Going for Speed - Part 3

It seems to be the time of year when quite a few of us start thinking about getting faster. Over the past few years I've worked on a few ways to build speed and strength. The first and most important rule is to never just go riding. Every ride's got a purpose, even if the purpose is to just go out and enjoy a ride. The worst possible reason to go riding is to get your distance up. Just going for distance will slow you down.

Here are a few of my go-fast rides which I like try out on a regular basis:

The 30km Time Trial
This is a flat-out ride over the same route each time racing the clock. I set some intermediate points and know my best times. If I've got it right, I power over the line for a new PB. Wrong and I blow my legs up 2km from home and limp back up that last long hill feeling like crap.

50km Hard Push
This is what runners would call a tempo ride. I measure how hard I'm going by my heart rate. I try to keep it over 90% of my max for the whole ride. For me this is about 158bpm. This is a good distance for me because it's my ride to work and I've got a couple of good routes near home which fit this distance.

100km Hard Push
Same as above but extend it out. I don't do this too often because it knocks me around to much.

50km Strength
On this ride I focus on pushing as big a gear as I can keep spinning out to 90 odd rpm. It's a pretty simple routine, I'll push the gear I'm in as hard as I can until my cadence gets to 95 and then pull another gear, push that to 95 and so on. As soon as I drop below 90 or my heart rate goes over 165, I change down a gear and push it back over 90. The idea is to learn to push bigger gears harder but to keep some pedalling style and rhythm.

The Fartlek
Fartlek is a running term and means something like "ouch" in Finish or Norwegian. Ideally I do this over 50 to 200k over a rolling hilly course. It's also great done with others. I ride fairly easily but quickly on the downhills and flats and sprint up every hill as fast as I can in a biggish gear until my legs give out. The idea is to build strength and top speed.

Hill Repeats
I hate these the most. I have a 3km hill right outside my front gate which I can ride in about 3rd or 4th gear if I push hard. I warm up for 10km then ride the hill as fast as I can, turn around and do it again. I keep doing this until it all falls apart. I start with 4 repeats and build up to 6 or 7 by the Alpine. The worst I've ever done was 6 repeats of Arthur's Seat.

Long Ride
I completely forget the long ride if I want to go faster. Audax rides take care of that and they just make me slower.

Coffee Ride
I have to do this now and then. It involves going for a ride with other people and just enjoying the ride and company and preferably having a very large, very strong coffee at some point. It's important to take off the heart-rate monitor, speedo and anything else I might obsess over.

These kinds of rides aren't for everyone, they're not even for me every day. Bike Snob at BSNYC refers to the kind of obsessive riding for strength or speed I've been describing as like "Wearing a Bluetooth headset during a romantic dinner" and I'm not sure I can argue against that analogy.

Still if you want to go faster, there's only one way to get there and that's to ride faster.

Only 2 more big sleeps 'till the days start getting longer.