Bike session: How to build race-day strength

The winter is a great time to make improvements to our performance, and for this session we’re doing 3 x 20mins at a moderate pace and with a range of cadences.

Working at 80-90% of your functional capacity is a great way to maximise your training time and work on your strength. I’d do a six-week block leading into the season. And if you’re riding with a power meter it’s a great way to monitor your power-to-heart rate ratio to gauge your fitness. I like to use these type of workouts a lot in my athletes’ workouts and believe they’re the back bone of any structured training programme.

With all training we’re not just looking at one awesome session that will bring those A-race performances, rather it’s about adding consistency and structure into your schedule. Perform this session outside ideally, but the turbo is fine.
And hold a position that provides the best power transfer.

WARM-UP

10mins easy

Cadence to suit

MAIN SET

3 x 20mins moderate as:

0-5mins @80-90rpm

5-10mins @70-80rpm

10-15mins @60-70rpm

15-20mins @90-100rpm

5mins easy recovery between each

COOL-DOWN

10mins high cadence

Adapt for beginners

Break the 20mins into 10min sections to start with and keep the 5mins recovery. Then over the coming weeks, add 2-3mins onto each block until you’re able to sustain the full 20mins.

Adapt for Ironman

Each week, reduce the recovery time by 1min on each 5min recovery until you bring the full 20mins up to 1hr.

Matt Bottrill Bike coach

About

Winner of multiple national championships, holder of competition records and many more accolades, Matt is now focused on developing Matt Bottrill Performance Coaching and helping some of the world's top athletes across a range of stages. As part of this, Matt transitioned from the world of time-trialling into triathlon in 2017 and progressed to multiple age-group and overall wins. This learning process, along with taking on board specialist triathlon coaches, has enabled MBPC to transform the cycling of many triathletes. Matt now coaches some of the best triathletes in the world, including Tim Don, Will Clarke, Rachel Joyce and Susie Cheetham. The team of 6 coaches have a range of different specialist areas that enable them to tackle any niche aspect of riding, from 10-mile TTs all the way up to National A level road racing and everything in between.