POWER METER FILES: Base Training for Racing

harringtonp

Wrote an article about a year for with the above title for a blog I planned on starting but never got going... intentions intentions. Anyway just came across it again and as its Friday afternoon thought I'd throw it up here and let yous rip into it :eek:

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We all know that it is good to do base training in the off season but how long should these sessions be and at what level of intensity ?

As you are training for races the length of a base session should mimic that of a typical race. Physically you could certainly do longer sessions. However if you have limited time on a bike or have some hard intervals around the corner, then you're probably better sticking to typical race duration. Note specifically that duration rather
than distance is used because in a race you will be travelling much faster. Trying to cover the same distance in a base session will put you well over your race duration and it is duration that we are interested in mimicking here.

Intensity is a little more difficult to get right for these sessions. Look back over power data for typical races you recently completed and note the average watts for these races. Ensure it is the average watts you note and not the normalized or weighted averages which you also see on Strava and other similar applications. If you have just bought a power meter and do not have this data available then use Strava to look for other riders
who did the same races. Pick somebody of similar weight and riding style to you and use his average watts. Look through the races and choose a typical average watts which will become your target training wattage for this type of session. This is the figure which you want your average watts to be close to at the end of your ride. Setup your Garmin (or other) device to include zero averaging. Otherwise the average shown on it will be higher than the average seen after uploading and short of your targeted value.

If your base session duration is not going to be any longer than typical race duration, then start riding straight away at your chosen wattage and keep it going right to the end of the session. For most this will go against the
grain as you will always have been told to include a good warmup and cooldown. While necessary for higher intensity sessions, these base sessions are done at a level well below threshold and starting out at your selected wattage
should not feel uncomfortable. So why waste valuable training time at a low level of intensity when it is not strictly needed ? If your cycle time will be longer than race time then by all means include a warmup and cooldown if you so wish.

Try and keep as close as possible to your target wattage for the duration of the spin. On hilly courses you will invariably loose watts going downhill so will need to compensate by picking them up when going uphill... just ensure that you stay out of the red at all times.

You may wonder how it is meant to be base training if you are riding at the same average watts as in races. Races are very intense after all aren't they ? The difference is in the variation of the intensity and this should be reflected in the normalized/weighted power values. You should typically find for your training spins that your normalized power is about 20 watts higher than your average where as for races this figure could be 50 or more.
Of course it all depends on the nature of the race, whether or not you are in a break or trying to get in breaks or just floating around in the bunch. If you tend to race aggressively, then for base training purposes you are probably better to get a target average wattage value usings those races in which you rode more conservatively. It is base training after all...

So how should these rides feel ? Unlike racing, at no time should your breathing be laboured. Neither should there be a burning feeling in your legs. On the other hand there is still effort involved and concentration needed to ride at your target value. At the end of the spin you'll know you could have cycled longer but still feel like you have had a good workout and earned a rest. For those use to training with zones it should be a top end
zone 2 or bottom end zone 3 workout.

Base training is also a good opportunity to improve cadence, particularly if your cadence is lower than that typically found for those racing at your level. It is well worth doing these training spins at about 10rpm higher than your natural self selected cadence. You can get a good idea of what this value is by looking back over rides where you were not specifically trying to improve it. It is worth setting up your main bike computer screen so that it shows current and average cadence alongside your wattage values. A bit of juggling is sometimes needed to keep both cadence and watts at target levels. You will sometimes find when trying to get your cadence average up that your watts falls back and vice versa. This is quite natural and shouldn't stop you hitting both targets by the end of the ride.

Finally while it is great if this type of training can be done in groups or on club runs this unfortunately is rarely the case. Typical off season club spins will show an average wattage of about 2 Watts/Kg. Even though this is great for fostering club spirit and attracting new members it is too low for race training where typical average values for category 3 racing would be in the 2.5-3.0 Watts/Kg range. If your club operates at these levels then great for you, otherwise you need to choose between a social spin or proper training session.

Raymzor

Recent club spin with 20 people-1.9w/kg. Club race with breakaway of 6 people from the gun 3.2w/kg. Recent training spin with three twenty minute intervals-2.4 w/kg for whole spin! I think all this shows similarities to what you wrote. I'm no expert on this! Did you do regular FTP tests since you got PM? You race a3 right?

ednwireland

Club runs are really social spins not training runs

harringtonp

Raymzor wrote: »

Recent club spin with 20 people-1.9w/kg. Club race with breakaway of 6 people from the gun 3.2w/kg. Recent training spin with three twenty minute intervals-2.4 w/kg for whole spin! I think all this shows similarities to what you wrote. I'm no expert on this! Did you do regular FTP tests since you got PM? You race a3 right?

Not as regular as I should though for base training, variances in FTP would not make too much of a difference to the level to train at (unlike threshold training where you need to have a good idea what your FTP is at any point in time). Yes, race A3.