Go hard or go home training didn't work

I bought my first SRM power meter in 2001. Using it changed the way I approached my rides and training. No more coasting on the downhills and letting the watts drop. I wanted to do more work each ride, more kilojoules per hour, and letting the wattage drop on the downhills didn’t fit that goal. Being able to do more kilojoules/hour became a big goal in my training and coaching.

Doing more work was also a big part of racing. For instance, a day in the gutter was a tough, high kilojoules/hour ride, while a sprint finish where I could suck wheel in the pack wasn’t much work. The biggest difference between the two was that only a few riders could come to the finish on the crosswind day, while the sprint finish would be a complete peloton. I wanted to be at the front in the crosswinds.

To be able to push more kilojoules I was doing lots of threshold work, right on the rivet. Long sessions of endurance with 3 x 20-minutes at threshold became my staple. I was practically time trialling these efforts at 320+ watts. It worked for one season, 2002, which was probably my strongest season. I won Canadian Nationals, races in Europe and was solid all throughout the year. The only problem was that I was burned to a crisp at the end of the year, and in 2003 took a step back from racing and went back to school before re-launching my racing full-time again in 2006.

Having met Steve Neal when we owned The Cycling Gym together I now understand that what I should have been training was my tempo system, making it as strong as possible. When you work harder than your tempo ability your primary energy source changes from fat to more sugar. As you switch to burning more sugar the time that you can manage working there becomes limited. We only have so much sugar to burn.

When I was training full-time I didn't understand this sugur burning concept and how it relates to our tempo ability. I didn’t understand the importance of developing my tempo ability. I was going for the “go hard or go home” training approach. Had I understood the importance of my tempo system my training would have been more appropriate. Overall my training would not have been as intense, and hopefully I wouldn’t have burned out. By not burning out I could have trained consistently year-over-year. Ultimately this would have allowed me to achieve more of my potential as an athlete. The “go hard or go home” approach that is so common was a mistake.

Having a stronger tempo system will make you a better rider. Never mind VO2 max and 1-minute max power and all that high end stuff. That doesn’t matter if you can’t get to the climb without some reserves and energy left to actually push. The stronger your tempo system the more fat you will be burning throughout the ride, the more sugar you will be saving for the finale. When it really counts.

Having a good understanding of the value of your tempo system should lead you to adjust your training. Remember, the goal of training is to do the least amount of work that elicits the fitness changes you are looking to achieve. We aren't training to do the most work and so tire ourselves out. Fatigue isn't a badge of honour, it only leads to poor performance. In my case I wanted to push more kilojoules/hour, but was going about it in the wrong way. More focus on my tempo would have been the way to go. By focusing almost exclusively on threshold work I pushed the limits of my body and paid the price. I had one superb season, but then I was a mess and had to take some time away from racing properly, which in the end limited my ability to develop as a rider.