Turbo New Year

Created On: 23 January 2011

January means bad weather dark nights and all the motivation of New Year's resolutions.  Rain, snow and high winds mean that your resolution to improve your bike splits for the coming year mean that the turbo is the only answer especially on weekday evenings.

The key to keeping any training interesting is varying the session and an often over looked use of the turbo is technique sessions. These are low intensity sessions that can be performed as a recovery session or in addition to a specific goal interval session.

Pedalling smoothly and efficiently

The easiest way to see how smooth your legs are pedalling round is to look at them. On a turbo is the easiest way to do this and if you don't have the luxury of a coach on hand or video analysis, try looking down!

Looking down

Pick a comfortable gear and look down for 1 minute think about what you see look back up and try to adjust the pedalling for a minute in your normal pedalling, then look back down to see if you are still doing it. You will be able to see by just looking at the track your knees take as to how even you are pedalling. You can often see difference in muscle use and development if one leg is doing more than the other.

One legged riding

If you know or can see you favour one leg over the other it may be time to do some one legged drills. Simply unclip one foot and place it on the back of the turbo trainer. You will find out straight away where your dead spot is and normally it is on the pulling up over the top of the stroke. You may find it is different on each leg but like swim technique development try one thing at a time and keep revisiting the problem area to improve the efficiency. 

Another technique for really concentrating on one leg is to simply pedal as normal but look down and look over one leg in particular, really lean over that leg and try to watch it going round from the side.

Mirror in front or at the side

To pick up any inefficiencies it is often worth placing a mirror either on the floor or directly in front of you to see what a coach would see, this is also useful for you to see what your aerodynamic position is like and improving this. Or a mirror to the side so you can concentrate on one leg, your weaker leg! This is often easier in a gym where there are mirrors and good looking people all around.

January Training Session Suggestions:

These two sessions are aimed at keeping your training varied and focused and not just going on the turbo for a period of time or until you get bored, or just thrashing yourself. The first one is aimed at improving that feeling of pushing hard for a sprint or standard distance race. The second being more aimed at the athlete doing 70.3 or Ironman and wanting to work on improving that feeling of comfortable speed to be sustained throughout.

Speed intervals to keep the time trial speed over the dark months:

Longer Endurance Building (above and below race pace):

This is the 2nd article Mark has written for TRIfinder.co.uk to read his first article titled Turbo Torture Time click HERE.

About the author:

Mark at MyTriCoach has been coaching for 6 years helping others with his knowledge of training requirements at all distances and levels that he has amassed over 23 years in the sport. From his first triathlons the Jordan series in Bedford and the Hillingdon Tri Stars events to representing his country at junior level and cycling for a French team Mark has combined his sport with full time work and family life.  This has given him a clear understanding of the desire to get the best out of the time available.

Coached athletes at MyTriCoach perform at all distances and at all levels of the triathlon spectrum. Programs cater for 1 to 1 sessions, group outings or distance (emailed / phone) programs. During 2010 season MyTriCoach athletes qualified and competed in all the major European and World Championships, 70.3 and Ironman World Championships, several athletes competed on the elite domestic circuit, as well as those who produced life time personal bests.

To find out more visit www.mytricoach.co.uk

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