Fuel-Nutrition

Hi All,
Over the past month or so time has been short and I have not had the time to get to the hills to do hill repeats or any rides with hills. My rides have all be pancake flat with the biggest hill being the freeway overpass. Rides like this are great for just cruising or time trialing but do nothing for strength or muscular endurance.

So I started doing hill simulations and put a workout I used to do back in my tool box and regular routine. I call this workout ‘Front Chainring Sufferfest’. Do it just once and you will see why.

Some of you are coaches, doctors and maybe even professional triathletes, I am not, any advice you get on this web site is ‘use at your own risk’, always consult a licensed and/or certified professional for advice.

There are three variations to this workout I have been doing all three but make sure you have at least 48 hours rest or cross training before repeating this workout.

The general rules of the workout:
  • Do a good 10-15 minute Zone 1 Zone 2 warmup. You should have a very sweat going but not be out of breath before starting.
  • OPTION: Do this interval set when you are in the last 30 minutes of a long 2 hour plus ride. Doing so will work on muscular endurance with tired legs.
  • Shift in to the second smallest rear cog. You will stay in this gear for the entire set. For most of us this will be 10, 11 or 12 tooth gear. If you can do 1 minute in the second smallest rear cog use the smallest.
  • The only shifting you are allowed to do is shifting the front chain ring from small to large. If your bike has triple front chainring use the middle and largest.
  • Start doing 20-30 second intervals working up to 60 second intervals
  • Ride for 30 minutes in Zone 2 after completing the workout. And do a 5-10 minute cool down.
  • NOTE: When using the second smallest rear cog if you are able to keep a cadence over 75 RPM use the smallest rear cog for this workout. If in the second smallest rear cog if you cannot keep a cadence of at least 60 RPM try using the third smallest cog.
Version 1:
  1. Once you are warmed up, Shift to the second smallest rear cog.
  2. Pedal as fast as you can for between 30 and 60 seconds
    • Remember to keep good pedaling form, making circles pressing and pulling evenly as you go through the pedal stroke.
    • HINT: to help you make a circle and not box-pedal think like you are scraping mud off your shoe and the back/upward motion of the pedal stroke. You will feel this motion in your hamstring too.
  3. After the first interval shift the front chainring to the smaller gear
  4. Take the 2X the amount of time for rest as you did pedaling hard
    1. I.E: you pedaled hard for 30 seconds rest for 1 minutes
  5. repeat 10 times.
Version 2:
  1. Once warmed up, shift to the second smallest rear cog.
  2. Pedal as fast as you can for 100 full revolutions of the crank
  3. Shift to the small front chainring and pedal 100 revolutions keeping an 85-90 RPM
  4. Repeat 10 times
Version 3:

NOTE: This is a one legged version. This will take a little longer and work you the hardest but has the most risk as far as injury and will require more recovery time.

  1. Using either version 1 or version 2 of this workout unclip 1 foot and pedal one legged.
  2. Once you have completed the interval with one leg repeat using the other leg.
    • Makes sure you keep good pedaling form, don’t bounce in your saddle.
    • If you feel your form breaking down stop the interval as that is how we injure ourselves.

Thanks for reading, Have a great workout.
Be Fast, Be Safe, Stay Healthy

Mike