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Ride Stronger: VO2 Max Workouts

Among the many weapons in the armament of the cyclist who wants to ride stronger, one of the least practiced and most important is VO2 max repeatability.  The ability to accelerate and push your body to the limits, recover at threshold and repeat that process over and over is one of the most versatile and important skills for a cyclist to possess.  It's also the one that's almost always lacking in the cyclists that I consult with or coach, and it's one I drill home in my training plans.

The real question most people follow up with is “why?”

Before I answer, first let's delve into VO2 max a little bit.  For our purposes, a VO2 max level effort (or a Zone 5/Z5 effort) is a suprathreshold effort that is sustainable for around 3-8 minutes (depending on the intensity of the effort.)  It is a mixture of aerobic and anaerobic energy production and is most often used in pursuits, attacks, bridging small gaps and short climbs.  By the numbers, it's an 8 to an 8.5/10 on an RPE scale, 105%-120% of Functional Threshold Power and >105% Lactate Threshold Heart Rate.

After the jump, I'll give you some more detailed information and a couple workouts to help you build your Zone 5 Repeatability (Z5R).

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3 Tips To Gain Fitness On Every Ride

Many cyclists believe that “riding more” is an ideal way to build more fitness.  A large portion of their training is made up of “objective-less” rides in which they don't have any fitness goal other than to ride their bike.  In reality, more focused training will help you see greater fitness gains in a shorter time, but that doesn't mean you have to go all out and follow a strict training plan.

In this short video podcast, I'll give you 3 tips to gain fitness on any ride you go out for.  Whether you want to crush your group ride, start a race or hit that 18MPH average on your local neighborhood loop, these tips will springboard your fitness to the next level, create a functional fitness base you can build on and set you up for future success.

Don't forget to like and share this podcast with your friends to help them get faster too!

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The Truth About Cycling Core Strength (Podcast #65)

Core strength is something that most cyclists know about, but don't tend to train very often.  Even if they do train core strength and stability during the off-season (or the “not so off season” as I call it) they tend to ignore it again once the weather turns nice and on-bike training begins in earnest.

That mistake could not be more damaging to your season long cycling progression.

As you'll learn in this podcast, the core of your body is one of the most important parts of your power production on the bike.  A weak core can lead to a variety of problems from neck and low back pain to loss of power, fatigue on long rides and unrealized power.  So click through and start learning about what your core is, why core strength is so important and how you can build core strength with a free preview download of my upcoming Unbreakable Core Stability training plan.

Don't forget to like and share with your friends and help them build their core fitness and strength too!

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Video Quick Tip: Packing Your Pockets To Ride

Most of the people I see out riding have TONS of stuff with them; too much stuff in fact.  They have a big saddle bag full of tools, bits and bobs and their pockets are bulging with tire levers, tubes, clothing, pumps, keys, maybe a kitchen sink and a partridge in a pear tree.  The point is, the average cyclist takes far too much equipment with them on a training ride.

It's time to scale back a little bit and start getting some of the clutter out of your pockets (and saddle bag.)

Paring down to what you can fit in your back pockets can be freeing and you'll never forget something if you pack it all in systematically.  In this short video quick tip, I'll show you how easy packing your pockets can be and you'll see that you can pack everything you need into your jersey pockets with room to spare.

Things I carry every ride:

  • Energy Gel Flask (In case I spectacularly detonate during a long ride)
  • Tubular/tubeless tire sealant (switched to a Lezyne Pump and tube and patch kit if I'm running clinchers)
  • Multi-Tool (with a chain breaker attached in case you need it)
  • Keys (car keys or house keys)
  • Cleat covers (they have to go somewhere)
  • My “goodie bag” which has my ID, credit card, cash, a cheque, racing license (I carry a paper copy as well) and a Chap Stik
  • iPhone

You've still got room to roll up a wind vest or jacket, stuff in arm or leg warmers or gloves or shove a spare bottle into your pocket.  And you don't have to root through tons of stuff every time you stop and want to get your card out to pay for a cup of coffee.

Any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below and don't forget to share this video tip with your friends and help them out too.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (12.0MB)

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Beginner Cyclist Training Mistakes (Podcast #64)

We were all beginner cyclists at one time.  There's nothing like the thrill of trying something new and seeing ourselves improve quickly.  Beginners typically improve the fastest out of anyone when they start training, but they often make major training mistakes and not even know it.  These training mistakes tend to limit the fitness gains beginners see and cause them to get discouraged or frustrated and even cause them to stop riding.  That's a huge issue for anyone who's new to cycling.

I'll tell you something else, too.  Beginners aren't the only ones who make these mistakes.  Even long-time veterans to the sport can get caught out making these training mistakes that will hurt their fitness and skill progression.

In this podcast, I'll cover these big training mistakes and give you tips on how to correct them.  So click through and find out if you're making these training mistakes:

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