Sweetspot
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Have you got a busy summer of cycling planned? Here are six training sessions to ensure you're in top form
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HIIT should be included as part of a varied training programme
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Want to be first to the cafe stop? Follow the training session below (Pic: Sirotti)
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This session works on the two aspects of sprinting individually and then puts them together (Pic: Tim de Waele/OPQS)
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Want to climb like Chris Froome? (Pic: Bruno Bade/ASO
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Sweetspot efforts will simulate the intensity of climbing a long ascent in the Alps (Pic: Media 24)
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Changes in cadence can leave you fatigued (Pic: P.Perreve/ASO)
Sweetspot
James says: “This session is perfect when training for events with long climbs such as the Etape de Tour. The sweetspot efforts will simulate the intensity of climbing a long ascent in the Alps.
“The goal here is to increase your muscular endurance while also working to push up your lactate or threshold. The bursts introduce an anaerobic effort into the exercise and replicate the power you will need to produce to get up steeper sections of the climb, out of a hairpin for example. For this reason its best to do the bursts out of the saddle. Pretending you are climbing Alp d’Huez while doing these intervals is optional!”
The training session – sweetspot with bursts
Twenty minutes warm-up – a slow progression from zone one, through zone two, with the last five minutes in zone three
Five minutes easy (zone one/two)
2×20 minute sweetspot efforts (upper zone three/lower zone four). During these efforts every two minutes you need to incorporate a ten second out of the saddle burst. This isn’t a sprint! A burst means clicking down two or three gears and pushing on out of the saddle (for those training with a power meter 120-150% FTP). Once the burst is finished settle straight back down into sweetspot effort
Fifteen minutes recovery (zone two) between efforts
Ten minutes cool down (zone one)