwegians and for good reason it increases your maximal sustainable power. 

Sweet Spot Sessions at 84% - 97% of FTP are good training sessions that help improve Lactate Threshold 

A good way to start is at the lower range for multiple sets of 8 mins on 4 mins off and repeat x 3 and take it from there 

The great thing about Sweet Spot is it's not too tough which means you can complete a few sessions evenly spaced apart each week to grow fitness. 

Just over the threshold and just under (Under and overs) helps improve Lacate Clearance. These are tough at 103% 105% and 80% - 90%. Start at 1min over 1 under and repeat x 4 with 4 mins recovery and take it from there 

Short hard vo2 efforts into Tempo also help improve lactate clearance and your mental ability to deal with harder efforts. 3 blocks of 30's at 125% of FTP into 2 Mins Tempo x 4 then 5 mins recovery

Because emotionally and physically these are hard I'd only do 1 of these sessions each week and add another specific session that's less full on such as Sweet Spot or Threshold Climbing to pull up my fitness and climbing speed. 

There is so much I can go into and get my master's cyclists to focus on getting faster on their bikes. I can't cover everything in one video.

So I'll leave you with this. "Just riding your bike" is very one-dimensional for speed, power and fitness. Want to be faster? You need to work on all energy systems, muscle fibres and strength, and keep working at it. As I keep saying, if you don't train it you lose it which happens quite quickly if you're not careful. 

In the next video, I'll talk about nutrition, why it's not all just about protein and why insulin is not the bogeyman for master cyclists or weight loss.

Thanks for watching, the video about my Vo2 sessions...HERE https://youtu.be/JsIvZT4h2ck?si=7Yj891IT0zjY2K0c