Feature: Bottrill’s Top 5 Training Sessions

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Matt Bottrill who races a Giant Trinity SL for Drag2Zero, talks us through his Top 5 Training Sessions and how he uses power as part of his training routine

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Matt, who has won his last nine races, writes, Part two of my rider blog and I am revealing my top five training sessions I use these regularly as part of a programme set my my coach and sponsor Bob Tobin at cyclepowermeters.com.

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My training is based on power which I have found is the best way of optimising my training and recovery time. If you are interested in racing and training with power and selecting the right power metre, the Tri Radar website has a great article about power based training and power meters.

Over the years, I’ve found the key to not letting your training get stale is variety. If you’re short on time and looking to add some variety to your training routine, then try riding on different roads or adding different intervals. My top 5 are detailed below.

Training Zones – Heart Rate (Based on 190bpm Max Heart Rate)
Recovery: 114 – Active recovery
Zone 1: 114 – 123 – Long steady rides of up to 6hrs
Zone 2: 123 – 142 longer rides of up to 4hrs
Zone 3: 142 – 155 – Medium intensity rides of up to 2hrs
Zone 4: 155 – 169 – Sweet spot up to 1hr intervals
Zone 5: 169 – 178 – Race pace & 10min – 20 mins efforts
Zone 6: 178 – 190 – Vo2 MAX 10 secs – 1 min intervals

Training Zones – Power
Zone 1: Active recovery
Zone 2: Endurance
Zone 3: Tempo including sweetspot
Zone 4: Threshold
Zone 5: Vo2 Max
Zone 6: Anaerobic capacity

For a much more indeath look at training with power, here’s a useful link to an Andrew Coggan article on TrainingPeaks.com

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My Top 5 Training Routines

1 – Sweet Spot Training
The zone just below threshold, if you’re new to the sport try blocks of 10 minutes and if you’re really keen and fit you might even be able to do blocks of 1hr. But sweet spot is a great way of building your fitness.

20 mins warm up @ L2, 10 – 20mins @ sweetspot, 20 mins L2, 10 – 20 mins sweet spot then 20 mins cooldown.

Try this twice a week and you will be flying. (Try altering your cadence eg: 20 mins 100 revs, 20 mins 70 revs, to add variety)

2 – Micro burst intervals

Warm up 20 mins, 20 mins – 1hr @ Level 2-3, but then every 5 mins do a max interval of either 10-20-30secs – or if you’re super fit 1 minute sitting in the saddle riding as fast as you can, 20 mins cool down.

This session is great for increasing you lactic tolerance.

3 – Threshold intervals

10 – 20 mins to better you time trialing & top end power.

20 mins warm up, 10 – 20 mins @ level 5, 20 mins recovery, 10 – 20 mins @ Level 5, 20 mins cool down – if that’s too much do 3 x 10 mins @ level 5 with 10 mins recovery

4 – Sub threshold power intervals

1 – 4 mins level 5 – 6 – Vo2 Max

Warm up 20 mins then do 4 x 4 mins if fit or 1 x 4 mins if not so fit @ level 6 with 5 mins recovery between each, 20 mins cool down

5 – Power based intervals – for increased strength

Find a climb of around 4 – 5 minutes.

20 mins warm up high cadence, don’t concentrate on power or heart rate, start the climb at 70 revs, eg 53 x 17, then each minute drop it down one sprocket, descend the climb and repeat, keep doing the intervals until you can’t take anymore!

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My week in Training (based on power)

Monday – 2hrs Level 2

Tuesday – 15 mins L2, 1hr sweetspot, 15 mins recovery

Wednesday – Rest

Thursday – 20 mins warm up, 4 x 4 minute level 5 intervals

Friday – 15 mins L2, 1hr sweetspot, 15 mins recovery

Saturday – Race

Sunday – 90mins Level 1-2 recovery ride.

Have your say on what you think about Matt’s training routines and ask him your questions on the Giant Facebook Page.

 

 

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