What Type of Training?

 

I once read an article in the coaching section of a weekly cycling magazine referring to a study into the effect of interval training on endurance.  The results of the study claimed to show that interval type training improved endurance.  I have also read articles recently where people have claimed that endurance training increases power output.  Confused?  

 

I guess that the message from these studies is that any training is better than no training.  Nobody has claimed the endurance training increases power output more than interval training or that interval training will increase your endurance capability more than doing some steady (not slow) miles.

 

What we must try to do is to get the maximum benefit from the often limited time we have available for training and that usually means a combination of different types of training.  We are all slightly different so a training regime, which works for somebody else, will not necessarily work for you.   In general the winter should include lots of endurance training to build up base fitness and prepare for the harder training and racing ahead.  In the racing season you are working harder, both in training and racing so it is important to reduce the overall training time to avoid overtraning.

 

It is also important to train for the specific requirements of your event.  If you mainly ride short time trials then you need to have the endurance capability to complete the distance and you need to be able to maintain as high an average speed as possible for the duration.  

 

If you ride long road races or stage races then you need to be able to spend long hours in the saddle, without wasting energy, ride quickly for short periods to close gaps, recover quickly, climb and sprint.  In other words you need to be an all rounder.

 

Whatever types of event you compete in you need to train to strengthen any weaknesses.  Unfortunately none of us particularly enjoy working on our weaknesses because we are not very good at it therefore we do not derive the same satisfaction from it.