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Nowadays there are so many off-the-shelf training plans available online for athletes. Most of them promise to improve one element of performance, be it VO2 max or FTP. Now, not only should these claims be taken with a pinch of salt, but what happens if your cycling goal is that you just want to get a bit better at everything? Cycling coach James Spragg explains how to go about becoming a better all-round cyclist.
Sports scientist and coach James Spragg is one of the experts who will be answering your questions in Cycling Weekly’s ASK A CYCLING COACH series which comes out every Wednesday. Working both in research and applied settings, he currently runs Intercept Performance Consultancy.
Training can be thought of as trying to spin ten different plates at the same time. Each plate represents a specific element of fitness. The faster each plate is spinning the better that particular element of performance. Your overall performance is dictated by the average speed of all ten plates.
Typically, off-the-shelf cycling training plans focus on only one or two of these plates and do a pretty decent job of speeding them up; improving that particular element of performance, whether’s that’s building your endurance, improving your climbing or sprinting ability, increasing your FTP or for weight loss.
Where they fall down, is that while they are working to spin up one to two plates as fast as possible, they are not concerned with the eight other plates that are gradually slowing down. Therefore, you might see performance gains in a specific area, but your overall performance might not get any better, or worse you might even go backwards.
To continue to stretch this metaphor…
Not all of the spinning plates are the same size. Some are much bigger, take longer to get up to speed but then carry on spinning on their own much longer. These elements of fitness are the ones that you need to focus on if you want simply want to become a better all- around cyclist.
The key elements of performance in cycling are all concerned with aerobic fitness. Aerobic fitness is, to mix my metaphors, the cornerstone on which all other elements of performance are built. If you want to become a better all-round cyclist start here.
(Image credit: Future)
When people think about aerobic fitness they typically think of two measures, threshold power and VO2 max. However, there is in fact a threshold below both of these that is even more important. This ‘first’ threshold separates power…
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