When to add some intensity into your training

At Sans Chaine we definitely believe in the importance of developing your aerobic system, but that doesn’t mean that some intensity isn’t needed. As an athlete you need to be agile enough to work across all of your systems. You need a good quality aerobic, fat burning system, and a solid anaerobic, sugar burning system.

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Be careful in how you imagine the systems working, they are not binary. But the harder you go the more sugar comes into the mix to fuel your efforts

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The aerobic system takes a long time to develop - here you are trying to make structural changes in your body. While the anaerobic system can be turned on with only a few sessions - here you are making chemical changes. But, before turning on your anaerobic system it is important to prime the pump. Having just done a big block of tempo training we need to signal to the body that we need our anaerobic system to “turn on”.

That is the goal of the “Keeping tempo and adding some intensity” training plan. The program will keep building on the tempo work you have done, but every two weeks you will put in a harder session to start signalling the body you want that anaerobic system to turn on.

When to do this block depends somewhat on the time of the year.

Spring time:

This is a great block to do as the spring rolls around and you are expecting to get outdoors. A bit of intensity will likely help with the transition - particularly if you think you’ll be hitting up some harder club rides soon.

Winter time:

Say the tempo has been going well but you have noticed a bit of a decline in your VO2 system, perhaps time to re-introduce some harder work. This would be a good block to do in anticipation of doing a VO2 block.

Mental break:

Despite your tempo going well you feel the need to spice things up, then mix this into your programs and give yourself a mental lift. The mental side of things - your motivation - is just as important as your physical efforts.

VO2 system is degrading:

When doing tempo we check-in periodically on the VO2 system. Should you find it degrading too much then time to start planning some intensity into your training.

Making sure you have the ability to work across all of your systems is important to riding well. Re-introduce some intensity when the time is right.