Early Season Training

Early Season Training and Planning to Train
         
February/March is generally the time to start the transition from an off-season of lower intensity base miles to higher intensity training. Start backing off on the weights if you have been lifting, and shift your training emphasis from the gym to your bike. It is also the time to set your goals for the season.

Nobody can win all the time all year, so pick the races you want to do well in and use other ones for training. Using a race for training doesn’t mean you can’t try to win it, it basically just means you don’t alter your training in any way to do it, and you don’t put any pressure on yourself to do well in it.

Using a race for training doesn’t mean you can’t try to win it, it basically just means you don’t alter your training in any way to do it and you don’t put any pressure on yourself to do well in it. In fact, it is a good opportunity to test out new tactics or be really aggressive or try some "do or die" moves. They require very precise timing and don’t work in the majority of cases, but every once in a while they do and they certainly make you stronger. I have done early season races (this works best in criteriums) where I watched my heart rate monitor and every time my HR was below AT for more than a minute or two, I would attack. This is not exactly a winning strategy, but it does wonders for your fitness. It is also much more fun than intervals!

It is helpful to write down your goals for the season. It forces you to think about them more. You should have goals for both racing and training. Try to set your goals based on things you have control over, not just race outcomes. For example, you could have a goal of making it over climbs with the lead group in certain races or putting yourself in a good position to sprint on the last lap of a criterium. You should also decide which race or races you want to achieve your best fitness at. For training, you need to have a way of measuring your progress to set goals.

If you are working on climbing, this can be a certain time on a certain hill or the number of times you can do repeats on a shorter climb under a certain time. For TTs, you should have a specific test course you can time yourself on. For sprinting, you can look at your maximum speed. Seeing your own progress and achieving a new PB is very motivating. Also, this way you can tell that you are getting stronger, even if everyone else is too and your relative position among your training partners isn’t changing much. If your race results start to deteriorate, you can see if it is because you are getting tired or if it is because your competition is getting better. If you are training hard and your fitness measures are getting worse, you very likely need some rest. The number one indicator of overtraining is a sustained decrease in performance.

Cycling is one of the few sports where racing is a major part of training. The best way to learn how to race is to race. Sometimes you learn about where your limits are, sometimes you learn how to position yourself in a pack more easily, or something about a competitor’s strength or weakness. Sometimes you just learn tactically what DOESN’T work. This means paying attention to yourself and how you feel in various situations and also watching better riders.

After every race, whether you win or someone else does, you should think about exactly HOW that win was accomplished. If you got dropped, try to think about why and what you can do about it in the future not only physically but mentally as well. If you got dropped on a climb, was it because of poor positioning at the bottom? In general, unless you are attacking, you should not be passing many people on a climb.

Do not limit yourself to only doing races you think you can win. Some people think they can only do road races longer than 50 miles and with at least 3 climbs, or only criteriums. If you are a strong climber, chances are you may not be as good at criteriums, but the pack skills and speed-work you gain by doing them will most certainly help when you have to sprint against those 4 or 5 other climbers that made it to the end of the road race with you. Likewise, criterium specialists can gain endurance and fitness by doing road races.

The North West where I live is very fortunate to have so many good races on the calendar. We can race just about every weekend and there is a good mix of road races and criteriums Races are what keeps the sport alive and races need racers. This is especially true for women and masters riders. If you are a woman and have ever complained or thought about complaining about the fact that you have to race with other category women, and you see a race that splits the women’s field into 1/2s and 3s or 3/4s, or if you are a master’s woman and see a race that offers a master’s women’s category, go to that race! Even if it isn’t your particular specialty. Same thing for masters in age categories that aren’t always offered. Race promoters will only offer categories they can fill or at least break even on. If they don’t, that category won’t be around next year.

You cannot start high intensity training without at least some kind of aerobic base. In general, you don’t want to increase volume and intensity at the same time. If you cannot ride 200 miles a week at low intensity, you will certainly not be able to ride 200 miles at high intensity! Starting high intensity with little or no base is an excellent way to get injured at worst and overtrained at best. Likewise, if you never break out of your aerobic or "comfort zone" in training, you will not be successful in races. You may be fresh as a daisy at mile 50, but if you were dropped at mile 20 after the first 4 or 5 surges, it really doesn’t matter! If you have not been riding consistently, now is the time to start building up a base. If you have a good base, now is the time to start building up intensity. If you have been going at high intensity all winter, now is the time to start planning that 2 week vacation laying on a beach somewhere in mid-June when your body will just finally give out.

If you have been lifting weights this winter, February is a good time to end off your program with a "power phase". This is where you will decrease to amount of weight you lift, but increase the speed you lift it at. This will help you apply the strength you have gained in the gym to your riding. You want to try to get your lifting speed closer the muscle contraction speeds required for riding. Try to do each rep as fast as you can - aim for 1 - 1 1/2 sec. per rep. The weight you lift should be around 55-65% of the maximum amount you can lift once (1 RM). If you can do 8-12 reps at a particular weight, then this is roughly 85% of your 1 RM. You can do the math to figure out a starting point for your power weight. This is much safer than doing a 1 RM test! As a rule, most people only do power reps on exercises requiring more than one joint such as squats and leg presses. Doing power lifting on something like a leg curl that involves only one joint can lead to injury. You may also want to add some plyometrics or stepping/jumping exercises with weights to your weight program.

Above all, have fun and don’t stress too much about the people who seem to be flying right now. Unless they are elite riders to begin with, they will very likely not be ahead in June when the people who took an off-season and slowly build up their fitness over the spring will be hitting their peak. Don’t burn yourself out racing in really lousy weather. There’s plenty of sunshine in August! If you are a beginning racer, just do as many races as you can to learn how, and use them for the majority of your intensity training.