How to ride faster for longer: We demonstrate three different cycling sessions to best prepare you for your longest ride.
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00:00Spring and summer is the perfect time for cyclists to do rides or events that are that
00:08bit more challenging. So as that's a hundred mile ride, a multi-day epic or even just a
00:13long training ride, today we're looking at endurance sessions and how best to train for
00:19them. So I'm joined by coach Watteau and I understand that you've put together some
00:23sessions for me today. I certainly have yeah we've got three good sessions for you to try
00:26today Rupert. Got them with the time strap cyclists in mind that most of us are you know we don't
00:32training for longer events we don't always have three four hours a day to train so we've
00:36got that rate down. So three sessions one is going to be I call it a pyramid session so that's going
00:41to build up our ability to do longer sustained efforts. There's a hill session because
00:47very unlikely to find a road that's a course that's completely flat so we're going to do some skills
00:52that get us over the hill and some hard work on that and then we're going to do some
00:57strength work as well because it's quite important and something that's quite often neglected is the
01:00strength work around it so we're building up a nice solid core and some of the leg muscles as well
01:04that we can utilise then when we're back on the bike. Brilliant well it all sounds like a lot of
01:09hard work so we should probably get cracking. Yeah let's do it.
01:16So coach what is my first endurance session of the day?
01:20First session today is a pyramid session so the idea of this is that we're going to build up your
01:26endurance by putting some some harder efforts in during your ride so you're going to go out in the
01:32lanes 15 20 minutes half an hour just get all nice and loose getting the fresh air you know just enjoy
01:37yourself and then we're going to put some harder harder intervals in there so you start off with two
01:43minutes so two minute harder interval two minutes easy three minutes harder interval three minutes easy
01:49then a five minutes hard interval and five minutes easy and then we're going to go back again so we
01:54start five minutes five three minutes easy three minutes two minutes easy two minutes hard it's all
02:02done and then we're going to have a 15 20 minute half an hour and then you're going to go home yeah
02:07the intensity is going to be around about an eight out of ten effort so it's not flat out it's not a sprint
02:14it's manageable we've got to get through it but you're going to feel it and feel it in the legs you're going to
02:17feel it in the lungs and you're going to push it push it push hard through it and that brilliant okay
02:23so the perceived wisdom behind this session as i understand it is that when you're doing this for
02:28an hour and an hour and a half you can obviously ride at your max threshold but then when you're
02:33doing your hundred mile ride with your mates or your riding buddies because you'll knock that pace
02:38down you won't be riding so difficult you can you can do it for a longer period of time absolutely that's
02:44exactly what we're trying to get out this session so that we want the 100 rounds to be sociable
02:49nice and enjoyable out in the lanes it's not the it's not the distance that that tends to get people
02:56it's the intensities so if we can train to a higher intensity in training and ride at a lower intensity
03:01for the longer ride then it's that much more manageable absolutely perfect i think that is exactly
03:06what i need so let's get into it and give it a whirl sounds good so the bike i've been using to
03:20complete these training sessions is the cannondale synapse high mod disc with shram red e-tap the
03:26synapse is well known for its versatility its excellent handling as well as its performance pushing
03:32capabilities it really is an all-out brilliant bike but it's also exactly what you would look for
03:38in the perfect example of an endurance bike a bike that is going to keep you riding for longer for
03:44starters it's super lightweight weighing just 7.3 kilograms in this size 56 that i have here it then
03:52also has disc brakes for more controlled braking and clearance for wider tyres it even has a removable
03:58seat stay bridge so you can fit a mud guard should the weather turn sour but what elevates this bike
04:05to an all-day super weapon is cannondale's genius use of carbon fiber it's called cannondale save system
04:11and basically different parts of the frame can flex to absorb road chatter and the horrible bumps that you
04:17might find when riding along keeping you in the saddle for longer and keeping you faster for longer which
04:23after all is the most important thing anyway so that was session number one done what a killer it was
04:37thanks for that coach and now we're on to session number two which is about climbing and we're going
04:43to use this hill behind me i'm not a particularly good climber so what have you got in store how much
04:48is this going to hurt um you're going to feel it yeah you're definitely going to feel it so the idea
04:54of this is it's hill repeats and it doesn't get any more more difficult than that you're just going up
04:59a hill multiple times and practicing and your your climbing style and and also getting the physiological
05:05benefits of of going hard up a hill so we're going to start with about six reps six reps of a hill
05:11going up recovery on the way down spending anywhere three to five minutes recovering before you're going
05:16and start the the next the next descent and then you can build it up as you get stronger and fitter
05:21you can build it up to 10 reps 12 reps however however you you can manage and feel but the more
05:27you do the stronger you're going to get brilliant and i as my understanding is this is an important
05:31session for when you're riding upwards of 100 miles because if you're doing that type of distance
05:35you're almost guaranteed to come across a climb of some sort probably multiple ones depending on where you
05:41live and what this will help me be able to do is even if i'm 60 or 70 miles into my climb i'll still
05:48be able to get up it because i'll have that conditioning and i'll have practiced it and this
05:52will have given me that extra fitness and power that i need to get over it absolutely so there's no
05:58completely flat roads in britain we're not it's not a mountainous territory but there's no completely
06:02flat road so we're always going to find something and if you're going on a course that's a
06:05eighteen ninety hundred miles then you're going to find you're going to find hills definitely
06:11to train it it puts it in the bank you condition for it and you know how to do it and and and then
06:16you can cut with it much better than than if it if it's a sudden surprise so that's why it's very
06:21important to do hill repeats and it's very important to practice hills so that when you get to ride them
