Hey ,

Every cyclist likes the feeling of speed but not many of us experience it (unless going downhill with a huge tailwind!) However, there are ways to get that speed you desire (with a little bit of sweat and smart training) so over the few weeks I want to share some training tips that will help you build some summer speed.

I often refer to the start of June as ‘Spring into Summer Speed!’

The first phase is training at or near VO2max, the exercise intensity at which an athlete reaches his or her maximal rate of oxygen consumption. This has long been known as an effective way to increase aerobic capacity. That’s important because aerobic capacity, or the ability to use oxygen to power muscle contractions, is a major contributor to endurance performance. It’s your battery power for muscles to work! 

Since my first Sports Science lectures in the 1980’s scientists have been interested in designing interval workouts that maximize the amount of time an athlete spends at or near VO2max, without simply making the workouts harder and harder. The idea is that such workouts will yield a bigger boost in aerobic capacity. As an athlete, you might be interested in knowing what the secret sauce is?

Today, I’ll share one with you (and some more over the next few weeks) 

Let’s kick things off with what I term I.V.I workouts (Intensity Varying Intervals)

1. Intensity Varying Intervals

You may have followed an interval style workout all ready and sweated and sworn at it but it probably didn’t throw any surprises at you! If you have followed any of my workouts on YouTube, then you will have a growing knowledge of IVI workouts. Basically, traditional interval workouts focus on a single, uniform intensity. But via research, mainly at the University of Kent and Inland Norway University created and tested a workout that featured work intervals of variable intensity, believing it might enable athletes to spend more time at or very near VO2max. The workout consisted of six, 5-minute intervals ridden at 85% of maximum aerobic power (or MAP, which is the highest power output an individual cyclist achieves in a ride to failure at increasing power levels) separated by 2.5-minute active recoveries. The added wrinkle was the insertion of three, 30-second surges at 100% of MAP within each interval, with the baseline effort lowered slightly to 77% of MAP to make the intervals feasible as a whole.

The new workout was tested on 14 trained cyclists, who completed both it and a more traditional constant-intensity interval workout on separate occasions. On average, the cyclists spent 6:50 of cumulative time above 90% of VO2max during the variable-intensity workout compared to just 4:46 above 90% of VO2max during the traditional workout.

After each session, the cyclists were asked to rate how difficult it was, and despite the discrepancy in physical demands, the two versions were judged about equal — 6.0 vs. 6.6 on a 1-10 scale of perceived effort. These findings, which were reported in the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, indicate that the variable-intensity interval workout is more physiologically stimulating without being harder.

If all that sounds complex then let the Coach create a DIY set up for you. 

Calculate your MAP by doing a full gas 3 min effort after a good 20-30 min warm. Record the average power for this 3 min test (example 300w). Your SURGE goal is 300w and your baseline is 77% of 300w so 231w. Your 5 min interval looks like this -

Take 2-3 mins recovery and repeat. You may start with 3 repeats before building up over the weeks to 6! 

Hey, give it a try and let me know.

You can always check out my workouts on YouTube and train along with the sweaty and sometimes sweary coach!

Next week I’ll share another great workout for you and see if it can offer you even higher fitness gains!

Stay safe and keep spinning.

Scott Maclean

Kinetic Cycle Coaching

Head Coach

Mobile: 07933158473

Web: www.kineticcyclecoaching.com

Coaching | Bike Fitting | Nutrition