If you’ve ever done squats in the weights room – you’ll know that you can cheat by not squatting all the way. You can seemingly lift more weight – but it’s a false economy as you don’t get the full strength gains that a deep squat can give.
So what’s this got to do with cycling? Well for me it’s the difference between 175mm cranks and the 210mm cranks that are proportional to my size on my Zinn. I’ve been adding a few interval sessions to my training lately – and one in particular is seated big gear climbs… Where I find a gentle (ish) climb and put it in the big chain ring and climb with a low cadence. It’s very much like doing weights on the bike. Certainly makes you strong. But also – it’s something where I feel I can make even better gains because of the long cranks on my bike. Full range of motion can only help strength development. The long levers of the Zinn custom cranks enable me to really develop the advantage I already have with the long levers of my body. Means I can really get into the nooks and crannies of strength development – so to speak…
So what else have I been doing?
Well – we’ve had an awesome summer down here in New Zealand. So, just as things are starting to cool down, I pick that as the time to ramp up my training. Seems like I’m doing things backwards…
But – though it’s nice to go for a ride on a beautiful day – there is some perverse satisfaction to be had from gutsing it out into a stiff breeze in the dark on a long commute home.
I’m slowly but surely picking up my training volume. I’m very mindful of the fact that when I last did a long lead in to an event I was training for – that I had a hiccup – in that I trained like a demon to start with and was making fantastic progress – only to be stopped in my tracks with a mystery illness that put a major dent in my training. Whether or not that was caused by the training I was doing is hard to know – but I’m taking a bit more of a measured approach this time.
I’m adding volume by adding midweek rides. I work 50km from home so I’m adding 1 or 2 one way trips (in the dark) to my schedule as work allows. And I’m increasing the distance of my Sunday rides (that are normally done with a group) – pushing that out to 80 to 100km. And I’ve started adding a few of those interval sessions.
Intervals are something I really enjoy – in a twisted sort of way. Sure they hurt and you want to puke sometimes – but I love them. I guess it’s some sort of learned hardship that I picked up from my rugby playing days – where we did a lot of interval training. I know that my body seems to respond well to intervals –so they are something that will always be a part of my regime…
But they hurt bad when you haven’t done them for a while – and when your aerobic base isn’t what it was 🙂
So anyway – I’m increasing volume – and slowly introducing some interval work. There is a Winter Series of races coming up in 6 weeks or so – so I’ll be targeting that as my first hit out with some intensity. And will be racing as often as I can from then on in…
205 days till my first major goal which is the Taupo Cycle Challenge – so – steady as she goes….
Adrian
