CADENCE AND GEAR TRAINING FOR SHORT COURSE TRIATHLETES
By Eric Prager, USA Triathlon Level II Certified Coach
A
workout designed to teach awareness of personal cadence is as beneficial as recovery and time
trial workouts. Since every athlete differs, personal awareness is critical. No one perfect cadence exists for all cyclists. Athletes frequently identify a goal race
cadence. However, many athletes’ desired and actual race cadences do not coincide. Athletes who change their natural cadence drastically often give up their strength, speed and power. The slow-moving cyclist spinning uncontrollably or gear masher sluggishly motoring around are examples of improper cadence selection.
For this reason, the following workout
helps athletes test speed at different cadences, in different gears, on different grades. This routine will improve base conditioning, enhance performance based on energy systems and teach athletes the balance between cadence, effort, gradient, gear selection and personal physiology. Regardless of talent, this application is beneficial. Our bodies have five energy systems.
These systems provide fuel for all-out efforts lasting a specified period of time. Training the edges of these systems will help athletes become faster and stronger.
The five systems are creatine phospate
(0-10 seconds), adenosine triphosphate (10-30 seconds), fast glycolosis (30-90 seconds), slow glycolysis (90-180 seconds) and oxidative/aerobic (3+ minutes). Intervals based on these energy systems help improve power, strength, speed or endurance. Oxidative (3+ minutes) and slow glycolysis
(90-180 seconds) are most frequently taxed energy systems in short-course events. Therefore, the following workout is based on improving these two energy systems, but at sub-max efforts. This 90-minute routine uses progressions through a warm-up, comfortable hill
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