Glossary

Use the following glossary to understand the requirements of the different type of session.

Road Rides

All long road rides above 2.5 hours are aimed at general conditioning to build endurance which is an important requirement for completing a sportive type event. Simply put, you need to spend enough hours in the saddle to prepare you to complete the course.

During all road rides, it is important to eat and drink throughout – so always have food with you and aim to drink a 500ml bottle every 1 – 1.5 hrs. You should finish this ride feeling tired but not exhausted and the next day should be a rest day, which means either a day off or an easy recovery session at Z1.

Where possible complete your longest road ride of each week in a group. This will help develop you group riding skills and also enable a longer distance to be covered for the same amount of effort of a shorter ride. It is important for riders on training plans 1 – 3 to ensure a few long group rides are included before taking on the event. These rides will also provide you with the confidence to successfully complete the event.

Road rides are notated to be carried out on either flat or varied terrain or may be detailed as ‘hilly’. The ability for you to include the rides as detailed will be somewhat determined by the area that you live / ride. However, where if possible, use the below to guide you to build the routes:

Flat Terrain:

80% flat. You would be able to ride 80% of the route sitting in the saddle and using just 3 or 4 different gears. You will need to increase the pace to push up through your training zones.

Varied Terrain:

Rolling terrain, not too structured, avoid really big hills. Let the terrain dictate the zones whilst riding ‘steady’ and not attacking the hills. Ride easy on the flat sections.

Hilly:

60% - 80% hilly. This type of ride will require a lot of climbing, and lots of time out of the saddle, along with a lot of time descending. You will need to use many gears, and the ride will see you spend more time in the higher training zones than the varied terrain due to the nature of the course. These rides will build strength as well as endurance and ‘top end’ fitness.

Include some hills:

This is a road ride that is mainly on flat or rolling terrain, but will have some hills within it that will take you high up the training zones. As a guide, look to include two hills for every one hour ridden (note the ride is not a structured training session however so you do not have to be too strict about when the hills come in the ride).

AT Interval session 1: - e.g. AT session with 4 efforts.

10’ progressive warm up to Z3, 2’ easy before first interval then 4 x 4’ intervals at AT (Z4/Z5 level) with 4’ recovery between intervals, 10’ cool down.

AT Interval session 2: - e.g. AT session 2 with 3 efforts.

As AT Interval session 1 but with 2’ recovery between intervals. Warm up for AT (Z4/Z5 Training Zone) Interval sessions 1 & 2.

3’ easy pedalling, 5’ progressive to Z4/Z5, 2’ easy.

Cadence session (seated): - e.g. 30’ cadence session.

30’ Z1 with 4 rev outs (acceleration to maximum cadence on resistance level 1) at 10’, 15, 20, 25’ – rev outs 15-30 seconds in duration.

FoP - Focus on Pedalling technique: - e.g. 20’ Z1 FoP.

Power session 1: - e.g. Power session 1 with 4 efforts.

10’ warm up then 4 x 300m efforts accelerating flywheel from 30 rpm to as fast as possible. If max cadence reached within 200m then increase resistance. Set the Wattbike resistance lever at your Z4/Z5 level.

Fully recover between efforts – 3’-5’ recovery between each effort, 10’ cool down.

Power session 2: - e.g. Power session with 4 efforts.

10 minute warm up then 4 x 2’ intervals with 4’ recovery between intervals.

Over geared – 80 rpm at Z4/Z5 – accelerating the last 30 seconds to 100+ rpm at Z5, 10’ cool down. See the tables of power, resistance and cadence. Set the resistance lever to the level that delivers your Z4/Z5 power zone at 80 rpm.

Progressive session: - e.g. 45’ PS Z1-Z3.

Increasing resistance level and/or cadence that increases HR and power from your Z1 to Z3 training zones. Includes warm up and cool down.

Example 5’ warm up then 10’ at Z1, 10’ at Z2, 10’ at Z3, 10’ cool down.

Rev outs: - e.g. 60’ inc 4 rev outs downhill (downhill sprints).

Rev out is acceleration to maximum cadence at 15’, 25’ 35’ and 45’, rev outs of 10 -20 seconds (build up to 20 seconds; important that cadence is as high as possible & remains high for duration of rev out.

Strength session (seated): - e.g. Strength efforts with 3 efforts.

10’ progressive warm up to Z3 followed by 5’ recovery, then 3 x 3’ at Z3 60-70 cadence, 5’ recovery between efforts, 10’ cool down. See the tables of power, resistance and cadence. Set the resistance lever to the level that delivers your Z3 power zone at 60-70 rpm.

Where sets of efforts are required (2 sets of 2 OR 2 sets of 3) recovery is 5’ between sets.