Most Common Training Mistake That Ruins Your Bike Fit

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Themost common training mistake that ruins your bike fit is that many riders go too hard for too long -- they spend too much time "in the middle".https://youtu.be/-HpoDpX0onIWhat's the middle?  If we use threshold as our line of demarcation - and threshold is that level of effort that we could maintain for around 45-60 minutes, the middle is that small sliver of effort a little below our threshold. Training at or just above threshold for periods? Okay. Spending a lot of time 5-15 beats (or 20-40 watts) below threshold? Not good.Why is the middle bad? Because it doesn't have as great a benefit for our fitness, whether we're a trained athlete or not. There's a lot of research to support the polarized training method. This 2004 article says that elite athletes spend most of their time either far above or far below their threshold. This 2012 article shows the polarized method to be superior to the threshold training method for experienced cyclists. And this article shows that recreational athletes also show greater improvement with polarized training. The middle comes with much more recovery load though than our easy efforts. Going for a 90-minute ride? Hammering away almost as hard as you can won't get you even to your threshold -- since threshold is usually the effort you can maintain for 45-60 minutes. But it will leave a mark and require some extra recovery time so you won't be fresh for another ride the next day.A better alternative would be riding very easy for much of that 90 minutes, but after perhaps 30-40 minutes of warm-up time, you could ride for 1  minute as hard as you can (or even just harder than threshold -- shoot for the effort you can maintain for 10 minutes), and then rest for 2-3 minutes and repeat this effort and recovery sequence 4-6 times. This would be a polarized workout and has been shown to produce a greater training effect and it'll let you live to fight another day since you've only "loaded" your legs (and lungs) with around 5 minutes of significant effort which you'll recover from quite easily.From a bike fit perspective, training in the middle leads to compromised posture on the bike. Training on negative recovery easily can lead to over-reaching if not over-training and in both situations riders exhibit poorer pelvic stability and scapular control, the two most common and problematic bike posture issues. Over-reached athletes will often begin to experience more saddle and hand issues as their power output slips and their balance gets thrown off on the bike.So keep your bike efforts varied and out of the middle - not only will your fitness benefit, but your bike posture will improve as well. Other polarized workout examples:"The hole in the bucket"

  • Interval Effort Level: E30 -- effort you can maintain for 30 minutes
  • Warm-up: 30-35 of easy riding
  • Interval Man Set: E30 4 X 6 minutes with 4 minutes rest between each ; So you'll do each interval at the effort you feel you could hold for about a half hour, but you're only going to do the interval for 6 minutes, then you'll take a 4 minute rest where you go back to your easy pace (like around 20-30 bpm below your threshold heart rate, or at least 50 watts below your threshold power. You repeat this "6 minutes effort - 4 minutes rest" cycle four time and then finish the ride again at your easy pace.

The Mixer

  • Interval Effort Level: E2 -- effort you can maintain for 2 minutes ; and E45 (threshold)
  • Warm-up: 30-35 of easy riding
  • Interval Man Set: E45 X 4 minutes then immediately into E2 X 30 seconds, followed by 5 minutes of rest. Repeat this E45-E2-Rest sequence 3-5  times with 4 minutes rest between each ; So you'll do each interval at the effort you feel you could hold for about a half hour, but you're only going to do the interval for 6 minutes, then you'll take a 4 minute rest where you go back to your easy pace (like around 20-30 bpm below your threshold heart rate, or at least 50 watts below your threshold power. You repeat this "6 minutes effort - 4 minutes rest" cycle four time and then finish the ride again at your easy pace.

The

  • Interval Effort Level: E10 -- effort you can maintain for 10 minutes
  • Warm-up: 30-35 of easy riding
  • Interval Man Set: E10 X 3 minutes then pedal easy 3 minutes. Repeat 6 times but do three on flat terrain and then three more later in the workout on a climb.

 

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