How to prepare for a complete season: cycling training
Do you all have clear objectives for this season? Maybe it sounds very professional, but we are sure that all of you have looked at the calendar of competitions or cyclotourist marches and you know which are the races in which you want to participate.
1. Setting objectives
If so, you have already made the first step to prepare the training season; if you are still not clear, it is important that you start to look at it because the first step to prepare the season is to set some goals that are the points of the year in which we want to have the maximum performance. Throughout the season you can mark 2 or 3 moments of maximum performance.
2. Structuring the training
When we have already marked these moments or peaks of form, it is time to start structuring the training in a way that allows us to reach them in the best possible shape, but also to have the necessary rest periods to prepare for the next peak.
Any training period begins with a global workout that allows us to lay a good foundation and then we mark the specific work points that will allow us to prepare for the tests marked on the calendar and arrive in the best shape.
The global period
The overall period consists of a lot of volume and compensation work in the gym. Volume? Exactly, number of hours per week on the bike riding, either in single long sessions or by accumulation during the week. We have to keep in mind that most of us are not professionals, so this volume, together with the work sessions in the gym, we have to reconcile with our work and family, so it is important that we are realistic about the hours available during the week
This overall period usually lasts 2 or 3 months and what we will do is work progressively and increase the volume week by week to ensure that our body assimilates the effort correctly and that we lay an optimal foundation. Wanting to accelerate this process could imply a poor assimilation of the effort and not reaching the peak of fitness correctly. This is when we say that we have arrived too fatigued and, consequently, our body needs rest and cannot assimilate the effort we are asking of it.
Specific work period
When this global period is over, the specific work period begins to prepare for the event or events we want to run. This specific part includes intensity work, which is what will allow us to reach the walk or run at the desired pace.
In this case, depending on the type of event in which we are going to compete, we will work on the intensity in different ways:
- Trials of 1 to 2 hours: very high intensities are sought with series of 3 to 4 minutes.
- Trials of 3 to 4 hours: we are looking for maximum intensity series for 20 to 30 minutes.
- For trials of 7 or 8 hours or tests lasting several days, we will continue to work more on endurance than on intensity, since what will interest us here is to be able to maintain the effort for many hours without noticing extreme fatigue in the legs.
All this specific work must be accompanied by running and breaks that allow the body to recover from the effort made.
We hope it has helped you, everything you need to equip your bike training you can find it in Deporvillage.net
Alexis Gandía
Physical trainer of the Pro Team Burgos BH team
