Approaching New Workouts: April/May ‘24
Hey, it’s Tom and Emma from High North Performance, back with the newest instalment of our In-Form newsletter 👋
We hope your riding, training and/or racing has been going well of late as we get into the heart of the season for many of us! If you fancy doing so, please feel free to send us a reply and let us know how you’re getting on! In this edition, we thought we’d offer some practical advice for approaching new workout designs for the first time, since it can sometimes prove difficult to execute them well if you’re not careful to avoid a few common pitfalls.
The way many cyclists will approach a new workout is they’ll see a generic target % of FTP linked to the intended adaptive stimulus of the session… and won’t give it a great deal more thought than that! For example, a VO2max-focused workout may come with something like a “120% FTP” instruction, and typical threshold sessions might be roughly 100% FTP. Whilst these targets may be correct for you, they’re just as likely not to be!
Now, it’s probably fair to say most of us have had an experience akin to the following:
Find new exciting workout > jump on the bike or trainer pumped to try said workout > fail workout > leave frustrated and disappointed when it proves impossible to complete 😫
It’s also true that sometimes, these targets and workout designs prove simply too easy for the intended purpose or adaptive response, which isn’t an ideal situation either!
To help avoid these kinds of issues, we’d offer the following advice:
Firstly, take %s of FTP/CP/LT2 etc with a pinch of salt and be ready to go up or down with your intensity targets during the session, based on your immediate feedback and sensations.
Next, keep the entire block of intervals you are trying to complete in mind, especially early on, so that you can be sure the intensity you are riding the earlier efforts at is something you can maintain for the whole set.
Moving on, to borrow a term from the strength and conditioning world, think about your “reps in reserve” and try to complete a set of intervals feeling like you have 1-2 reps/intervals in your pocket!
Take the pressure off the first time you try a new workout design and don’t worry if you start out too easy - you can always add more reps or increase your effort as you go, but it’s hard to salvage much from a workout where you blow up half way through! 🥵
Related to the above, allow “headspace” for your efforts to get harder as you go - they’ll almost never get easier, and if you’re close to a 10/10 on the RPE scale too early, there will be no space for the workout to get tougher!
And finally, a common pointer we always like to remind riders of is to try and use a target RANGE rather than a fixed, singular number. This gives you scope to increase or decrease your effort as needed, and doesn’t leave you feeling like you’re failing if/when you fall slightly below your target (which is likely somewhat arbitrary anyway!)
Do you have any of your own tips that have helped you with new and novel workouts? We’d be interested to hear them, so do get in touch if you have any tips up your sleeve!
News
Since the previous newsletter, we’ve been hard at work on various bits and bobs…
Firstly, Emma recently penned an article on heat acclimation, specifically for cyclists. This should be a timely read for those looking to optimally prepare for races, events and challenges throughout the summer and even into early autumn. You can give it a read here: https://www.highnorth.co.uk/articles/heat-acclimation-for-cyclists
Next, we’ve just put together a number of new cyclocross plans for those already eyeing up success the CX season 👀. These are available in the TrainingPeaks platform and can be found here: https://www.trainingpeaks.com/my-training-plans/HNP-specific-CX. We’ll be continuing to expand our discipline-specific plans over the next few months, as well as creating plans towards specific events, so if you have any requests, be sure to get in touch.
We’ve also recently put together a tech “deep dive”, soon to be on the Bikeradar website, where we took a look into the geeky bits that make up the new Favero Assioma Pro MX off-road power meter pedals. That should be live on Bikeradar shortly and should be a good read for those interested in adding power measurement to their mountain, cyclocross and/or gravel bikes!
For those who run, there are also new articles to find on our sister site High North Running, so be sure to take a look at the blog over there and sign up to the Keeping Pace Newsletter if you haven’t already! 🏃♀️
Finally, we have capacity for our training consultations and custom training plan services right now, so if either of those sound like something that could benefit you, do hit us up by replying to this email or using the contact form on the website.
That’s a wrap for this edition and hopefully there are a few nuggets in there for you to take away to improve your riding! 🚀
We look forward to sharing more tips and news with you next month and thanks as always for your time reading through our emails.
All the best!
Tom and Emma
