Friday, May 15, 2009

(More) Training for Crits

Accelerating out of corners, attacking, counter attacking, and of course sprinting for the “W” are all part of the dynamic power profile you’ll need to be successful in criterium racing. Therefore, criteriums can best be summed up as repeated short high powered efforts with minimal recovery. Intervals on the order of 5-20 s in length at high cadence and from a rolling start are specific to crits. Because of the short duration of the interval, really go for it with these intervals, all out full guns blazing!

If you are racing a 4 corner criterium for 40 minutes and each lap takes 2.5 minutes, that’s 16 laps and 64 corners. You can replicate this effort by performing a workout with 24 x 10 s sprints. For example, this might be broken down to 4 sets of 6 x 10 s sprints from a rolling start, with 30 s off between reps and 5 min between sets. An industrial park during the evenings or weekends are perfect low-traffic sites for these workouts.

Further refinements to your training can be made based on the terrain. If the criterium course has a 45 second hill, incorporate 45-60 second intervals into your training. Training with a purpose is all about specificity!

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