V-CLUB TRAINING CORNER

We’ve teamed up with Marilyn Trout, certified USA Cycling Elite Coach to answer V-Club members’ training questions. You can view her coach profile at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mountainpedalscoaching80903

Send your cycling inquiries to Marilyn, and for a limited time, if yours is selected to be answered in our V-Club column, VeloWear will send you a $20 gift certificate that can be used towards any purchase on VeloWear.com. To submit your inquiry, e-mail her at trout_mic@msn.com, and type “V-Club Training Question” in the subject line of the e-mail.

The article below is a reprint of our first question submitted by V-Club member Annie Rodriguez two years ago – unfortunately, always still a pertinent subject!

Successful Recovery From Collar Bone Fracture

by Marilyn Trout

Annie,

Fracturing the collarbone is an all too familiar injury in the cycling world and although it incapacitates you in many ways, you can still maintain a good aerobic fitness during this healing process. OK... let's answer a few questions to help you get F.I.T. for your November
ride.

How often do you need to be on the trainer/Frequency? Good news to hear that you have already started sitting on the trainer saddle. My first suggestion is that you add at least one more day of riding. Scientific studies have shown that it takes at least three days a week
for aerobic capacity to improve with the critical frequency being four. One study actually found a tripling of the average increase in fitness when workouts went from three to four per week.

How hard do you need to ride/Intensity? There are several ways to measure intensity some as simple and subjective as "easy to very hard" and rate of perceived exertion or RPE to using the combination of heart rate monitor (measures physiological response) and powermeter (measures performance in watts). Certainly it’s possible to train without a heart rate monitor but the rider just won't see the aerobic fitness improvements as when specific target heart rate zones are included with the same amount of training time.

How do you find your target heart rate zones? You'll need a heart rate monitor for this. If you don't have one and plan on riding for years to come, I would encourage you to get one. It's a small investment with some very big fitness dividends. Warm-up for at least 10 minutes then for the next 30 minutes you want to be at a "time-trialing" pace or steady effort that you can hold for the duration. Record your heart rate for the last 20 minutes to get the average heart rate, which will be your Lactate Threshold Heart Rate or LTHR and then cool down. Your target heart rate zones are determined from this figure. Personally, I work with seven heart rate zones:

Zone 1: Recovery (< 81% of LTHR)
Zone 2: Aerobic Endurance (82-88% of LTHR)
Zone 3: Tempo (89-93% of LTHR)
Zone 4: SubThreshold (94-99% of LTHR)
Zone 5A: SuperThreshold (100-102% of LTHR)
Zone 5B: Aerobic Capacity (103-105% of LTHR)
Zone 5C: Anaerobic Capacity (106+% of LTHR)

For your training in the next 6 weeks, I would focus in on training in zones 1-3 during the 3 days of training per week. With 2 days of intervals and 1 day of easy zone 1,2 spinning, you should see improvements in your aerobic fitness. I would also recommend that a
cadence of 90-100 rpm be targeted so that the muscular system isn't stressed.

How long do you need to ride/Time? The ride time should be at least 30-45 minutes including at least a 10-minute warm-up, 15-30 minute specific training and a 5 minute cool down.

Here's an example of a training week:

Monday - 4-5 sets x 3 minute (reps) zone 3 with 3 minutes recovery (try to get HR to zone 1 with easy spin)

Wednesday - easy zone 1,2 :30 spin

Friday - 4-5 x 3' zone 3 x 3' recovery

As your fitness increases you can put the intervals on day one and two with your third day easy. As well, you can also increase your interval work time to 4', 5', 10' with the same amount of rest between intervals while keeping the same zone 3 intensity i.e.) 3-4 x 5' x 5' so by the end of the 6th week you may see:

Monday - 1-2 x 10' zone 3 with 10' easy recovery spin between sets

Wednesday - easy: 30 zone 1/2 spin

Friday - 1-2 x 10' x 10'

(can add optional 4th day with :30 zone 1,2 spin)

When the doctor gives the OK that the collar bone has healed, it would be very good if you could get out for a few outdoor rides and be able to get in at least a 30-35 mile ride before the November event. My philosophy is that if you can ride 1/2 of the distance, you will be able to complete the event.

All the best,
Marilyn

Cycling Factoid: You may remember years back when Rebecca Twigg broke her clavicle while training on the velodrome. Eleven days later, after a doctor inserted a titanium plate in her collarbone, Twigg went to Colombia and broke a world record in the women's 3,000-meter individual pursuit in a time of 3 minutes, 36.081 seconds.

Print | posted on Wednesday, July 07, 2010 4:22 PM