Our first race is now less than three weeks away! We are really looking forward to spending race day with all of you and hope you feel the excitement building. Once again, we thank every rider leader for helping to build the skills and confidence of our student athletes. You make a true difference in the success of the team!
Today we are going to once again focus on incorporating interval training into our rides. When balanced with adequate recovery time during the ride, these all-out efforts improve the riders’ ability to intake and utilize oxygen. As oxygen consumption rates improve, riders’ endurance will increase. Please encourage each rider to push their own limits responsibly. An all-out effort should never result in out-of-control riding. And each rider is different in their capabilities for this level of exertion. Allow the riders to spread out in an order that permits them to maximize their individual effort for each interval without having to sit on the wheel of the rider in front of them. If an interval is interrupted (i.e., encountering other riders on the trail, etc.), reconfigure and make a new interval effort after a brief recovery. We want to get a full-set of interval efforts for all riders.
WARM-UP REMINDER FOR ALL GROUPS: While warming-up, remind the riders of the benefits of a solid warm-up routine:
- Reinforce that our best efforts are simply not possible without an effective, intentional warm-up. A warm-up should include a minimum of 5-10 minutes of easy spinning, followed by several mini-intervals (30-60 seconds) of increasing intensity that gradually approach a race pace, with easy spinning between these mini-efforts. This gradual increase in effort briefly simulates the demands we will expect of our bodies for the upcoming ride.
- A proper warm-up:
- enlists the major muscle groups in the workout effort
- provides an important opportunity to mentally shift from being sedentary to active
- increases blood flow throughout the body, allowing oxygen to be more efficiently distributed to muscles
- warms-up tendons and joints so that muscles can experience a fuller, well-supported range of motion
- gives the body time to shift into a mode where it is prioritizing carbohydrate-based metabolism
- all of this helps us avoid injury and get the most out of the workout
- Specifically ask the riders to each pay attention to how their bodies are performing at the start and end of the warm-up period (heavy legs vs. fluid legs, mental grogginess vs. focused attention, etc.).
After the warm-up is complete, practice a proper race start. Here are the key points to practice:
- One foot down
- Check that you are in a correct gear
- 95% for 30-60 seconds, followed by a race pace for 2-3 minutes. If they can’t hold a race pace for 2-3 minutes after their race start effort, it means they went too hard at their race start.
All groups will practice at least one race start (you can do more if you want). After your race start, continue with the ride plan below.
Proceed to the interval portion of training (see color-based group specifics below). Use the recovery portion of each interval to regroup if the group stretches out during the work-portion of the interval. Encourage the riders to drink during recovery. Let the riders know that once the interval work is completed, they have successfully achieved the training purpose of today’s ride. Complete the ride with a conversational pace and continually praise the riders for their dedicated efforts.
PINK / BLACK
After warming up, perform five 30-second full gas intervals with at least five minutes of easy recovery between each effort.
SILVER / RED
After warming up, perform four 30-second full gas intervals with at least five minutes of easy recovery between each effort.
ORANGE / YELLOW / GREEN
After warming up, perform four 30-second full gas intervals with at least seven minutes of easy recovery between each effort.
BLUE / PURPLE
After warming up, reinforce with your riders the concept of interval training. Instead of full speed, all-out work intervals, encourage the riders in BLUE and PURPLE to spend time riding at a significantly faster pace than normal for 90 seconds. Then slow the pace back to normal (not slower than normal) for at least seven minutes to demonstrate that recovery after a big effort is possible without slowing to a crawl or stopping. Repeat this work-recover pattern three times during the ride. During the work portion of the “interval,” call out the remaining time of the interval so the riders have a sense of how much longer to “hang in there.”