Thursday Bike Sessions
Warm-Up Lap
Steady pace to practice cycling in a
group, unless extremely busy we will ride two abreast changing positions
every few minutes. This will ensure the group goes at a pace everybody
is comfortable with and allows new members to get introduced. If you are
not used to riding in a group don't worry though it's worth reading
about etiquette first, there's a good article here.
Note: the warm up lap starts from Roehampton cafe and will
always ride clockwise, if you are running slightly late cycle
anti-clockwise to meet us.
Session
1 - Intervals A
Probably the best method to increase speed is interval
training. In this session you should go flat out, as fast as you can for
20 minutes - this should be a hard effort on the drops. Rest and
recover for 10 minutes with steady cycling (those at the front re-group
and cycle back to the last person in the group) then repeat. We will do
these as chain gang intervals if there are enough people of similar
abilities.
Session
2 - Intervals B
A slightly more varied and shorter (30 minute) interval
session. All fast/hard efforts should be flat out with an equal amount
of recovery. Again during recovery time cycle back to the last person in
the group.
- 5:00
minutes fast/5:00 minutes easy
- 4:00 fast/4:00 easy
- 3:00 fast/3:00 easy
- 2:00 fast/2:00 easy
- 1:00 fast/1:00 easy
Session 3 - The Hour of Power
After a much shorter warm-up you should ride a
touch under your race pace (measure by power/heartrate/perceived effort)
for 60 minutes while doing a 30 second surge/attack every 2-3 minutes.
The objective of this session is not to maximise the level of the
interval (though they should be high) but to maintain a high power level
for the recovery between intervals. In fact, the goal is to barely
recover just prior to the next higher level effort, the recovery should
be just sufficient enough to allow the next 30 second surge. The idea is
to improve your maximum one hour pace.
Session 4 - Hills
Hill repeats x 5, on the longer hills stay seated most of the
time however as gradient changes get out the saddle to keep momentum and
choose an appropriate gear.
The hills we use in Richmond Park (Richmond Park Map.pdf) are as follows:
- Sawyers Hills - the long drag up between Roehampton Gate and
Richmond Gate
- Broomfield
Hill - just by Robin Hood gate, Broomfield Hill Car Park at the top on
left
- Dark Hill -
short steep hill at Kingston Gate