What is your "KEY" workout?

Mine changes as my body grows stronger and as other area lag in development.

My main focus to build speed and strength (some will remember I was asking for ideas 18 months ago) has been seated hill efforts. By pushing a larger gear every two weeks, I've become alot stronger (I'm looking for a new hill as I've run out of gears).

That said I've found that my weakest point now is my quads in sprints and surges, so my focus has shifted.

Naturally what works for one rider won't nessesarily work for another, but it would be interesting to hear what works for other riders.

sure I have one, but if I told it, it wouldn't be a secret

velomanct said:

sure I have one, but if I told it, it wouldn't be a secret

Oh, come-on! I'll tell you mine if you tell me your's. 😉

Maybe we can all get some new ideas here😕 ?

Brizza said:

Mine changes as my body grows stronger and as other area lag in development.

Agree. I usually take some time in the off-season to consider my weaknesses and set some goals to reduce them. There's always 1-2 painful memories where someone just stomped me, and I think "ok, that's not going to happen NEXT year..." 🙂

It was climbing for me 2 years ago, and it's power on the flats (for bridging a gap) this year. I've been spending a lot of time grinding bigger gears in the 80-90% MHR this winter.

My personal favorite is the 2 x 20. It can be done in an hour and provides a pretty good bang for the fitness buck. If I'm feeling well rested I can push it for all I'm worth. If I'm not quite there I can cut back on the intensity.

5 min easy spinning (warmup)
5 min buildup
20 min (TT, LT, above LT, near LT, whatever)
5 min easy spinning
20 min (same as above)
5 min easy spinning (cooldown)

Mine is called "group ride," and generally involves about 35 min of convivial congregation and then about, oh, 2 to 3 hours of tongue over handlebars.

Seriously, probably descending intervals, but that's because where I live the only races are crummy little hilly crits. 😠

For me, since I'm new into this game, I have recently been adding variety to my usual flat/intense rides. For example: adding a mix of terrains, freeway overpass repeats, sprints, high speed prolonged duration efforts, and most recently, riding with the cycling club like catabolic said... 2-3 horus of tongue over handlebars. It's good stuff, and I haven't been out ridden (at least by that much) yet.

I've got a few regular rides that include a series of steep hill climbs (5 to 10 minutes each) seperated by a few minutes of flat or down hill. I ride the hills as hard as I can and find that it is great training to boost sustainable power capabilities. In winter I do a similar exercise on the trainer with alternating 5 min hard intervals and 5 min moderate power repeated for an hour. I mix it up a bit and often include 10 and/or 20 minute intervals as well.

I also do endurance work with 3 - 4 hr rides and have started doing 1 hr TT type sessions to try and build my strength for the longer rides.

Throw a loaded trailer on the back then head for the hills.

Unfortunately I'm terrible on the flat.

I'm not actually concerned about races, but this way I enjoy my time in the mountains lots more.