I've started organising a weekly training session on a nearby cycling oval (not a real track for 6-days etc) and I'm wondering if someone with experience can recommend some exercises.
I'm thinking of doing short team-sprints and / or team-TT's. Next to that I'd like to add some basic paceline and echelon drills to smooth out the group rides. We have a weekly 2hour session so your suggestions are welcome!
Track training exercises
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Start with a precision pace line warmup session -- 20 laps @ 20 mph, 20 laps @ 23 mph, 20 @ 25, 10 @ 28, 10 @ 30, 10 @ 33, changing every lap up through 25 and every half lap after that. Do this in a relatively small gear -- I usually do a 46x16 but a 48x16 is fine for most. Then go in and rest for 10 min.
Then do some 200 meter jumps off the rail. Do a line of 3 or 4 riders, ramp up to a high speed through the last lap and then kick max effort down to the next turn and through the finish line. After each one, roll around for 5-10 minutes -- you should be wiped enough from each jump or you aren't doing a max effort. Check your speed and if you drop off through two successive jumps, your legs are tired and you should go on to the next part of the workout -- pushing harder to go slower doesn't do much. I'd keep the gearing low on these. The point is to get very high cadence and high power output.
Next do some intermediate intervals, 1000 to 2000 meters, standard pace line with 3-4 riders per line and push the speed. On this and all workouts, at least have a speedo on your bike and ideally for the longer intervals have someone calling out lap times and tracking your speed so you have a record of performance level. This is a good place to put on your bigger gears, but only do so if you've been staying to low gears for a while in this effort and you are feeling really fit. Putting on a 98" gear for 2K when you aren't fit will just slow you down.
If you are focused on sprints and time trials, finish up with some rails -- basically ride fast laps up at the rail -- going up and down and not easing off on the downhills. Those are killers. Doing 3-4 kilos worth will wipe you out. Speed will be slower than on the 2K efforts, of necessity. Probably only need to do one. If you are focused on longer distances or massed start, you can do rails but perhaps better is to gear down. You can gear up on rails, but frankly they are most effective if you can turn an intermediate gear (say, 48x15).
When this series is done, gear back to a 48x16 or lower and do a 20 mph pace line for 5-10 minutes minimum. Then go in.
On pacelines it's important to manage your speed precisely. Jumping up 2-3 mph or dropping 2-3 mph just messes up everyone else, and you need to have a really good feel of your speed at a cadence. You're warming up and you're doing a precision workout here.
You can mix it up with efforts called Russians, where a pace line rides the track at race speed and the rearmost rider launches from the back and sprints up to the front and pulls into the line in front. Rotate until everyone has done 2 or 3 sprints.
When you are getting really fit and fast and big races are coming up, it's time to get some motor pacing. In your case you may need to do it on the road, but ideally do a very fast session behind the bike, either going faster and faster until you lose the motor, or have the motor increase at a lower rate and keep jumping past the motor, then back in. Motor pacing can get quite involved, and you really want to have a coach or someone else monitoring your performance carefully so you don't overdo it or waste your effort.
There are many different workouts beyond these, but this is a fundamental program that will work for a lot of people. As you get better, you'll get more into specialized drills -- standing starts, 500m or 1000m time trials, jumps, and so on. As such, your question should be broken out to address different levels of riders, riders with different focus areas on the track, and so on. This is just a basic starter package.
Then do some 200 meter jumps off the rail. Do a line of 3 or 4 riders, ramp up to a high speed through the last lap and then kick max effort down to the next turn and through the finish line. After each one, roll around for 5-10 minutes -- you should be wiped enough from each jump or you aren't doing a max effort. Check your speed and if you drop off through two successive jumps, your legs are tired and you should go on to the next part of the workout -- pushing harder to go slower doesn't do much. I'd keep the gearing low on these. The point is to get very high cadence and high power output.
Next do some intermediate intervals, 1000 to 2000 meters, standard pace line with 3-4 riders per line and push the speed. On this and all workouts, at least have a speedo on your bike and ideally for the longer intervals have someone calling out lap times and tracking your speed so you have a record of performance level. This is a good place to put on your bigger gears, but only do so if you've been staying to low gears for a while in this effort and you are feeling really fit. Putting on a 98" gear for 2K when you aren't fit will just slow you down.
