Road pedals are not just road pedals, they add grams to the overall bike weight and thus play a role for your overall performance. You might have read about my little experiment to find out how much does extra weight cost on Alpe d’Huez which shows that even small weight savings makes a difference. Thus, it is worth considering bike components’ weights when you spend money next time.

Choosing new road pedals is not always an easy job. There are several things to consider and two major concerns are prices and weights. There are actually some quite significant savings for your wallet and bike weight if you look at the scheme below:

Professional Road Pedals

	Weight	Price
Shimano PD-7800 Dura Ace Pedals	348g	$288.95
Look KEO Blade Carbon Ti Pedal	250g	$395
Campagnolo Record Ti Pro Fit Plus Pedals	336g	$300
Speedplay Titanium	234g
TIME RXS Titanium Carbon Pedals	265g	$359.99

Semi-Professional Road Pedals

	Weight	Price
Shimano PD-6700 Ultegra SPD-SL Pedal	387g	$115.99
Look KeO Sprint Pedals. White	328g	$180
Speedplay X/5 Road Pedal	290g	$125

Beginner Road Pedals

	Weight	Price
Shimano 2010 105 SPD-SL Road	392g	$89.95
Look Keo Easy	370g	$69.95

All listed weights are Total weight (Pedals incl. cleats).

Please note that the links above are all pointing at Amazon which means that Training4cyclists.com receives a small payment if you click the links AND buy your cycling equipment through these links.

As I have written previously, every single gram saved is an advantage on the climbs. Naturally it must not negatively effect the riding performance, but I have never heard of a rider having troubles with light weight road pedals. Thus, if you have decided to reduce your bike’s weight, then the above links could be a good place to begin.

1. Know how hard to train
Understand the terms ‘overreaching’ and ‘overtraining’ and use them to improve your performance. Distinguishing overtraining from overreaching is important, because overreaching is a very natural process when we train. Actually that is an advanced use of the super compensation principle.

2. Make a training plan
Plan your training and set a goal for your training. Find out how much time you can spend on training and how you can get the best results with the time you have. When you know what your goals are and what time you have to achieve your goals, it is time to make a detailed training program.

3. Power meter training
Measure your effort in watts and evaluate your training rides and races. A power meter is a very powerful tool, which gives you opportunity to make even better training plans. It is best way to follow your progress.

4. Strength training
Heavy and explosive lifting makes you more efficient and stronger. Use Cycling Training Tips’ strength training program for cyclists.

5. VO2 max intervals
Increase your maximum oxygen consumption. For a cyclist a large aerobic engine is essential. When you go for a ride you stimulate your aerobic system, but how much stimulation depend on the intensity you ride with. VO2 max intervals triggers a great response from your aerobic system.

6. Anaerobic intervals
Increase your anaerobic endurance. After only a few of these sessions your body will be better to work at an anaerobic environment. This skill is primarily used in competitions, where jumps and sprints demand anaerobic efforts. This art of training is very exhausting and therefore it should primary be used for competition preparation.

7. Sprint training
Get faster and more explosive. When it comes to true sprinters, genes play a big role. Sprinters are born to be sprinters. It is said that you can make a slow donkey to a faster donkey, but you can never make a donkey to a race horse. This animal is simply born to be slow and it is the same situation for many non-sprinters. But even slow donkeys can get faster, so sprint training is strongly suggested.

8. Fartlek
Improve your tactical skills (and aerobic endurance, anaerobic endurance, sprints… etc.) If you have a period where your motivation for regular interval training is low or non-existing, then try Fartlek. It is fun and often you will experience that you get a really good workout.

9. Aerodynamics
Improve your aerodynamics. Cheat the wind… The biggest changes in aerodynamic drag come from changes in body position.

10. Recovery
Optimize your recovery. When you train hard, you deserve to get good results. One of the best moments to improve your performance is the first hour after your training session.

Image by Unplug.
Dave Simonson had finished 3 ironman competitions before he entered the power meter project back in 2007 so I knew he was a very experienced athlete. If you don’t have a clue on training it is very unlikely that you can finish three ironman competitions.

The reason Dave entered the project was because he recently had purchased a power meter. He had bought a Cycleops Pro 300PT (Powertap indoor) and wanted to learn more on power meter training and get some experience.VO2 max also improves your performance at lower workloads.

Another reason for doing intervals close to race speed is to learn the pacing strategy which is made easier than ever before by the development of power meters.

Thus, Dave’s program was a combination of short 3min intervals to build VO2max, repeated 6min bouts of high aerobic intensity and finally long 15min pacing control intervals. By doing the intervals very frequently he had a good chance to get familiar with the pacing strategy.

