How to Gain 40 Watts at Threshold Over the Winter

Right now the race season is beginning. I have different riders at different points of the season. Some riders are just finishing their base training, some are beginning racing, and some are even peaking for events this early in the year. All of my athletes are doing great, and I am very excited about it. I wanted to share some of the methods behind their success.

Throughout the winter I have athletes perform 1-2 tempo workouts a week and 1-2 sweet spot workouts a week. In the early months it will be 2 tempo workouts and a sweet spot workout and as race season approaches tempo becomes less of a priority and sweet spot becomes the twice a week workout. I do not like giving my athletes more than 2-3 hard workouts a week, so at maximum it is 2 tempo workouts and 1 sweet spot workout or 1 tempo workout and 2 sweet spot workouts a week. For the other workouts I give my athlete endurance rides and at least two recovery spins a week. For all these workouts I give heart rate caps based on their lactate threshold heart rate. This heart rate cap overrides power zones, and I tell the athlete to drop wattage (even below the bottom of their power zone) if heart rate exceeds that cap. The reason for this heart rate cap is the winter is base season. The workouts are supposed to be sub maximal in order to help build endurance. Along with building endurance these workouts are highly effective at improving lactate threshold. Using these methods one athlete went from a 310 watts 20 minute test back in November to a 350 watt test at this point of the year.

There are a lot of different training methods out there, and there is more than one way to skin a cat. I just wanted to give a little insight to a successful method I apply. This method has worked for me for athletes ranging from young professional riders to 75 year olds. I change the amount of volume per workout and workouts per week given the athlete's level and the athlete's goals. We also sprinkle in some other workouts and group rides too because cycling is supposed to be fun.