Dear Athletes,
Last week we started a series of emails around the elements involved in the bike discipline of triathlon. I introduced you to my ‘winning formula’, that I always adopted in racing and now in coaching. This winning formula is based on the key foundations of my two rules of performance.
These are -
- To be fitter than your competitors.
- To know more than your competitors.
I believe if you are able to consistently seek both, and in a training environment with a culture of excellence, you will develop your full capacity to perform as an athlete.
Today’s email will look at the foundation fitness required on the bike to develop the skills to ride well in any given race, and also have the essential specific bike fitness to allow you to run fast off the bike.
So how do we maximise training time on the bike?
Firstly, get your mind focussed on riding well and recognising the importance of the bike leg.
Train hard and don’t ‘expect’ anyone to help you in a race
Bike riding in triathlon used to be an individual time trial on the bike. That meant athletes needed to learn to ride hard for around 50% of the race time. Sometimes by going back to the basics and training the core skills of a sport will allow you to develop yourself into an athlete in the future that is better than the rest.
As was the case in the early days of triathlon, as a triathlete today, you must train to be fit on the bike – aerobically and anaerobically - if you are going to run well off the bike. If you are fit on the bike, you will cope with the run better, because it will not take as much out of you.
While today, the race format is different and involves drafting on the bike, it still remains very important that you develop the skills and fitness to cope with the bike leg of the triathlon on your own. Often you will find yourself in situations in races where other athletes will not ‘help’ or be as cooperative as you would like them to be. You need to be very clear on this and understand that triathlon is an individual event, and opportunities to work with others may arise in the bike leg, but more often than not, you cannot rely completely on this occurring.
There is no point in ‘saving your legs for the run’.. this is pointless for two reasons.
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Firstly, if every athlete chasing is to adopt this view, they will all lose more time and make winning almost impossible.
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The fastest runners in a triathlon usually come out of the fastest bike pack – or those who worked hard on the bike.
Therefore, you need to be fit on the bike. How do you do this?
The ‘Do’s and Don’ts’ of bike training
Do train on hills
Train on hills as often as you can. This does not mean find a hill and ride repeats, it means ride loops that are undulating. As a basic rule of thumb, for a typical 2 hour ride you should climb over 600m. A tough 3 hour ride should climb 1000m. Why? – because the hills constantly challenge you. Rides like this teach you how to pedal efficiently, select the correct gear, descent, corner, climb, reading the wind, even how to take on nutrition – you are effectively training all the key skill areas every time you ride.
Do learn to ride the small ring first
When you are developing your bike riding, you need to spend the majority of your time in the small ring. This allows you to focus on riding gears that give you a cadence you can tap along at, using a smooth pedalling action. Ideally your cadence will be around 90. You can only develop your power on the bike once you have developed the skill to pedal efficiently. This is extremely important to remember. Small chain ring, efficient pedalling through undulating terrain. With regard to the size of the small ring, I prefer a standard chainset (typically standard is a 39/52-3 compared to a 35/50 compact combination), because you are able to develop your pedalling efficiency while also giving you a longer distance per pedal revolution. We will get to this later, but a high cadence in racing will adversely affect your run off the bike. This seems contradictory right now, as I tell you to train on smaller gears, but skills first, develop your pedalling efficiency, then develop your power, speed and TT skills. It is a process and foundation skills are key when you are developing as an athlete.
Do ride outdoors
While there are some very good indoor trainers, and some environmental reasons do force you indoors, it is important to ride out on the road as much as you can. A trainer does not develop your bike handling skills, nor does it develop your pedalling efficiency as the open road can. You do not develop an understanding of wind direction or the sensation of riding on damp roads while on a trainer. Climbing is not the same indoors either. If every time you do a hard effort you do this indoors on a trainer, you will not transfer this well to a race, because moving at speed on a road requires different skills to riding flat out on a trainer.
A variety of training tools are excellent to have on hand, but training in the conditions you race for the majority of the time should always be the priority.
Don’t ‘train’ in car parks
A cornering session or a skill session in a car park is not a bike fitness training session. While these sessions are useful to developing your bike skills they are just that – a skill session. You may be able to add intensity to these sessions, but they are additional sessions to your bike training sessions. Your bike sessions should be out on the road learning in the environment you are going to race in. When developing your skills add them to your program, do not put them in your program to replace a real ride that is going to contribute to your bike fitness.
Don’t ride every day
It is a well known fact that bike riding does not contribute to running fast. It is also known to race well, you must run fast off the bike. What is not so well known is that running well does contribute to riding well. Therefore, you need to ensure your time spent training on the bike is time well spent, because any km’s on the bike trained that are not contributing to your bike fitness and skill is wasted effort. You only have so much time and energy you can train each day, so make sure this valuable time is spent improving yourself, not just tiring yourself.
I would recommend 3 rides a week, typically on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday around key intensity run sessions on a Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday with the Sunday long run also in the mix. Swimming is then added to that basic plan according to your swim ability (generally no less than 4 swims a week).
Initially your 3 riding days should be as mentioned above - in the small ring, and a nice smooth cadence and efficient pedalling should be the priority. When developing your cycling skill, do not rush this stage. I find a junior athlete with a good fitness base, but not a strong bike base will need to ride regularly for at least 12 months. As fitness improves, intensity of the rides can increase using the undulations of the hills, but efforts at this stage should not be a focus.
Don’t ride on your key run speed days
On your key running days, when the purpose is to develop speed, do not ride that day. Riding is best done the day before and the day after. Your key running day is just that – running (there will be an email on this topic later).
I hope the above makes it clear that developing your fitness on a bike is not a complicated process. Ride hills, learn to ride efficiently and ride to minimise your time spent on the bike so your training is efficient.
Next week we look at developing your riding skills using various training session types.
See you then
Emma
