Cycling workout: Improve your strength and power

You might well ask, as a triathlete, why should I be doing a workout that primarily focuses on strength and power? The simple answer is, the flattest Ironman bike courses aside, all bike legs will require a degree of top-end grunt. Being able to stay down on your aerobars as you squeeze on the power to get over a roller, accelerating hard out of a dead turn or recovering from that botched gear change on a climb – they all require a bit of punch.

Also, by training your explosive top-end, you’ll teach your nerves to fire more efficiently, your muscles to contract quicker and you’ll increase your overall maximal capacity. The benefits of having a bigger and more efficient engine will trickle down to your lower-intensity riding and you’ll be more capable of holding a higher power output for longer.

As an additional bonus, this training session is fantastic for getting your glutes firing and strong, so it has crossover benefits for running, too.

3 Tops Tips

Explode

Okay, triathletes aren’t renowned for their fast-twitch abilities, but really try to make the acceleration explosive and snappy, don’t just wallow away. You’ll reap the rewards on race day.

Scrape

It’s not just a stomp down on the pedals, you need to invite your glutes and hamstrings to the party! Do this by focussing on the scrape- through at the bottom of your pedal stroke.

Brace

This is a maximal effort against a big gear, so you need to be pushing against a stable platform. Brace through your whole body, including your arms
and shoulders.

THE SESSION

Warm-up

5-10mins building up to RPE 5-6

•

3 x [5secs low-gear sprint; 55secs recovery spinning]. Stay seated and focus on maximal cadence

•

2-3mins easy spin

Main Set

10 x

On a flat road, shift into your biggest gear and allow yourself to come to a near stop. Just before you stop, staying seated, accelerate as hard as you can (RPE 10) until you hit a cadence of 85rpm. If you don’t hit 85rpm within 20secs, drop down one gear for the next effort (do this until you find the right gear for you)

•

3mins easy recovery spinning

Cool-down

5-10mins easy spinning

Adapt for beginners

Try cutting down the number of reps to 10 and, if you’re struggling to accelerate, roll in a bit faster.

Adapt for Ironman

You can incorporate these efforts into a longer ride, just ensure you do them near the beginning as you need to be fresh to get the most out of them.