Cycling Training For Multi-sport women

[anneslam]

Tailor made for multi-sport athletes

Will you be preparing for a grueling ironman this year? Perhaps you are only doing a half ironman, the Olympic distance, or even a duathlon? Whatever your event these mobile training camps will help you prepare for the cycling leg of your race. You will learn specific workouts in order to make your cycling training time more efficient. Topics such as bike handling skills, mechanics and proper bike fit will all be covered. This is a great opportunity to learn all you need to know about cycling and gain invaluable endurance and fitness. All training camps and tours are run by Canadian National team cyclist Anne Samplonius, whose specialty is the time trial, where she won the silver medal at the World Championships in 1994. Each camp or tour offers a specific workshop focusing on “the race of truth”. You will learn about specific workouts, the mental focus, as well as tips to save energy during the cycling portion, including a better aerodynamic position on the bike.

A Recent Study…

A. Mathew Luebbers III found in his study on the correlations between annual training patterns and race performance in male, non-elite, ironman-distance triathletes (January 2005) that the most notable difference was a positive relationship between higher bike training distances and race success, particularly during the final months leading up to an ironman-distance race. Luebbers found observed differences between group patterns, the most outstanding being the high success group showing greater distances of bike training, which is consistent with other study's findings (http://trisurvey.net).
For athletes competing in multi-sport studies like this are slowly leading to the notion that it is becoming more and more important to have sport specific coaching. Tour2train offers such specific coaching and training in cycling, which Luebbers points to as appearing to be very important in the lead-up to the ironman competition.

For more info on these camps and tours and Anne Samplonius go to: http://www.tour2train.com

[trigurl]

Since I can't make it to these camps, I will have to rely on help from this site

My one question is this: Can I increase my bike rides by breaking them up? I did an hour this morning on the trainer, I will run an interval run tonight, then can I ride the bike again for say 30-40 min. and still have the same effect as if I had ridden it all at one time?

Just curious as an hour is a little tough on the trainer and unless I get up at an awful early hour I can't ride much longer than that anyway, animals always want food and my boss kinda likes it when I am at work on time

Thanks ya'll

[anneslam]

First of all how long is the event you are training for? If the bike leg is not the ironman distance and a more normal distance then endurance is not something you need to worry about. Your 1 hour trainer session should be more quality based and since you are doing running intervals the 30-40 mins 2nd bike ride should be recovery based, or just putting in some miles.

I would leave the long endurance rides for the weekend when you have the time and then it is important to ride it in its entirity. ie. you need to ride the full 3 hours not split it into 1.5hrs in morning and afternoon. Its important to teach the body to be able to handle the longer rides and during longer rides on the bike the body is learning to adapt to this.

hope that helps
anne

[ironchick]

it sounds like Anne will be going over drillwork and specific workouts which would be great to attend if any of you are able!!! What many endurance athletes don't realize is that there is a difference between additional hours spent on the bike and QUALITY hours.

Often athletes presume that the 5 hour ride is exactly what they need to be doing to get faster.

You can ride 400+ miles a week but if you never work above a zone 1-2 heartrate you will not reap speed benefits. And there is increasing evidence that even IM athletes benefit from speedwork which if often overlooked in place of long slow distance. If you train slow your body will race slow.

Short course racing is different from IM also. You need to develop more fast twitch fibers for speed as well as technical skill especially on tight courses.
Part of the reasoning behind a large number of quality cycling hours during a build to an IM phase is that by improving economy on the bike, you are able to set yourself up for a stronger run. It is the development of muscular endurance (the ability of the body to push a large gear for an extended period of time) For Oly distance and shorter, you might never need to ride more than 2.5 hours at a time...but depending on the course, you will most likely be doing climbing repeats or speed drills.

AND as the course suggests, technical skills are important. The more in control of your bike you are the better!

However long you ride, remember train hard on your hard days and very easy on your rest/recovery days.

and have fun!!!

[trigurl]

Thanks ya'll, my Du is 12 or 15 miles I believe, I ride about 3-4 times a week, I use the trainer for an hour in the mornings in h/r zone 1-2, and 2 times a week I do interval training on the spin cycle at the gym, 10 min warm up in Z1-2, and 45 min of 3 min hard, 1 min rest. then a 10 min jog to cool down in Z1-2. I don't measure my h/r when I am riding hard right now, when I get the formulas from my book I will figure out where I need to be. Also, I have a high resting h/r, waking in the mornings its usually 83, I take a decongestant/antihistimine 2 x's a day which is probably the culprit. My coach figured my h/r's (4 months ago)on what he though should be normal for me b/c of the high h/r I have. I also did a test on the bike I warmed up for 15 min then rode hard for 5 - my h/r never got over 168, and I tried to get it higher but couldn't.

I am only going to do sprints (hmmmm ) this year, at least, that is what I have planned. I have only been swimming for a year now so I think i may wait until next year to do anything longer, altho I have a new goal for next year - to run a marathon (or two).

Thanks for the help, one other thing, where I live we have hills you can't ride anywhere without having to ride up a hill at some point, so my long rides, when I can get outside, include many hills so I get some interval training there.