Winter bike workouts/Plyometrics

JohnnyKay - 2010-05-12 12:19 PM From studies I have seen, it might help you if you compete in bunch sprints.  Otherwise, none.

Dlaxman31 - 2010-05-12 12:23 PM

What could help with overall power and strength (endurance wise) off the bike.

JohnnyKay - 2010-05-12 12:28 PM

You want endurance, you get on the bike.  You don't need added strength to ride faster in triathlons.

Dlaxman31 - 2010-05-12 12:29 PM

Should I just give up and HTFU and ride morE?

JohnnyKay - 2010-05-12 12:35 PM

Yes.  That's how you accomplish what you are asking.  Ride more, ride harder, recover, repeat.

If you do actually want to be able to better "sprint away from a group", there may be some place for strength training off the bike.  That's not any kind of skill you need for triathlons, though.

noelle1230 - 2010-05-12 12:40 PM

Any tips on indoor riding drills on a spin bike or if indoor riding on a spin bike will help at all when us Michiganders have weather preventing an outdoor ride (which is way too often)?

JohnnyKay - 2010-05-12 1:02 PM

I do a good portion of my riding indoors (trainer for me) all year round.  When I do so, I typically ride "shorter" but "harder".  A typical indoor bike workout for me is a 10' warm-up and then 2 x 20' with 5' easy after each interval.  The 20' intervals are done at a level that I can (hopefully) barely hold for the duration.  Off the bike in an hour.  I'm not a big believer in spending too much time doing drills for the most part, but you can make them part of your warm-up or cool down if you like (do some "spin-ups" where you gradually increase the cadance to as fast as you can over ~30" or so or do some single leg pedalling).

Check out Jorge's winter bike thread (I am not sure where it resides in BT) for some more variety and ideas of how to build into a program.  You can also use spin classes as those are generally higher intensity work, but then you are (at least somewhat) captive to what the instructor wants to do.  Works for some people and they find a group environment easier to motivate for.  I advocate whatever it takes to get the work done.