Performance Tips: Training

Chris Carmichael, Lance Armstrong's coach, designed a program during the 2005 Tour de France to let Bicycling.com readers incorporate some Tour de France workouts into their own training. Here are a few of his training routines:

Accelerating Out of a Corner

Ride for at least an hour before starting the drills. Find the corner or corners you are going to use for practice. Every time you go through it, remember the following:

• Keep your outside pedal down and plant all your weight on it
• Keep your hands in the drops and your elbows bent
• Adjust your speed prior to the corner and then come off the brakes as you come through
• Look through the turn to where you want to end up
• Lean the bike into the turn while keeping you body relatively upright.

For the first five times through your corner: Come into the corner slow, 10-15 mph, focusing on the mechanics of cornering (see above). When you pass through the apex, explode out of the corner into a full sprint for 12 seconds. For the next five times through your corner: Speed things up. Come into the corner faster, the mechanics are the same, things just happen more quickly. Planting your weight on your outside foot increases in importance. Enter the corner as fast as you feel comfortable, and then explode out of it into a full sprint for 12 seconds. If you have more time, add another 5-10 times through the corner at high speed, and change things up. Try a left turn instead of a right one, or vice versa. Exaggerate parts of the mechanics to see how they affect the way the bike handles, etc.

Speedy Sprinting

Ride two hours total, with two sets of three HighSpeedSprints(tm) in the last third of the ride. To give you an idea of what it's like to sprint out of a field that is already flying, I'm going to reduce the recovery time between these sprints. Normally, you'd get five minutes to fully recover between sprints. For this stage, you only get three. General Task: EnduranceMiles, 2:00 Ride 2 sets of 3 sprints, 3 minutes recovery between sprints, five minutes recovery between sets.

Power Intervals

Ride 1:30 hours then begin training: two minutes max effort, one minute recovery, repeated five times. Take 10 minutes of recovery, and then repeat the set again. More advanced riders can do this workout as one set instead of breaking it into two. This is a very hard workout because you're not fully recovered before it's time to go again. This workout will take 28 minutes if it's one set, or 38 minutes if it's two. Each rider in the team time trial will do something like this for 70 straight minutes.

Hill Accelerations

Ride 2 hours then find a hill that you can reach the top of in 4-8 minutes. To simulate the demands of a race, go up the climb at a hard, but sustainable pace. As you get within 500 meters of the summit, begin gradually increasing your effort and speed. You should be seated throughout the effort, and by the time you reach the summit you should be going all-out. Recovery between HillAccelerations should be about 10 minutes, and you should repeat the effort 4-5 times.

Accelerations and Surges

Ride 2 hourse then do one set of Linked SpeedIntervals is a series of three sprints, separated by 30 seconds of steady riding. The first sprint (all of which are 12 seconds long) should be in a 53x17, the second in a 53x15, and the third in a 53x13. If you don't have those exact gear combinations, it's not a problem. The concept is to do the first sprint in a relatively light gear, the second in a bigger gear, and the third in an even bigger gear. You're going to do three sets of Linked SpeedIntervals today, and the recovery between sets is 10 minutes. You should start your first sprint from a speed of about 15 mph, then return to about 20 mph for the 30 seconds before the next sprint. After the second sprint, return to 20+ mph before the third and final sprint of the set.

Sprint Uphill, Get a Gap, Settle In

Ride 1:30 hours then do five 15-second sprints, each followed by one minute of riding at the fastest seated climbing pace you can sustain. The five efforts should be separated by at least five minutes recovery. Your sprint should begin on flat ground at the bottom of a hill and proceed up the hill. As you climb, you will be sprinting against increasing resistance, but dig deep to keep your cadence and speed up. When the sprint is over, shift into an easier gear, sit down, and quickly get into a fast climbing rhythm. It's important to sprint at full power for this workout; don't hold back in the sprint in order to feel stronger for the climb afterwards. This is the mistake racers make in competition, and they're the riders who almost always get caught.

Make Your Rivals Suffer

Ride 1:30 hours then began with steady state intervals. The key to SteadyState Intervals is the overall duration of the efforts. The intensity level should be 92% (plus four heart beats to make a range) of your field test heart rate, your cadence should be around 90 rpm, and you should aim to complete three intervals in the workout session. The intervals should be 8 minutes (beginner), 12 minutes (intermediate), or 15 minutes (advanced), and whichever time you choose, you should take 12 minutes recovery between intervals. If you're using a power meter, these intervals should be done at 90% of the average power you saw between the two field test efforts. Take 90% of that average power, then add and subtract five watts to create a range.

Climbing Repeats

Ride 2 hours then begin with Climbing Repeats. ClimbingRepeats are very effective for increasing the maximum power you can sustain for the duration of a long climb. During these efforts, you should feel like you're going hard, but that you could accelerate in response to an attack if you needed to. These efforts should not be as intense as a time trial. Beginners should complete two, eight-minute ClimbingRepeats. Intermediate riders should complete three eight-minute intervals, and advanced riders should complete three 12-minute intervals. The recovery between intervals should be 12 minutes for each group. Be careful not to start the intervals too hard; spend the first 90 seconds gradually getting up to speed.

Over Under Intervals

Ride for 2 hourse then do OverUnderIntervals. OverUnderIntervals start out similarly to ClimbingRepeats. You want to start climbing at your ClimbingRepeat heart rate or power output for the first few minutes of the interval. After three minutes, accelerate to maximum speed for two minutes, then come back down to your ClimbingRepeat intensity for another three minutes. The interval ends with another two-minute surge. Recovery between intervals should be 15 minutes. Beginners may only be able to handle two of these intervals, intermediate riders should try for three, and advanced riders need to be able to handle four.

Keep the Breakaway

Ride for 2 hours then find a route that takes you over many climbs. For the first 90 minutes, maintain a smooth and steady pace over the climbs. In the last thirty minutes of the ride, push the pace on all the climbs and all the descents. Imagine there is a hungry pack of racers steadily eating away at your lead, and the only way you can win is to keep going faster.

Fast Pedal

Ride for 1:30 hours and start Fast Pedal by doing four intervals, five minutes each, with five minutes recovery between them. In a light gear, aim to maintain as high a cadence as you can without bobbing in the saddle. When Lance performs this workout, he sometimes pedals a 39x17 at about 130 rpm, but his intervals are 15 minutes or longer. Focus on keeping your upper body relaxed and just spinning your legs fast. Your heart rate and breathing rate will rise as the result of the high cadence, but there is no prescribed heart rate range for this workout.

Develop Acceleratory Power

Ride for 2 hours then find a hill that you can reach the top of in 4-8 minutes. To simulate the demands of a race, go up the climb at a hard, but sustainable pace. As you get within 500 meters of the summit, begin gradually increasing your effort and speed. You should be seated throughout the effort, and by the time you reach the summit you should be going all-out. Recovery between HillAccelerations should be about 10 minutes, and you should repeat the effort 4-5 times.

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