06:26yourself that you you know what to do brilliant and what type of technique am i looking for on the bike
06:31it's common to to bob you know as it starts to get harder you bob but when you're bobbing you're
06:36going to start to lose uh lose some of your efficiency so you want to keep it nice and tight
06:41because it's the hips and the legs that are going to be doing all the work gear selection is very
06:45important as well so you want to be changing gear before you have to so as it legs start to get that
06:50start to lock you're changing up changing up you know you've got 11 gears on the back or most people
06:53have 11 gears on the back you've got to use them yeah and do that um and then the pedal stroke as
06:59well so you're not just pushing down with your foot you're pulling back as well so you get a nice
07:03pedal stroke and that'll carry you up the hill brilliant okay well this sounds like a lovely
07:08tough session so i reckon we should just get into it and give it a whirl yes do it
07:29so that's the first two sessions completed and they were great really enjoyed those enjoy me
07:42yeah brilliant i think they're really useful actually especially the climbing one always
07:45something i need to work on um but now i understand that you've got a circuit session for me to do
07:50certainly have yeah um it's a circuit based on um building up some strength uh core strength and leg
07:57strength off the bike as well uh this is really really important because the more stable that we
08:01are um the better that will transfer over onto bike sure so by the sounds of it flexibility is as
08:08important as strengths when it comes to cycling 100 yeah yeah because we've got to be agile on the bike
08:13you know um as we pointed out in the hill session you know we don't want to be moving around on the
08:18bike the only thing we want to be moving really is our is our legs which is pushing the pedals around
08:22which is our engine to get us to get us uh where we need to go so if we can be agile and flexible
08:28um then that can only be a good thing again perfect well i think we should take a look at them and look
08:32at the form and uh how you're meant to do them absolutely yeah lots of that yeah brilliant okay
08:37so what we're going to do we're going to start off with the with the lunges so if you move to the side
08:41like that so what you need to do is you're going to take a big step forward and uh you're going to stretch
08:48out the the quads doing a step forward but the form with this as well is we don't want to be um
08:53your knee going over the edge of your toe so a nice big step forward and then like that okay yep
09:02keeping it back nice and straight how's that feel yeah i can really feel it yeah that's looking
09:08better forward again okay about nice and straight and stand up okay so what we're doing we're doing
09:14let's try with start with eight a leg eight on each leg and then you can build it up then so you
09:19can do it to you know eight nine ten twelve whatever as you get fitter and you get more
09:23accustomed to the exercise but remember keep it keep it low early on because we're going to be
09:28doing four exercises in a row and we're going to do three sets of that so we want to make sure that
09:33we get through the whole routine and then we can build it up week by week okay so the next one
09:37we're going to go into a blank you've ever done a plank before i have done a plank okay so if you
09:40want to go into the plank position for me so how would i do a plank so plant position exactly what
09:47you've got there so arms nice and straight back nice and straight that's good and so what you
09:55should be doing is feeling it on your on your abs there now yeah yeah and feeling it on my one ab
10:02on your one ab and you shouldn't be feeling the back should be nice and straight so that's looking good
10:06and then what we can do to make this a a harder exercise is if you bring your knee towards your
10:14elbow and then take it back again then do it with the other side and back again they're called
10:21spider-man planks how did that feel yeah that's tough that's tough so start off with the normal
10:27planks first but that's just a progressional thing you can do as you get better at it sure and do that
10:31okay you can stop now again sometimes you can do that and leave it to as long as you can go but
10:38because we're doing this in a circuit let's start with 10 to 10 to 20 seconds of doing the plank and
10:44then we'll keep doing that that circuit free and then we'll see how we get to from there yeah
10:47so the next one's the hip flexor so what we're going to do now is you're going to go back into
10:51that lunge position hold it there and then what you're going to do you're going to stand up and bring
10:58your knee to your chest and then back into the lunge position and again that's it so we're going to do
11:06eight of those in each leg stand up nice and straight leg up that's it and down again okay
11:11stand up straight and then do the other leg but the beauty of this exercise again it's it's real
11:17stretch out for the for the hips because we spend a lot of time bent over on the bike and and we you
11:22know with the with the hips we can get we can get quite sore so it stretches those out it's also
11:27stretching the glutes and the hamstrings as well as you can feel as you're going up so it's a great
11:31all over all over workout that one okay next we're going to do some glute bridges so if you're lying
11:36your back for me okay knees bent put your knees in that's it about there close together put your
11:44feet together okay and then what you're going to do you're going to raise your pelvis up as high as you
11:50can that's it hold that for the second or two and then back down again and again up hold it for
11:56second to and back down again okay so again we're going to do about six to eight of those depending
12:03on where we are with the circuits um but what they're doing as well good core exercise stretching
12:08out the core and the glutes and the and the hamstrings as well so um really giving a good
12:13workout post bike and hopefully unlocking those muscles and and adapting those muscles and that you
12:20might be not using as much or or being a bit lazy with on the bikes brilliant and that's something you
12:25can do anytime it shouldn't take too long um you can do that anytime you go straight off the bike
12:30isn't a bad thing to do actually you know while you're still warmed up and it gives you that
12:34activation and it's something that you can fit in quite easily then before you have your shower and
12:38and anything to eat so there you go free hopefully not so grueling sessions that you can all try at
12:45home guaranteed to help boost your fitness and help you ride further faster for longer which after all is
12:52the goal so thank you very much to coach watto head coach of team london they're some brilliant
12:57sessions great pleasure thank you very much but guys if you have any sessions that you like to do
13:02at home or if you've got any big plans for this summer do let us know in the comment section below
13:08and don't forget to like and subscribe and we'll see you next time