DHL Sprint School

Roller / Turbo pre race warm up

Stuart MacDonald
Olympic Talent Coach – South West

 

Turbo Session 1 - Anaerobic session

Warm up then ease back to about 70% effort. Select a gear that feels too big (probably your hardest gear). Pedal it hard for 15 seconds. (aim for approximately 30 - 35 revs in the sprint. Change into a small gear for 2.5 minutes. Pedal at approx 60rpm in the recovery time. Repeat the sprints a further 7 times only. Your legs should feel overgeared during this session

This is an Anaerobic training session (without oxygen). Your heart rate will continue to rise after you have finished. You should feel legless if these are done right!!

 

Turbo Session 2 - Sprint accelerations

Warm up then ease back to approx 60rpm in an fairly easy gear. Engage the easiest of your top 5 gears and pedal hard (not flat out) for 15 seconds *about 85%) then sprint for a further 15 seconds absolutely flat out. Ease back to 60rpm for 2.5 minutes then repeat the intervals in each of the remaining 4 gears. Remember to cool down!

This type of effort is like you are coming into a sprint on someones wheel. i.e. they are leading you out. So the first part of the sprint is seated and then when you get to 15 seconds, visualise coming around the other rider and going flat out to the line.

 

Turbo Session 3 - Time Trial

Warm up then engage a gear that is quite hard but that you can pedal at 95 - 100rpm. The session should feel about an 8 on the scale 1-10. Now set your watch and ride your own time trial for 10 minutes at a constant rate. At the end of the 10 minutes, change up 1 gear but keep the same RPM and pedal at a constant rate for a further 10 minutes. Don't try to speed up like in intervals but maintain a constant pace. REMEMBER TO COOL DOWN!

No rest breaks in between changing gear. Just go straight into it.

 

Turbo Session 4 - Power

WARM UP!! The ease back to about 70%. Select a gear that feels too big or one that you would normally struggle with. This might be your hardest gear plus some extra resistance on the turbo. You should only be able to pedal at 70rpm, nothing more. These efforts are all to be done in a seated position. Pedal hard for 30 seconds, then into an easy gear at 60rpm for 2 minutes. Repeat the intervals a further 7 times. After the last one, ride for 5 - 8 minutes in an easy gear but with a fairly high cadence so that you don't finish with heavy legs. The COOL DOWN for 5-10mins.

 

Turbo Session 5 - Race type efforts

Warm up thoroughly - get a good sweat on. Ease back to approx 70% then engage a fairly hard gear. Sprint for 10 seconds, rest for 50 seconds, then repeat a further 4 times. Cruise for 5 minutes at about 65-70%. Sprint for 10 seconds, rest for 50 seconds x 5, Cruise for 5 minutes. Sprint for 15 seconds rest for 45 seconds x 5. then Cool down!

This session should be like a race on the track where someone is always attacking. Try to visualize the race where your main rivals are attacking you and you have to respond. Also visualize you attacking them. The last 15 second sprint is a sprint for the line. Visualize you winning this one.

 

Turbo Session 6 - Race Efforts

This one is going to require a DVD player. If you have any videos of track races, have a good warm up, then put the DVD on of the race. Pick a riders who finishes on the podium and then you basically copy what they do during the race. If they go for a sprint, so do you. If they go for a lap, so do you. If they are resting, so are you. This is quite a fun session but can be quite hard.

 

Turbo Session 7 - Recovery

If it is too wet, dark, windy to get a recovery ride in on the road, then  simply ride the turbo for between 20 - 30 minutes, in an easy gear at an easy pace. The aim is to help your legs recover by flushing out the lactic acid produced from your other sessions, so it is really important to keep the pace steady and not go too hard.

Even if you feel really good during this session, remember the aim is to recover so don't go too hard!!!

 

 Road Sessions

In addition to Turbo Training, below are some Road training plans you might like to use too. Please take extra care when training on the roads and always use quiet roads and take an adult with you.

40 minute Sprints Programme
10 mins warm up progressive
10, 15, 20, 24, 30, 35 mins sprint as hard as possible for 20 seconds
Last 5 mins progressive warm down

Power Crit Sprints, on the road or trainer
Warm-up well. After the warm-up, do 3 sets of short (8-10 second) sprints.
Each set contains 5 sprints separated by 30 seconds. Ride easy between sets for at least 5 minutes.
Use a BIG gear for sprints at 100+ rpm with max effort for each sprint.

1.5 hour session for quiet roads
Flat road required.
Roll to a slow place / halt then standing start as if on track.
Do four efforts of 100m, with a minute or two active recovery in between.
Ride for 10mins really easy before repeating, do four sets.
On Starts 1: First set and third set out of the saddle, second and fourth set seated.
On Starts 2: Swap over so one and three are seated etc. Always alternate starting legs.

Down hill Sprint Session
Downhill sprint sessions are to enhance speed and speed endurance. First choose a reasonable downslope to use, or devise a circuit where you encounter about 4 or 5 downlsopes during your ride. If using just one slope, you will need to creep back up to the top to save energy for each sprint. Accelerate at the top of the hill in the saddle and aim to build your cadence as quickly as possible as if sprinting on the rollers, eg 180-190 rpm. With the aid of the downslope you should have try hard and focus on smooth pedalling to continue at this cadence throughout the effort. Ideally you should be sprinting for 20plus seconds - the longer the better! Aim for 5 efforts with 5-10mins active recovery between - usually pedalling back up the hill!