Your Pre-Season Training Guide Part 1 - By Charlie

For many roadies like me, training for 2010 began yesterday. November 1 marks the end of the off-season “junk miles,” where what little riding is done for pleasure, and the ascetic lifestyle is abandoned in favor of beer, brats, and baseball watching. (Though, since Halloween happened to be on a Saturday, I think many of us added an extra day of post-party recovery; I know I did!) By now, everyone should know that the old “base-building,” long slow distance (LSD) rides are no good. That’s not to say an aerobic base is unimportant. Rather, just know that doing 75 miles at 14-16 mph on the flats won’t ever make you faster. The for training is, was, and always will be intensity. Below a certain threshold, your body is not adapting in ways that it needs to to improve athletic performance. Consider the following image:

If you would please, look at all the physiological benefits from training above a certain intensity level (L1, or zone 1 in Breakaway lingo). Below that intensity (55% of FTP, 68% of Lactate Threshold Heart Rate, or, most roughly, about 75% of time trial pace), your body is not going hard enough to break you down. And the way the body gets stronger is by breaking itself down (catabolic stage), then building itself back up (anabolic stage), stronger than before. So this year, forego those freezing cold 5-hour crawls out beyond the Valley Forge trail. Make better use of your time by training with intensity.

A final warning, however: there’s intensity, and then there’s intensity. Going too hard, too soon will make you a December dynamo but come April you’ll be past peak and so frustrated you can’t hang you start consider training for a running race. Don’t do it! Train smart by keeping the intensity moderate this month and next, and start thinking about those lung-searing levels 5-6-and-7 intervals after the holidays.