31 May Dave Lloyd – Training Plan

Dave Lloyd’s White Rose Classic Training Plan

Not long now until the 23 June and the White Rose Classic. I have ridden this great sportive twice now, but the last time was in 2007! (See picture of me with Pen-Y-Ghent in the background.) It’s a challenging Sportive. You need to be in very good condition to attempt the 122 mile Hawes Long Route. If you do, maybe I’ll see you, as I’ll be riding it this year.

“Think of it as two weeks of pain, so you can properly enjoy the event”

In preparation, over the next two weeks I recommend you pile on the pressure with lots of hill work and long hilly rides at the weekend – with some hard hills thrown in. If you have no hills near you, try “simulating hills” on your Turbo by turning up the resistance or, if you are on Zwift or other virtual trainers, choosing a mountain route in the Alps.

I’ve put together a quick training program outline that you can use to be sure you are ready.

But don’t forget: the last week before the event you’ll need to taper down to about one-third of what you were doing and a rest day or a day in recovery the Saturday before the Event.

The Plan

Concentrate on getting at least 2 or 3 hill repeat days done in the next two weeks. Here’s what to shoot for with hill repeats:

Find a hill, one which ideally rises in three stages. If the hill starts at about 8%, then dips slightly to 7% and then kicks up to 10%, that would be ideal. THIS IS NOT WRITTEN IN STONE – somewhere near this would be great, but work with whatever you can find. I also like the hill to be only around 1.5 to 2 minutes to climb.

On my “ideal” hill, I start in the big chain ring and sprint, out of the saddle, for the first third, then change down to the small ring and up the cassette a couple of sprockets and sit down, grab the centre of the bars and burn the quads, using the upper body to keep the bike moving forward nice and straight. Then for the last third, I knock the right gear down and sprint out of the saddle again, flat out, to the top of the hill.

Got it? Then you are ready to work.

1. Find a marker at the bottom of the hill to start your computer.
2. Find a marker at the top of the hill to stop your computer.
3. Ride the hill as I have described above.
4. Have your recovery time. (Recovery should be until your breathing is back to normal and your legs are ready for next effort) and repeat.

Have a pen and paper to hand so that you can record your times, max HR and max power. Alternatively, use your Garmin’s “LAP” facility. Whichever way you do it, always put down the weather conditions, especially the wind strength and direction.

Repeat the prescribed number of times, recording all your times along with max heart rate and max power.

Saturday and Sundays – I would do a Zone 2 ride on Saturday, that’s an easy-ish ride of about 3 hours and on Sunday a ride like the one below:

Sunday Rides

5-6 hours into the hills… I want you to try a new exercise on the hills today. Warm up on small gear spinning the legs at about 100 RPM to the nearest hills and then do the following exercise.

Climb each hill on the small ring in what I’d call an “easy-ish” gear … BUT, sit down all the way up the hill, and do the same on every hill. DO NOT get out of the saddle at all and just get the right gears to stay seated and push back in the saddle, hold the centre of the bars and just use your quads, good ankling action and pedaling action to move that bike up the slope. DO NOT move your torso. Keep your shoulders still and no bobbing up and down. Your upper body needs to be stock-still all the way up the climb. SO… CONCENTRATE!

On reaching the brow of each hill, get out of the saddle, whack it into the big chain ring and without any hesitation SPRINT until you have to sit down and then, effort over. That’s going to hurt those quads big time. Repeat this exercise on EVERY climb.

Alternative Ride

AM. 5 hours in the hills. Warm up to a suitable hill and do 8 hill repeats flat out with LONG recoveries and record the times you get out. Then do a 45 minute warm down loop and back to the same climb and do another 8 hill repeats and see how the times compare to the first 8. Warm down for 20 minutes and then do 8 brow sprints on the next climbs you go over. Go to the flat then and chill out in a low gear for 20 minutes to finish ride off.

I think just concentrating on these two very important exercises, you will come to the White Rose in better condition. If you’d like a better idea of what you are doing ALL SEASON. Please have a look at www.davelloydcoaching.com, call me on 07971 416667 or – tap me on the shoulder on the day!