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Cycling Training Tips

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How to Train for Better Sprint Performance

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Most riders enjoy a sprint once in a while with the group they train with. It can be a really good simulation of the challenges at the end of a race.

If you organize these random sprints, you have the opportunity to make your sprints a lot better and still have a lot of fun battling with your friends. Here are some sprint sessions which may help you to become a better sprinter:

Sprint Program for Cyclists #1

15 minutes warm-up (increasing intensity)
8 x 10 sec group sprint. 5 min recovery between each sprint.

This program is a very simple example of solid principles that you should use in sprint training.

Please note that after each sprint you should have a long recovery before your next sprint. By having this long recovery you will be able to make maximum effort in each sprint and get a great stimulus for every single muscle fiber involved in sprinting.

It is a mistake to believe that sprint training should only be done after long rides to simulate “the real thing”.

When you are tired, dehydrated and your glycogen stores are empty, you have probably also lost your concentration and motivation. The circumstances might be psychologically comparable to race situations, but they will never represent optimum training of your physiological sprinting skills.

Sprint Program for Cyclists #2

15 minutes warm-up (increasing intensity)
5 x 10 sec power sprint. 5 min recovery between each power sprint.

Slow down your bike and then do a maximum acceleration in a high gear (53×14-16). This exercise is probably the closest you can get to specific maximum strength training on your bike.

This workout can easily be performed a couple of times each week because the recovery needed after these power sprints is minimal. Although it should be emphasized that recovery periods between power sprints must be long enough to ensure full recovery.

Just like any other workout, it is a good idea to analyze your efforts afterwards. Group sprints are more complex to analyze because you train several different skills (technical, tactical and physiological) while power sprints are pure power training.

Again I need to mention that a power meter is a fantastic analysis tool providing objective feedback for your efforts.

Finally, don’t forget to read the real secrets of successful sprinters.

10 Common Sprinting Mistakes

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Long time ago I published an article about how to win a bunch sprint. I told you to pick your parents carefully, be patient, get in position and finally be strong.

Winning a mass sprint in a cycling race is not only about big muscles and genes. There are some simple steps that will help you to get more succesful when cycling races end up with a mass sprint.

If I should give you 3 magic words that will bring you better results in mass sprints it would be position, position and position.

Here are common mistakes that riders make in a sprint finish. Being aware of these 10 common mistakes can reduce the risk of blowing up your chances in a mass sprint:

1. Shifting into the 53-11T (or some gear far too big) right away
2. Starting your sprint far too early
3. Being too far back in the pack when the sprint starts
4. Being at the very front of the pack too far before the finish line
5. Coming underneath on the final corner
6. Boxing yourself in
7. Dropping the wheel
8. Staying behind a rider who doesn’t try to win the sprint.
9. Spending too much energy before the final sprint
10. Not being aware of wind conditions

Do you have more tips that should be included in this list with common sprint mistakes?

Is a Heart Rate Monitor w/ Cadence Helpful in Sprint Training?

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Kscheid asked me the following question: “I am interested in knowing a bit more about monitors. I have a heart monitor, which I like using, but I know that there are other monitors out there, say for cadence and/or power output. I am not a racer, so I am not sure I would really need the power meter. However, I do want to improve my sprinting ability. Would a monitor that shows cadence be enough to help with gauging and measuring improvement?”

If I was asked to do some serious improvements on sprint skills, I would never recommend an upgrade from a heart rate monitor to a heart rate monitor with cadence.

Knowing your cadence as a sprinter might be useful, e.g. in post-race analysis of gear choice and cadence in the final sprint and other crucial moments. Before you start to analyse your performance in previous races, I think it is much more beneficial to work on your sprint power through training. That means different sorts of power sprints, high speed sprints and tactical sprints. That will make for sure make you a better sprinter.

Power meter can track progress in sprint performance

A power meter is the only tool worth considering if you want to track your progress. Spending time on analysis of maximum cadence is inaccurate and waste of time as a measurement of sprinting power. If you are not the lucky owner of a Power Tap or SRM Crank, the only way to track gains in sprinting skills will be on the result list. In most situations this is a cheap and really nice indicator of progress. On the opposite, what is a gain in maximum sprint watts worth if you can’t convert that to better results?

Sprinters can benefit in several ways from power meters

When the above is said, there are a lot of other good reasons why sprinters should use a power meter. If you are a road sprinter, you will need a large aerobic engine which can be trained more precise with a power meter. High sprinting power simply isn’t enough on the roads, you will need well trained aerobic system, like it or not.

Track sprinters who has 200m as their primary discipline don’t need the same amount of aerobic endurance training, but they will need to do anaerobic endurance intervals where a power meter is the logical way to pace intensity (heart rate monitors are worthless for these kind of intervals).

If you would like me to answer a question from you, please fill in the form on this site.

Short-term sprint interval rocks

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How effective can a set of short-term sprint intervals compared to regular endurance training at a comfortable pace be? It is well known that interval training can be time saving, but in July 2006 there was published an interesting study in The Journal of Physiology. The scientists compared the outcome of low volume sprint training 3 times a week (4-6  x (30sec. all-out efforts / 4 min. recovery)) with high volume endurance training 3 times a week (90-120min at 65% VO2 peak).

Before they started the training programs the riders performed a 2km and 30km time trial. After the 14-days training program, they did the same tests over again. Muscle samples were taken to show molecular and cellular adaptations.

There were similar increments in muscle oxidative capacity, muscle buffering capacity and glycogen content in both groups. All these increments were significant which shows us, that the initial adaptations seem to be the same, whether you go for short intervals or long rides. The interesting part is that the sprint-group spent much less time on their training but got the same improvements in performance. Actually they only spent 7-8 minutes a week on their intervals (and 60 minutes recovery time).  The endurance group rode their bikes for more than 5 hours a week!

This report is very interesting and I look forward to read more results from these scientists. In the future I will prefer a setup with trained cyclists instead of just ‘active men’ and let them stick to the training program for a longer period of time. Nevertheless this study shows something about how deep impact intervals can make on performance.

I’ll go for some high intensity sprints on my Principia this afternoon.

Reference:
Gibala MJ, Little JP, van Essen M, Wilkin GP, Burgomaster KA, Safdar A, Raha
S, Tarnopolsky MA.  Short-term sprint interval versus traditional endurance training: Similar initial adaptations in human skeletal muscle and exercise performance. J Physiol. 2006 Jul 6;