by Bluey (USAT level 1 certified coach)

A question that comes up often with Triathletes and Bike racers is should I be doing high intensity workouts during the off season? Traditional training suggests HIT might magically prevent you from getting a good base? Or that high intensity work might make you peak too soon? Or that too much high intensity training will lead to over training? In my opinion those worries are wrong, wrong, and scientifically proven to be wrong.

 View the article to see the power profile graphic that has just been added.

(HIT) High Intensity Riding in the Offseason? by Bluey (USAT level 1 certified coach) A question that comes up often with Triathletes and Bike racers is should I be doing high intensity workouts during the off season? Traditional training suggests HIT might magically prevent you from getting a good base? Or that high intensity work might make you peak too soon? Or that too much high intensity training will lead to over training? In my opinion those worries are wrong, wrong, and scientifically proven to be wrong.

Let me first explain I’m not against long training at moderate paces. The goal of your off season should be to create a solid foundation to build your racing season. Great you say that sounds like lots of base work. Yes that would work. With no job, no family, no interests, no sex life, no beer and fantastic riding weather, you could choose to ride at low to medium intensity for 20-40 hours per week. This will guarantee you a solid base from which to build your summer fitness. But………if you can’t fit that much riding into your schedule, then you need HIT………………………….

Let’s say that you happen to be time crunched due to sacrificing some of your valuable training time for odd and frankly pointless things like family, beer, sex or even work. Well aside from me questioning your dedication to Cat 3 or 4 bike racing, you will need to add some HIT to your off season training. How much you ask? Well the Australian sports institute puts their professional riders through 6 weeks of solid HIT before doing race specific training. That’s right they only ride HIT for 6 solid winter weeks! The goal is to maximize gains in oxygen usage before training more specifically for your racing event. In other words they maximize their lungs then they train their legs for the demands of each race.

So if the Australians are doing it how should you do it? I believe it is important to move most of your workouts up the time/intensity curve by adding intervals. So which intervals should you do and how high should the intensity be? You will want to work on your maximum oxygen carrying capacity (VO2max) but you also want to work on your lactate tolerance (Functional Threshold Power) and don’t forget those inevitable anaerobic attacks from Ron. How can you hit all three systems? Well you could do three separate workouts or ……………………….

You could do 90/90/90’s on your trainer. This is a workout first described by Andy Coggan (the Godfather of training with power).

It will not surprise you to find out that 90/90/90’s involve pain, lots of pain. In fact if “it don’t hurt, you ain’t doing it right”. So what exactly are 90/90/90’s.

Simple. Take some intervals at 90% of your best 1 hour power (90% of your FTP) then add intervals at 90% of your maximum 5 minute power (this approximates power at 90% of your maximum oxygen uptake) and then finish up with intervals at 90% of your best 1 minute power (Ron’s leg crushers).

Here’s how I do it……………………

Powermeter or Computrainer Method

• Warm up 10 minutes

• Then Ride 2x 10 minutes at 90% of your best FTP from last year (Rest 4 minutes in between each effort)

• Then Ride 3x 3minutes at 90% of your best 5 minute power from last year (Rest 2 minutes in between each effort)

• Then Ride 5x 30 seconds at 90% of your best 1 minute power from last year (Rest 30 seconds between efforts)

For me that means riding; 2x 10 minutes at 265Ws, followed by 3x 3minutes at 330Ws, followed by 5x 30 seconds at 450W’s.

I have taken 3 weeks to get to the stage where I can complete the 10 minute and 3 minute efforts and I am still 10 watts short on each of my 30 second efforts. By the end of this workout I am a pathetic puddle of sweat draped over my bike gasping for oxygen. I fail and fail and fail to complete this workout until one day I’ll succeed. Then after that I’ll add 15 watts to all the efforts and fail again. All very good you say but what if I don’t have a power meter? Then use this……..

Heart-rate Monitor Method

• Warm up 10 minutes

• Then Ride 2x 10 minutes reaching 75-80% of your maximum heart rate after 5 minutes (Rest 4 minutes in between each effort)

• Then Ride 3x 3minutes reaching 90% of maximum heart rate in the last minute (Rest 2 minutes in between each effort)

• Then Ride 5x 30 seconds at 90% of an all out seated effort (Rest 30 seconds between efforts)

Or the Perceived Effort Method

• Warm up 10 minutes

• Then Ride 2x 10 minutes reaching a slight quad burn after 5 minutes or about a 7 out of 10 effort (Rest 4 minutes in between each effort). You should be able to chat but need to concentrate.

• Then go up one gear and Ride 3x 3minutes reaching a full on quad burn and heavy breathing after 1 minute at a 8.5 out of 10 effort (Rest 2 minutes in between each effort). If you can talk you are going to slow.

• Then go up one more gear and Ride 5x 30 seconds at 90% of an all out seated effort at a 9.5 out of 10 effort level (Rest 30 seconds between efforts).

A sample power profile from this workout is show below.