You are reading a single comment by @hippy and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
@hippy
dino: I never said no to speed work during the winter but my coaching advice was along the lines of "try not to go into the red while in an aerobic build phase, save it for the later stages of training". I always had trouble slowing down during early season training - and I think the idea is that this was hampering my ability to do the latter stages to the best of my (limited but it's all relative) ability. That's whole base building phase that a lot of coaches talk of. ie. If you don't build a solid base you can't complete the speed/strength work to the fullest extent later.
I can only say that I improved with coaching, so why wouldn't I use this advice. Of course, having a coach is a motivator in itself and it could be this that provides the improvement.
Also, I last raced a sprint event 3+ years ago and now ride much slower and longer stuff so my training has changed quite a bit, although the principles used by the two coaches seem to be the same.
How do you vary the intensity of your (or your rider's) training over the year? You must allow for recovery so do you just have shorter cycles of build/rest, build/rest, etc all year? What are the length of the cycles? Is there no sustained period of lower intensity riding?
I'm not arguing with you it's all healthy debate in my mind. Yes I am big enough.. cue the fat jokes :P