N.B. The following is intended as guidance only and should be treated as such. Any actions you take are entirely at your own risk. This document assumes you are training for the Road Season. For cross just adjust the dates accordingly.
Introduction
Its December and its about 12 weeks now until the season. Your base training is going well, you are becoming aerobically fitter but improvement to muscle strength is minimal. Now is the time to progressively increase your gearing through the rest of the winter. Muscle Strength + Aerobic Fitness = Aerobic Power, which is what fast racing is all about. Train for both of these and you will go faster. Fact.
Base Training Continues
As mentioned before, base training is the cornerstone of your endurance training so this will continue as normal but use a sprocket higher than you might normally on your long weekend base training rides. Don't use Race Gears! Stay on the small ring but up it a gear, thats all. You may want to up your mileage too. If you can, extend the weekend rides and push yourself to go a bit further.
The Power Session
This is a 12 week Power Program you can do mid-week. If you are riding Tues, Wed and Thurs, drop one of them for this session. Dont try and jump in part way through the program, the idea here is a progressive training effect, so it may start relatively easy, based on your current fitness, but by the end you will find it demanding.
The key here is to maintain a constant HR. As the effort increases, its your cadence that should drop.
Each week for the first 4 weeks, increase the interval by 1 min and the rest period by 1 min too. So by Week 4 you should be riding for 4 mins and resting for 4 mins.
Weeks 5 - 12 are the same as week 4 but each week, drop 30 secs off the rest period, so by week 12, you are riding for 4 mins in each gear, with no rest.
It doesn't matter how low your cadence drops, just maintain your HR. Its like weight-training on the bike. The program is simplified below
Week 1 - 7 x 1 min on, 1 min off
Week 2 - 7 x 2 min on, 2 min off
Week 3 - 7 x 3 min on, 3 min off
Week 4 - 7 x 4 min on, 4 min off
Week 5 - 7 x 4 min on, 3.5 min off
Week 6 - 7 x 4 min on, 3 min off
Week 7 - 7 x 4 min on, 2.5 min off
Week 8 - 7 x 4 min on, 2 min off
Week 9 - 7 x 4 min on, 1.5 min off
Week 10 - 7 x 4 min on, 1 min off
Week 11 - 7 x 4 min on, 30 secs off
Week 12 - 7 x 4 min on, no rest
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