Sub 1-hr bike workout – prepare for the track

Much has been said about the benefits of track cycling for triathletes to improve handling skills and consistency.

The session below – designed to be performed on a turbo trainer – will help you prepare if you are thinking of heading to the velodrome soon; however it will also benefit your tri racing overall by improving your top end of speed…

Equipment needed – indoor trainer. Rollers are ideal

Warm-up

10mins as: Build the effort continuously. In the final 1min, lift to a 90% effort and finish with an all-out 10sec sprint

Main Session

40 mins as:

– 10mins easy spinning to recover from 1min effort at the end of the warm-up

– 9mins riding at a consistent Z2 endurance intensity for 2mins. For the third min, ride maximally but aim for a consistent effort. Repeat this three times

– 6mins easy spinning

– 4mins as sprinting with 100% effort for 20secs and recovering for 10secs. Repeat 8 times

– 6mins easy spinning

– 10mins ride in ‘sweet spot’ high Z3-mid Z4 intensity. After 90secs, accelerate into Z5, hold for 20secs and then sprint maximally for 10secs. Drop back to ‘sweet-spot’, no lower, to recover. Continue for the whole 10min effort.

Cool-down

10mins as: easy spinning

Performance Benefits

The efforts here mimic the demands of some typical drills you’ll experience during an SQT session. First are minute-long efforts simulating taking a lap on a line riding at recovery pace. Second is a block of high-intensity intervals. Finally, a longer effort with multiple sprints replicating the demands of a Points Race.

Physiological Benefits

This session will raise your threshold, increase VO2, work on your anaerobic capacity and your ability to recover from multiple top-end efforts. With active recoveries, you’ll find that your heart rate remains elevated for the whole session, providing a decent calorie burn too.

Mental Benefits

With some track relevant fitness in your legs, you can focus on the technical and observational skills necessary to progress. This will also increase your confidence during a tri bike leg to make a pass but be able to recover at race intensity.

How to Fit it In

While working through your accreditation, slot this into your training. Even if you don’t have regular track aspirations it’s an effective and varied, mid-week indoor sesh. But it’s fairly high intensity so schedule in a recovery day after it.

For more training sessions and advice, head over to the training section of our website

Jack Sexty Editor at road.cc

About

Former 220 staff writer Jack Sexty is now editor at Road.cc. Jack has raced everything up to Ironman distance, is a sub-2hr Olympic-distance athlete and has represented GB at the ITU World AG Champs on several occasions. He's also a regular kit tester on the pages of 220 and holds two world records for pogo jumping – Longest distance pogo stick jumping in 24 hours and Most consecutive jumps on a pogo stick.