Cycling Specificity

July 2nd, 2009 by Bob Meinig 799 views One Comment

Bike World News is pleased to announce a new partnership with USA Cycling Level 2 Coach Bob Meinig of Campton Coaching Services. This is his first article for our site. We look forward to providing our readers with relevant and up to date training information.

Most cyclists have, at the very least, a rudimentary sense of the importance of cycling specific training. For instance, not many cyclists would prepare for a criterium by training as a marathon runner would. But to perform as best as possible in a given event, a cyclist needs to concentrate on a higher level of specificity than just “riding lots” – part of a cyclist’s training should key on both a chosen discipline’s (or event’s) unique requirements and the individual’s strengths and weaknesses. By doing so, a cyclist will see maximum benefit from the available amount of training time.

A typical competitive road cyclist in the United States will spend a large amount of his/her season racing criteriums. Imagine a typical crit – an early attempt at a break followed by multiple attacks; many hard, powerful accelerations out of corners; and a high-power finishing sprint. Focused efforts of 10 to 30 seconds replicate some of the violent accelerations that happen in a crit; one to three minute intervals replicate breakaway or bridge attempts. For the shorter intervals, a premium is placed on repeatability – a racer needs to be able to put forth a big effort both at minute two and minute 50, along with many times in between. Because of this, a crit specialist would perform 10 or more of the short, 10-30 second intervals in his interval workout.

Generally speaking, cyclocross racers should follow the same sort of on-bike targeted training as would a criterium racer, but with the added mount and dismount, and other CX-specific bike-handling training.

Mountain bike racing usually does not place a large emphasis on the huge, criterium-style efforts. Because a mountain bike racer is normally pedaling under load for a large portion of a race, longer
(three to five minute) intervals serve as event-specific workouts. Violent, high-power sprints are usually far and few between for a mountain bike racer; accordingly, these efforts are not a main training focus. Technical skills should be an additional focus though; a technically adept rider will see an even smoother level of effort throughout a race than would a technically weak rider. In other words, the rider without technical skills will wear himself out with more hard efforts than will a skillful rider.

Of course, there are variations to consider in determining the specific needs a cyclist needs to concentrate on. A cyclist from Illinois or Florida won’t usually see the climbs that a cyclist from
Colorado or California might – so the flatlander might not worry too much about some long, extended intervals (to simulate those climbs), while the person from the mountainous areas would work in some longer intervals to simulate the climbs of the area.

Keeping a log of races and rides can be invaluable in shaping a workout focus. A good training and racing log will include where and when decisive moves were made, whether or not the rider was able to
make the deciding move, and what the results were. Patterns tend to emerge from these recaps; for instance, if a rider continually gets dropped coming out of corners in a crit, he would probably want to
work on his 10-second efforts. Use the training log to point forward!

A Caveat:
Underneath the concept of specificity is the fact that the ability to maintain a high effort throughout a race or ride is usually the single most important factor in cycling results. If a rider is unable to keep with the pack in a road race, or gets dropped on fire roads during mountain bike races, his base still needs work.

Recap:

Criteriums and cyclocross place a large emphasis on repeated high power efforts.
Mountain bikers usually do not see the huge power spikes that road cyclists do.
Where one lives and races matters! The hills in Illinois require different training than do hills in the Rockies.
Take into account individual strengths and weaknesses when devising a training plan.
Keep a log of each race; detail what points were critical (successful or not). Doing so helps guide future training.
Regardless of discipline, functional threshold power is typically the single most important factor for cycling success.

For more information:

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