Clivus said:I am a mountain bike racer who is new to any type of structured training. I purchased a Kurt Kinetic and a Powertap and have been shocked at the improvement in FTP I have made over the winter (almost 90w so far). Primarily, I have been doing sets of 20 minute SST intervals at a self selected cadence of 90-95rpm. I have been thinking of doing some sets with lower cadence to work on muscular endurance. How low should I go cadence wise and and how often should I do these intervals? My goal events are 100k marathon XC mountain bike races that are still more than 12 weeks away. Any thoughts? I am now doing 2 days per week of 3x20.
My goal events have extremely stochastic power requirements and I have only been training steady state power thus far. Any opinions on what type of intervals I should add as my events approach. I was thinking of 3-5minutes intervals in sets with limited rest and perhaps some descending intervals.
Thank you in advance.
I currently do the following once a week (almost):
1) 2 or 3 x 20m % 95-105% FTP
2) 4 x 5m @ 116% FTP
3) 20s @ 170% FTP, 10 s 50% FTP for 3.5 mins x 2 (with 10 min easy between)
4) 4 x 1.5m @ 140% FTP (3 sets with 10/20 min rest between each)
I usually add a 1 x 20 after completing 3) and 4). But after the 4 x 5 VO2 max intervals I'm cooked. I know you should ideally have a rest or recovery day behind you for 2, 3 and 4 but with my time allowance this doesn't always work.
As for cadence - I think any lower than 90 is risky - think about what cadence is best for your racing. Certainly I do all my L5+6 intervals at 110rpm +, and recently I have upped my L4 cadence to around 100. This was quite tough at first. I was advised to do that by a local elite rider here who says it gives you faster acceloration in races, more of a cardio workout and more supple legs. I still do some of them at a lower cadence (90) on the advice of Timan.
Personally I think doing intervals at very low cadences is not a good thing as far as getting in shape for racing is concerned (for me). I never see anyone racing below about 95. I mean, sure, you could ride a RR at 75 but sprinting out of the corners is going to tax your power reserves a lot faster than spinning a higher gear. I notice that the elite riders round here are doing superfast totally flat crits mainly on the 16/17 gear with a very high cadence.