Optimizing of physiology for an ironman athlete

The goal for Dave was to increase his average power output on long distances (112miles/180km). This is often trained with very long rides at a comfortable pace, but I believe in building up this endurance with intervals close to race speed and even intervals performed at VO2 max once in a while. The reason for these tough intervals is that a higher

Results

Bike training with high intensity does not require the same amount of time as training with lower intensities. Dave performed 6 to 8 hours weekly training and that was enough to significantly improve his 5min and 20min maximum power output. It is also worth to remember that these increments are achieved with solid indoor training.

Have a look at these numbers that illustrate his impressive progress:

Interview with Dave Simonson after the Power Meter Project
After the project I asked Dave a couple of questions to get his opinion on power meter training:

Your 20min maximum power went from 219Watts in week 1 to 281Watts in week 12. What impact has this increment had on your performance?

Dave: “My improvement has made it much easier for me to gauge my effort on long rides. Also, I am able to ride long distances faster with less exertion.”

How will you describe your progress through the project?

Dave: “I was surprised that I made the progress I did only on 7-8 hours/week of training. The training program you created for me really enlightened me to the need for specificity for each workout.”

Have you adapted some of the ideas from the power meter project into your daily training?

Dave: “I have adapted your training plan to my continuing training and now exclusively measure my training performance and training progress using power. I download my power data into CyclingPeaks software and evaluate my progress and plan my training from a power perspective.”

I really like the concept of power meter training. It makes it possible for me to convert my knowledge about exercise physiology to the best possible training for my riders.

Let me show you an example that demonstrates what I talk about.

Gonzalo Vilaseca from Spain is an experienced rider who had been riding quite seriously the last 3 years before he participated in the Power Meter Project 2007 here on Training4cyclists.com. Before he started out on my 12 week training program he was able to perform 357W/5min and 321W/20min with a body weight of 73kg.

Quite impressive numbers so it was no easy task for me to make him significant stronger in only 12 weeks. I decided to put the most focus on building a large aerobic engine. In old days (and still found in most standard training programs) such an engine was period with long slow distance training without intervals, but I let Gonzalo test one of the newer training strategies with more intensive training.

Actually it was a quite intensive training program with intervals every second day. These intervals were designed to increase his VO2max and aerobic endurance.

I’ve used similar technics in my two latest training programs: 12 Week Winter Training Program and VO2 Max Booster Program. The VO2 Booster program though is an extreme, short and focused demonstration of how you can use a power meter to increase your VO2 max.

We know that well trained riders need intervals with an intensity close to their VO2 max to make further progress. You might wonder why I keep telling you this, but lets look at the results from Gonzalo:

The hard work payed of and he made some impressive results. His 5min maximum power went up to amazing 416w (+59W) and still weighing only 73kg. His 20min maximum power made a significant increment from 321 to 342w. I think these numbers speak for themselves.

You can read an interview with Gonzalo here.

I currently spend a lot of time finishing my ebook about effective training principles. I hope this ebook can be finished within the next month, but my first priority is that the ebook rocks. Stay tuned!

Image by jaymce
Marathon is a classic distance of 42,195km and is the ultimate challenge for a runner. I have run Hamburg Marathon a couple of years ago and I learned some lessons from the experienced marathon runners that I think many cyclists can take advantage of: 

1 - Focus on a main goal

Marathon runners are very selective when they plan their season. They choose two or three main goals during the year and use all their effort to make a top performance on race day. I know that cyclists do a lot more races than runners do, but it is recommendable to select specific races to peak in.

One of the big differences between Lance Armstrong and other riders is that he used to focus on the Tour de France as his main goal, where his opponents had several other goals during the season (World cup, Pro Tour, World Championships, Olympics). With only a few main goals it is possible to reach a higher level of performance in these hand picked races.

2 – Make a training plan with a specific goal

Marathon runners have a training plan focusing on peak their form at the main event of the season. I believe it is easier to stick to a training plan when there is a goal to achieve. That is exactly what marathon runners have: The last day in their training calendar is the marathon itself.  

3 – Use a tapering protocol

Marathon runners use different kinds of tapering protocols the last two or three weeks before the marathon race day. Again, these runners are very selective and are not afraid of deselect races as a part of preparation for the big event.

4 – Train with higher intensity

Even though marathon is a long distance event most training is performed at a relatively high intensity compared to long distance cycling. By training with a higher intensity marathon runners achieve better results in less time.

Learn more from marathon runners: Important lessons from marathon runners.