Remember the great scene in the movie Breaking Away where Dave Stohler is drafting a semi-truck? Dave (Dennis Christopher) is an avid cyclist and he and his friends, the Cutters, want to beat the college boys in the Little 500 in Bloomington, IN. They know that if the Cutters are going to win the Little 500, they need speed. So, Dave is doing a simple form of speed training, drafting a truck.

Breaking Away came out in 1979. That summer, I was training for my first Paris-Brest-Paris. I didn't know much about conditioning, I just trained the same way I'd trained for California double centuries - long hard rides in the Santa Cruz mountain. One Saturday, I did a tough 70 mile loop in the mountains. When I finished, I was trashed and worried! This was less than 10% of the length of PBP. What was I getting into?

When I got home, my brother suggested we go see a new cycling movie Breaking Away. I came home from that re-inspired. Even if you're not training to win the Little 500, some speed work will improve your performance and add spice to your training.

A Little Physiology
Whether you choose to draft semi-trucks, or do hill repeats such as 3 x 5 minutes @ LT+2 bpm with 3 minutes recovery, an understanding of physiology and the types of speed work will improve the effectiveness of your training.

There are many types and intensities of speed work and each coach has his or her own system. What's important for endurance riders is the effect different kinds of speed work have on muscular endurance, the ability to sustain a high power output for a long period of time. We don't need a blinding sprint, nor do we need to be able to counter attacks and then recover. Rather, we want to be able to cruise through our ultra events.

For optimum performance, an ultra racer should be able to ride close to the rider's lactate (anaerobic) threshold for a long period of time. Riders who aren' doing ultra races, but are riding brevets and doubles for fun, still want to be able to climb repeatedly without going anaerobic.

The lactate threshold (LT) is the region at which our bodies shift from producing energy with enough oxygen to producing more energy, but without enough oxygen. As we start producing energy without enough oxygen, one of the byproducts is lactic acid. How to estimate your lactate threshold.

By training properly, we can push the LT up, to a higher heart rate. Since LT is defined as the region where significant amounts of lactate start to accumulate in the blood, by improving our ability to clear lactate, the result is that we can ride harder before we reach LT! By training slightly below LT, we train our bodies to convert lactate to fuel for the slow twitch muscles, thus clearing lactate from the bloodstream. The most effective training to push up the LT is to do relatively long efforts just below LT with only partial recovery between each effort. We start the next hard interval before lactate is fully cleared in order to continue the training stimulus to remove lactate.

In addition to training to remove lactic acid, proper training can also increase the rider's VO2 max, the maximum amount of oxygen that the cardiovascular system can deliver to the working muscles. However, VO2 max is largely determined by genetics. Since the lactate threshold is more "trainable", we'll get more improvement if we work on increasing our LTs (and it won't hurt as much!)

Types of Intensity Training
Basically, there are four types of intensity training:

1. Cruise or lactate clearing: The purpose of these workouts is to improve the body's ability to remove lactate from the bloodstream. Thus, the rider should train at the intensity where lactate is starting to accumulate, i.e., 5-10 beats per minute (bpm) below lactate threshold. On the Borg scale of Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) this is equivalent to RPE 15. The efforts are long, 10 to 60 minutes. If the rider is doing repeated efforts, there is only partial recovery between the efforts. (If the rider recovers fully, the rider may be tempted to go too hard!)
2. Lactate tolerance: The purpose is to improve the rider's ability to tolerate high lactate levels and to keep riding hard. Thus, the rider should train at an intensity where the body can't clear the lactate. The efforts are done at LT to 5 bpm above LT (RPE 16). These efforts are shorter, 3 to 6 minutes, again with partial recovery. The rider should start the next effort before the rider really feels ready to go hard.
3. VO2 max: The purpose of these efforts is to increase the rider's VO2 max. These efforts are very hard, at LT + 5-10 bpm (RPE 17-18). The efforts are short, 2 to 4 minutes, with just enough recovery for the rider to complete the next effort.
4. Maximum power: The purpose is to improve muscle recruitment and increase the maximum power a rider can deliver to the pedals, i.e., improve the rider's ability to sprint and jump.

For distance riders, lactate clearing workouts are very beneficial. Lactate tolerance workouts are more useful for road and mountain bike racers, who need to tolerate high lactate levels during races. Most riders don't need to indulge in the pain of VO2 max intervals; however, a rider seeking maximum performance can benefit from several weeks (not months!) of VO2 max workouts.

Training should be progressive - before attempting VO2 max efforts, a rider should do at least a month of lactate clearing workouts and then a month of lactate buffering efforts. Doing short max power efforts is wasted time for endurance riders - unless you're training for the county line sprints on PAC Tour!

