Training4cyclists

Cycling Training Tips

anaerobic endurance

How to train for anaerobic endurance

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I guess all of you have tried this kind of activity on your bike. We are talking about biking at intensities that can only be maintained for a very few minutes or maybe just seconds. These jumps require anaerobic power which can be trained separately in your training program. There are made several tests to measure maximum oxygen uptake in the lab, but unfortunately there are no similar possibility to measure anaerobic power. Thus, we have to develop indirect methods to evaluate anaerobic power. I think that testing with a power meter will be the best evaluation of anaerobic power for most riders. Find your average power output in a 60sec. all-out test.

Lactate is not responsible for fatigue

One of the biggest myths about anaerobic power is that lactate is responsible for the fatigue. Lactate is just a piece of sliced sugar and a couple of studies have shown that lactate itself does not produce fatigue, in fact one of the studies I will present in the future claims that lactate actually protects the muscles from fatigue. There are probably many reasons why we determine exercise at severe intensity.

Road cyclists don´t train enough anaerobic power

Road cycling is an aerobic discipline with more than 98% of the work covered by aerobic metabolism. Thus, most cyclists don’t offer much attention to training of anaerobic processes. They train for aerobic power and focus on lifting up their anaerobic threshold. Having a high VO2 max and a high anaerobic threshold are the two most important physiological factors with impact on your performance. Nevertheless, many races have breaking points were anaerobic power is essential. If you don’t have enough anaerobic power, you will not be able to drop the riders behind you. What you need is anaerobic power that gives you extra punch in your attacks.

Strong riders don’t win if they lack anaerobic power
If you feel comfortable during the race, just waiting for the moment to attack, then unsuccessful attacks might be caused by insufficient anaerobic power/sprint. What happens is that the whole bunch reacts when you start to jump and catch you quickly because there is not enough punch in your jump. Also the other riders may be extraordinary aware of your attacks since you have showed that it’s not a problem for you to stay in the group.

So how can we solve this problem?
Focused anaerobic training with a power meter! Anaerobic training has never been easier than now. Power meters make it so much easier to produce the correct workload during the intervals (pacing control during a 40second interval is really difficult without a power meter). If you have been riding on track, you will know how much influence pacing control has on performance. I guess that we all have tried to start out too fast on time trials on the roads, but what I try to say, is that hurts so much more when it happens in short events like a 1000m or just in a short interval. If you are not able to maintain watts in the end of a interval, I’m pretty sure that a power meter will help your pacing and after a couple of months you will see that your training is more effective and gives better results.

Anaerobic endurance program

I have made a program for anaerobic training that could be used to develop a higher level of anaerobic endurance. This program is a part of the indoor training programs.

15 minutes – warm up (increasing intensity)
5 x (60sec. maximum intensity + 6 min. recovery)

This program is designed to increase your anaerobic capacity. During the intervals the body is exposed to enormous amounts of anaerobic metabolites. 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.

Boost Your Performance With Alternative Workouts

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Motivation is important when you are a serious cyclist, because you spend so many hours on your bike. The best cyclists have an ability to motivate themselves workout after workout, season after season. But even though you think of yourself as a dedicated and motivated rider, you might sometimes feel that you have ended up in a training vacuum: You train every single day, but you don’t get any better.

Change training strategy

Doing the same interval procedure every Tuesdays and Thursdays are not necessarily the best way to train and certainly not the most motivating to ride. Mixing up your regular intervals with other intervals is not only motivating, but might improve some of the skills that you haven’t touched for a while. If you haven’t done focused anaerobic training that is one of the fastests skills to improve.

Unorganized intervals (fartlek)

Systematic interval training is the cornerstone in many training programs, but even the best training program needs to be mixed up with unorganized intervals. What I talk about is Fartlek, which is a combination of many different intervals with both aerobic and anaerobic events. These intervals are not organized as the intervals you know from regular interval training. Instead you use the terrain, the winds or you friends to get inspired to make attacks of various lengths. It is very challenging to train Fartlek if you train it with a couple of competitive friends.

Long Slow Distance Training

This might not sound like an opportunity if you are fed up with training hours, but if you have done a lots of systematic intervals with your power meter and got bored, there is a chance that doing couple of LSD sessions could be challenging.

Participate in Cycling Races

One of the easiest ways to increase your performance is to participate in races. In several countries there are opportunities to ride extra races every week, so that is a great alternative to your regular training. By doing races as training sessions you get targeted training that is very specific for what you aim for.

Even the best cycling training program has limitations

Evaluating your performance is a process that shall continue throughout your career. Your training program must be optimized as you get knowledge about what works best for you. But even the best cycling training program must be changed once in while.