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'It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.' Theodore Roosevelt 23 April 1910

Monday 28 February 2011

Looking Ahead

After last week's disappointing training effort I've started off easy this week, with a 30 min 'fast legs' and 'sort of tabata' session ('sort of' as in 5 secs very fast spin 15 secs easy). HR was under control and I felt good.

Looking ahead, I have a strength block coming up, and I'm at a bit of a loss as to what, exactly, to do. Big gear, slow cadence work is the general idea but can anyone help me with specific sessions? And can I (indeed should I?) be doing normal cycling during this block? Or should everything be big gear, low cadence during this period?

Grateful for any advice.

5 comments:

in2triathlon said...

It depends how much cycling you're doing per week. More than 8hrs and you can include all paces just change the emphasis. Less then I would stick to endurance, tempo and force for this block. If you really like your sprints include eg tabata at the beginning of your tempo as a 'warm up'.

Here is your force production session to do once a week for this block.

A force production session, low cadence with aerobic HR.

10mins warm up raising power as you go then...

3 x 10min @ 70-75% FTP & 35-40rpm, 2min RI @ 80-100w & 80-85 rpm

6mins cool down.

Done. Any qus?... no good. Send a cheque any time.

Sags said...

Neill, i suspect that not many triathletes with any sort of family committments actually log 8hrs of biking a week! Although you may be the exception. i bagged over 10hrs biking last week but only because I can't run at the moment.

Turbo Man said...

Many thanks Neill; I doubt I will be doing more than 8 hours per week on the bike so will do endurance tempo and your force session.

Cavegirl said...

Or and this isn't so dissimilar, I've been doing a 'climbing' session weekly and this is has worked really well for bring up the power ...

10 w/u, 2 x 5 mins at 50-55 rpm holding heart rate below 80%, 5 mins spin in between. 2 x 10 mins with first 10 mins as holding 85 rpm big gear heart rate at climbing threshold I sit around 90% max, then 5 min spin followed by another 10 min stint but this time alternate 1 min at 60 rpm 1 min at 90 rpm but keeping heart rate at the 90% mark, 10 mins spin down.

This gives you a bit of high end work but still with the focus on strength. I have the turbo raised 3-4 inches at the front for this session to replicate climbing (allegdly!).

Glad you are back training :-)

in2triathlon said...

No worries Mick. Hope you enjoy it. I quite like the grind. Probably say something about me.

Hi Sags, I'm right on the 8hr threshold and I won't be adding any speedy stuff for another month eventhough I would really like as an athlete the coach in mr thinks better of it. Any conflict with running though and a bike ride falls away. 18ish weeks to Roth. Monk-like lifestyle is kicking in. :-)

Keep up the good work Turbo.