In the spring of 2006 Taylor Carrington and his wife, Megan, had their first child, a beautiful girl named Sally. After pretty much not training through the summer, Taylor approached his CTS coach with a lofty goal: to finish in the top 20 in the elite division at cyclocross nationals that December. On top of it all, due to his job and his desire to spend time with his new baby, training would be restricted to six hours a week.Impossible? Well, no. We designed what has become known around the office as the New Father Training Plan, which has since helped a lot of time-strapped athletes achieve their goals.
Traditional training plans focus on building a high-volume base of aerobic and lactate-threshold power, which can eat up more than a dozen hours per week, and then topping it off with high-intensity intervals before a goal event. But over the past few years, I've been working with my coaches on training people whose real-world demands seriously limit the volume side of the equation. We've found that a program built almost entirely of short, high-intensity workouts can adequately prepare an athlete for competition, with a caveat or two.
This plan works well only for short events, such as cyclocross races or criteriums that last about an hour. And the fitness you develop won't last long, only six to eight weeks, because the workouts don't address the aerobic engine and power at lactate threshold. But, if your point of training is to be able to enjoy racing, and your local series lasts only a couple of months, then the ends justify the means. During your race series, alternate between using week six and week three from the program below, substituting one or two races for the workouts on the weekends. When the season is over, you'll need to refocus on building your aerobic base and sustainable power, but at least you'll have good memories of successful races to see you through your training rides.
In the 2006 U.S. National Cyclocross Championships, CTS athletes did well: Ryan Trebon and Katie Compton won national titles, and Taylor was very happy finishing 17th out of 115 starters, on just six hours of training a week.
WEEK 1
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: Rest Tuesday: 1 hour EM s/2 sets of 4x2 min. PI, 2 min. RBI, 10 min. RBS Thursday: 1 hour EM w/3x8 min. OU (2 min. under, 2 min. over), 6 min. RBI
Saturday: 1 hour EM w/ 2 sets of 4x2 min. PI, 2 min. RBI, 10 min. RBS
Sunday: 2 hours EM or group ride
WEEK 2
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: Rest Tuesday: 1 hour EM w/3 sets of 4x1 min. PI, 2 min. RBI, 10 min. RBS Thursday: 1 hour EM w/ 3x8 min. OU (2 min. under, 2 min. over), 6 min. RBI
Saturday: 1 hour EM w/ 3 sets of 4x1 min. PI, 2 min. RBI, 10 min. RBS
Sunday: 2 hours EM or group ride
WEEK 3
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: Rest Tuesday: 1 hour EM w/3 sets of 4x1 min. PI, 2 min. RBI, 10 min. RBS Thursday: 1.5 hours EM w/3x8 min. OU (2 min. under, 2 min. over), 8 min. RBI
Saturday: 1 hour EM w/ 3 sets of 4x1 min. PI, 2 min. RBI, 10 min. RBS
Sunday: 2 hours EM or group ride
WEEK 4
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: Rest Tuesday: 1 hour easy spinning
Thursday: 1 hour easy spinning
Saturday: 1 hour EM w/2 sets of DI: 90,75,60, 45, 30, 15 seconds; 8 min. RBS
Sunday: 2 hours EM or group ride
WEEK 5
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: Rest Tuesday: 1.5 hours EM w/2 sets of 5x2 min. PI, 2 min. RBI, 10 min. RBS
Thursday: 1.5 hours EM w/3 sets of 6x1 min. PI, 1 min. RBI, 10 min. RBS
Saturday: 1 hour EM w/ 2 sets of DI: 90,75,60,45,10,15 seconds; 8 min. RBS
Sunday: 2 hours EM or group ride
WEEK 6
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: Rest Tuesday: 1. 5 hours EM w/ 3 sets of 6x1 min. PI, 1 min. RBI, 10 min RBS
Thursday: 1 hour EM w/ 2 sets of DI: 90,75,60,45,30,15 seconds, 8 min. RBS
Saturday: 1 hour race Sunday: 2 hours EM or group ride EM (endurance miles): Moderate intensity
EM = Endurance miles
DI = Descending intervals
OU = Over under intervals
PI = Power intervals
RBI = Rest between intervals
RBS = Rest between sets
No comments:
Post a Comment