If you are focused on sprints and time trials, finish up with some rails -- basically ride fast laps up at the rail -- going up and down and not easing off on the downhills. Those are killers. Doing 3-4 kilos worth will wipe you out. Speed will be slower than on the 2K efforts, of necessity. Probably only need to do one. If you are focused on longer distances or massed start, you can do rails but perhaps better is to gear down. You can gear up on rails, but frankly they are most effective if you can turn an intermediate gear (say, 48x15).
When this series is done, gear back to a 48x16 or lower and do a 20 mph pace line for 5-10 minutes minimum. Then go in.
On pacelines it's important to manage your speed precisely. Jumping up 2-3 mph or dropping 2-3 mph just messes up everyone else, and you need to have a really good feel of your speed at a cadence. You're warming up and you're doing a precision workout here.
You can mix it up with efforts called Russians, where a pace line rides the track at race speed and the rearmost rider launches from the back and sprints up to the front and pulls into the line in front. Rotate until everyone has done 2 or 3 sprints.
When you are getting really fit and fast and big races are coming up, it's time to get some motor pacing. In your case you may need to do it on the road, but ideally do a very fast session behind the bike, either going faster and faster until you lose the motor, or have the motor increase at a lower rate and keep jumping past the motor, then back in. Motor pacing can get quite involved, and you really want to have a coach or someone else monitoring your performance carefully so you don't overdo it or waste your effort.
There are many different workouts beyond these, but this is a fundamental program that will work for a lot of people. As you get better, you'll get more into specialized drills -- standing starts, 500m or 1000m time trials, jumps, and so on. As such, your question should be broken out to address different levels of riders, riders with different focus areas on the track, and so on. This is just a basic starter package.
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That's a lot of good stuff 11.4! Thanks so much for writing it all down. 
I've done the Russians exercise a few times and that's a nice one to develop a good 1st kick. I'm doing the intermediate intervals as well but a lot less structured at the moment so your writing will give some much needed direction.
Riding at the rail is new for me but I can imagine it can drain you out quick since it requires quite a bit of strenght, very nice!
What do you think of the exercise where 2 people go off the front to gain a lap on the field? I've done it in organised open-track sessions and it was fun to do and a good effort close to max heartrate while still co-operating with the other rider(s)
I've done the Russians exercise a few times and that's a nice one to develop a good 1st kick. I'm doing the intermediate intervals as well but a lot less structured at the moment so your writing will give some much needed direction.
Riding at the rail is new for me but I can imagine it can drain you out quick since it requires quite a bit of strenght, very nice!
What do you think of the exercise where 2 people go off the front to gain a lap on the field? I've done it in organised open-track sessions and it was fun to do and a good effort close to max heartrate while still co-operating with the other rider(s)
Ride it like you stole it
Tomstr wrote:What do you think of the exercise where 2 people go off the front to gain a lap on the field? I've done it in organised open-track sessions and it was fun to do and a good effort close to max heartrate while still co-operating with the other rider(s)
That's one of many exercises one can do for variety in training. It works ok on a small track. On something bigger like a 333 or 400 meter, it's a long effort to gain a lap and both means the rest of the group can't work out and means the two taking the lap get wiped after one lap. Why not just do a much faster pace line and accomplish the same? One of the risks of this approach is that the rest of the field eases up and doesn't get as much of a workout, and the two riders out front don't have to work as hard. Does this workout feel like race pace? Usually not. There are dozens of other workouts like this that are meant to keep training from becoming boring, but many of them need a coach with a stopwatch ensuring that the speeds are kept high.
Thanks again for your advice! It's appreciated!
Clever thinking on the lap-taking exercise. And good poiunt about the trackside coach. That would always be a good idea but the facility has a MyLaps system available so I'll see if we can start out with that and then get a coach once the size of the group enables it.
Clever thinking on the lap-taking exercise. And good poiunt about the trackside coach. That would always be a good idea but the facility has a MyLaps system available so I'll see if we can start out with that and then get a coach once the size of the group enables it.
Ride it like you stole it
