Hey Gang,

Have you ever felt that your cycling speed has plateaued and – even though you can ride further — you just can’t seem to ride faster?

This #WorkoutWednesday powered by BioAstin is a mixed threshold bike set.  I love these sessions! It’s one of  the best ways to break through that barrier and improve your sustainable cycling speed.

If you give this workout a try, let me know how it went. Get in touch with me on Facebook or Twitter.

Dave

Mixed Threshold Workout

Purpose: By varying the pace at threshold (and slightly below), you will improve many performance metrics:

  1. Lactate Tolerance: Your ability to perform at a high level of endurance for longer periods.
  2. Lactate Clearance: You will adapt over several sessions to more efficiently resynthesize the lactate back into energy. Simply put, your_recovery at these workloads will improve_without a decline in speed.
  3. Race Simulation: These sessions simulate the intensities of a race and prepares your mind for the output and maintenance of solid form.
  4. Increase in Fast Twitch Muscle Fibers: Mixed threshold workouts will increase the contribution of the faster twitch muscle fibers that are used extensively in all race distances -particularly as your fitness improves. Fast twitch muscle fibers have a high contractile force and recover quickly, but if these fibers are not trained, then they burn up energy at a ferocious rate.

Threshold pace workouts can vary based on your background and experience level, but you’ll want to strive for the highest attainable pace at a steady-state effort. I recommend the following time intervals:

  • Beginners: 20’
  • Intermediates: 35’
  • Advanced 50’

If you need to scale back the workout according to your current fitness, then feel free to do so… by sticking with it, you’ll improve quickly!

Mixed Threshold 2 Hour Bike Workout

This workout requires you to maintain steady speed, power or heart rate through your 3 ranges of lactate threshold (LT). If you haven’t had an LT Test, I’d recommend getting one to help you learn your training zones. Knowledge is power!

During this session, you can gauge your effort by your heart rate, speed or power. If you haven’t had an LT Test, you can note your average speed, power or heart rate for an hour time trial effort on your bike. This is a close approximation of your Lactate Threshold. I’ll refer to this as your LT, Level 3 or L3.

If you are watching your heart rate during the workout, there is approximately a 5 beat drop from your LT or L3 to L2 and another 5 beat drop to L1. The LT range is approximately 10 beats.

If you are going by speed, the range from L3 to L1 is approximately 3 mph. For example, if your L3 is 21 mph, then your L2 is 19 – 20 mph, and L1 would be 18 mph.

If you are using power, the power range from L3 to L2 is approximately 4% lower power and from L2 to L1 will be another 6% lower power. So the range from L3 to L1 results in a 10% power drop.

Warm Up = 12’

1st Set:

2 x 45” with the opening 15” standing in your Time Trial Gear (TTG)

TTG Gearing Recommendations:

  • Seated = 86–96 rpm
  • Standing = 68–76 rpm

2 x 45” in your Big Gear (BG) with the opening 15” standing

BG Gearing Recommendations:

  • Seated = 56–64 rpm
  • Standing = 60–68 rpm

2 x 45” in a Low Gear (LG) 95-110 rpm

LG Gearing Recommendations:

  • Seated @ 95–110 rpm
  • Standing @ 80–86 rpm

Rest Interval (RI) is 30” for all sets

The goal in this set is to increase your tempo to your L2 effort over the final 15”.

Tip: Do not use your heart rate as a guide in this set because the segment length is too short to get an accurate reading. Instead, use your perceived exertion of “hard” at the end (but not too hard)!

Following the first set, cruise easy for 25’ in your aerobic zone, alternating 3’ in TTG and 2’ in LG. During this 25 minute segment note your difference in speed and/or power. If you’re using heart rate, note that there can be a 5 -8% drop in speed with the same heart rate.

Main Set:

  • 4’ in TTG all at L3
  • 3’ in LG all at L1
  • 2’ in BG all at L2
  • 6’ aerobic riding
  • RI= 30’ between each segment

Repeat the Main Set 3 times.

The set delivers a total of 9’ mixed LT block with 6’ of aerobic riding 3 times. As you get stronger reduce the RI.

Cool down.

#WorkoutWednesday is powered by BioAstin, one of my top 5 recommended supplements.  BioAstin Hawaiian Astaxanthin is a powerful antioxidant that supports cardiovascular health and muscle recovery… perfect for athletes who are training hard.