PURE PERFORMANCE | BIKE
3 KEY BIKE SESSIONS
for women with limited time
BY BELINDA GRANGER
T
his article is aimed specifically for women.
I was going to write ‘busy women with
limited time to spend out training’ but then
I thought, ‘aren’t we all busy women with
limited time to get out and train?’
What I am going to give you are three bike
sessions specifically for the road. These are key
sessions that I used to do on a weekly basis as I
found they gave me the most ‘bang for my buck’.
They were my ‘bread and butter’ sessions.
All too often on the bike we end up doing so
many garbage miles that, at the end of the day,
might help maintain our overall bike fitness,
but do not get us ‘race ready’ or fast! One of the
biggest mistakes athletes make is that all of their
bike sessions end up being the same pace. You
come home and no matter what or where you
rode you end up with the same average speed and
the same average wattage. This does not improve
your riding.
The sessions below are no longer than 1hr40 in
length. If you are able to compliment these three
sessions with a longer, easy ride on the weekend, I
can guarantee your riding and racing will improve.
Session 1: Strength Endurance Session (SE
Session)
Main Purpose - Improve strength/resistance over
an extended period of time.
Warm Up - 25 minutes steady ride, predominantly
on flat roads
Main Set - 4-5 hill repeats. You will need to
find a hill (4-5% gradient max.) that takes you
approximately 7 minutes to ride up. All hill repeats
are to be done down in the aero bars and big
gears (try and maintain a cadence of <50rpm).
Recovery is 3-4 minutes (however long it takes you
to descend back down to the start of the climb).
Make sure you focus on spinning as much as
possible during the recovery phase.
Warm Down - 15-20 minutes easy spin on top of
the bars.
Total workout time - 1hr30-1hr40
Session 2: Descending Sustained Intervals
Main Purpose - Improve your threshold.
Warm Up - 30 minutes steady riding
Main Set - 3 x 15 minute efforts (3 minute easy
spin recovery between efforts)
Effort #1- Perceived Full Distance race pace
Effort #2 - Perceived Half Distance race pace
Effort #3 - Perceived Olympic Distance pace
Warm Down - 10-15 minutes easy ride
Total workout time - 1hr35-1hr40
Session 3: Intervals - Short Sharp Change-of-
Pace Efforts
Main Purpose - Improve speed and change of
pace.
Warm Up - 30 minute progressive warm up
Main Set - 4 x change-of-pace efforts (3 minute
easy spin between efforts)
Effort #1: 4 min tempo* / 1 min fast* / 4 min
tempo*
Effort #2: 3 min tempo / 1 min fast / 3 min tempo
Effort #3: 2 min tempo / I min fast / 2 min tempo
Effort #4: 1 min tempo / 1 min fast / 1 min tempo
Warm Down - 25min easy ride
Total workout time: 1hr30
*tempo - perceived half distance pace
*fast - perceived sprint distance pace
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