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Whether you do bunch road racing or long endurance events such as Sani2C, there are points at which your ability to put in hard efforts are necessary - that's where power at VO2Max is important.
You have developed a good base, testing has shown that your power at threshold has gone up and now you are good at going steady for long periods. What about going fast?
Power at VO2Max allows you to react to a change of pace or to create a pace change, to accelerate, to ride fast, to successfully tackle a brutal short climb quickly. Without VO2Max training, you are out the back in the road race at the decisive moment or you're pushing your bike up the steep hills in MTB races.
Now here's the problem - motivation! How many times are you prepared to dig deep, really deep, for example with 2 minute intervals with just 2 minutes recovery before you hit the gas again? Twice, 7 times, 10 times? For some, it's once and then they revert back to training that doesn't build speed. At Cadence Cycling, we make sure you do the intervals!
Some riders achieve remarkable results, even in multi-stage races in spite of a diet of low volume, high intensity interval training (HIIT). They can cope with surges, steep hills, fast pace and endurance because HIIT not only builds power and speed, it's capacity to also build endurance is now well documented in dozens of research studies.
It's about balance, too much volume and not enough intensity will make you a slow rider. Likewise, you can't train with intensity every ride but 2 HIIT sessions per week combined with appropriate recovery rides, a quality distance ride and a race will keep you pretty sharp. |
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It can be pretty boring training solo for 3-4 hours so riding in a group or with a couple of friends can make for a really enjoyable and productive session, provided the mix of performance ability is balanced and ego's are in check.
There is an exception: If you want to test yourself against a known strong bunch, then go for it, what happens, happens and you will have accomplished your objective.
Exception ride aside, get a small group together with riders of similar strength as you. Seeing as this is a longer steady ride, power to weight will provide a good guide as to what the performance differences will be. It should result in a ride that flows, nobody waiting and nobody noodling while others suffer just to hang on - this is no fun for the struggling rider or those waiting. Get the balance right and you end up with a solid engine building ride for everyone in your group.
As for ego, remember this is an endurance/tempo ride so don't try blow others off your wheel or cook all your matches in the first 90 minutes! There are days set aside for hard interval training - this isn't it.
For intensity, you want to feel like you are putting in effort all the time but always riding within yourself. The difficulty is doing this on all the downhill and flat sections because that requires a conscious effort.
Mark Carroll
Level 2 Cycling Coach
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