Although we want to push the lactate threshold up, the way to do this is by riding slightly below LT. Most endurance athletes do too much training above LT. By training 5-10 bpm below LT, we:

• improve our bodies ability to transport oxygen
• increase the recruitment of the fast twitch IIa fibers
• shorten the lactate clearance cycle
• increase the removal of waste products

Engineer or Poet?
Okay, you've digested the physiology. What should you actually do on the bike? When you get back from a ride, do you carefully log the miles to the tenth, time to the minute, feet climbed, and time above a certain heart rate? Or do you jot "beautiful spring century , great wildflowers, nice to ride without warmers, legs feeling stronger."?

If you like data, then you'll probably prefer structured intervals. If numbers motivate you, then lay out a progressive program manipulating the three training variables of volume, frequency and intensity. The first month, do several 10 minute cruise intervals one day a week, each week increasing the volume, the total time spent in 5-10 beats below LT. You can either increase the duration of the intervals or the number of repeats you do.

The next month, increase the frequency to twice a week. The first week, do the same total volume of speed work you as did the last week, but spread over two days with at least one easy day in between. Then each week increase the total time spent in the target heart rate zone.

The third month if you're motivated to achieve maximum performance, increase the intensity to lactate tolerance intervals, riding at LT to LT +5 bpm. Keep the frequency at twice a week, but reduce the volume of the suffering, since you are increasing the intensity. Each week increase either the number or length of the intervals.

After three months of "fun", then you can progress to VO2 max intervals. Again, start with a few short efforts twice a week and increase either the number or duration week by week.

You rarely balance your checkbook and don't own a heart rate monitor? You should still build month by month. One day a week, go out and climb some long hills. Or tow your buddies into the wind. Or try to hang with the fast bunch on a club ride. Pay attention to your perceived exertion. You should be riding hard, but still able to talk in short phrases. If you're completely out of breath, back off.

Borg's Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) Scale
6	No exertion at all
7	Extremely light
8
9	Very light
10
11	Light
12
13	Somewhat hard
14
15	Hard (heavy)
16
17	Very hard
18
19	Extremely hard
20	Maximal exertion

After a month of weekly hard rides, then start doing sustained hard efforts twice a week. Mix in some club time trials and hill climbs. Or try outrunning a thunder storm. Or time trial home on your commute bike. Remember, you shouldn't be breathless.

If you're ambitious, the third month you can get out your mountain bike and jam up short, gnarly climbs twice a week. Or hammer over rollers on your road bike. Now you're riding really hard and you shouldn't have the breathe to curse Coach Hughes.

Timing the Peak
You're probably reading this in mid-June. If you're training for an important race in September like the Adirondack 540 or the UMCA 24 Hour Championships, you have three months to work on your cruising speed and power.

When you start doing speed work, cut down on your mileage. When you increase the intensity of the overload, decrease the volume, to reduce the risk of injury and overtraining.

You could start with a month of once-a-week cruise intervals and then do six weeks of twice-a-week cruise intervals, progressively building the volume week by week. You'd then taper for two weeks, keeping the twice a week frequency but cutting the volume about in half. This will give you the primary benefit of intensity workouts- raising your lactate threshold so that you can cruise at a higher speed without going anaerobic.

What if you've just finished your brevets and want to peak for PBP in eight weeks? If you haven't done any hard riding this season, start off with three weeks of once-a-week cruise intervals, building up the total duration. Then go to twice a week, again building up the duration. The last two weeks, the taper, keep riding hard twice a week, but reduce the total time.

Suppose you're motivated to push up your lactate threshold, increase your c ruising speed, and then keep working hard to boost your VO2 max. If you haven't done any hard riding yet, then start with 3-4 weeks of once-a-week cruise intervals at 5-10 bpm below LT. Progress to 3-4 weeks of twice-a-week cruise intervals, and then step up to twice a week lactate tolerance intervals at LT to LT+5 bpm. After completing all three sets of workouts, then you're ready for 3-4 weeks of VO2 max intervals, followed by a couple of weeks of taper to be sure you are fully recovered for your big event.

Incorporating speed work into a training program is like cooking with new spices - a little goes a long way, until you are used to it. Start off with small amounts and be alert for signs of over-training. The two key indicators of overtraining are:

1. a loss of enthusiasm for riding your bike
2. a decrease in performance on the bike

Related articles

• Intensity Training for Ultra Cyclists by Pete Penseyres
• Speed the Spontaneous Way by Ed Pavelka

References

• Friel, J., "The Cyclist's Training Bible", VeloPress, 1996
• Sleamaker, R. & Browning, R., "Serious Training for Serious Athletes", Human Kinetics, 1996