5 key training drills

Taken a break, now I'm back training albeit not as intensely as I used to.

I just do a session on my Wattbike once every other day or so. But it's going well and I'm getting fitter.

I thought I'd just make a note of the sessions I do, they are general purpose and would suit anybody wanting to get fit regardless of what they actually do, cycle, run, row, swim, whatever.

The only thing you need for all is a clock and a measure of distance covered.

There are 5 different exercises. First time through I'd suggest doing them each in order which will help get a good feeling for the pace to use.

Thereafter you can pretty much do them in any order you like depending on how you feel and aiming overall to do all the exercises a similar number of times. Ideally you will do 3-4 sessions per week with a days rest between each. You can do more if time permits and you feel fresh. Try to do at least 2 per week at least.


Notes:

• Clock/distance measure is the basic way to set pace. Depending on circumstances others can be used, like resistance on gym equipment or hills if training outdoors. Key thing is that whatever you use is easy to monitor and repeatable. You need this in order to train optimally, also seeing yourself go faster with less effort is a great motivator
• All but the first exercise have rest periods. During this time slow to minimal pace but keep moving, do not stop completely.)
• Failing: you will have bad days when you cant complete a whole exercise. Don't let this get you down. Make your next session the same exercise, easing back a bit if it guarantees you will complete it, then use this as benchmark for progression.
  

1: Steady state 1 hour

From cold start and increase pace until you are exercising quite hard but at a pace you feel you can maintain for a full hour. I find monitoring breathing is best indicator for this. Raise pace until you feel you have to breathe through your mouth but its a controlled breathing: you can force yourself to breathe through nose for a short while and still maintain pace.

Progression: At the end of the hour record distance covered. Next time go further.
Variety: This can be a boring workout. To make it more interesting vary some technical aspects of the exercise, e.g. on a bike do 30s at 100rpm every 2 mins or so. Another variant (and very good training) is to do a negative split: second half hour is done at a faster pace than first. If you feel up to it then a more advanced form of this workout is to sprint for 15s-30s every 2-5 mins.

2: 2x20s

Warm up for 5-10 mins then do the following:

• 20 minutes at pace above that from exercise 1 above. As a guideline you should be pushing at a pace that forces you to breathe hard and often through your mouth.
  
• At the end of 20 minutes ease right back and rest for 5 minutes
• Do another 20 minutes. Aim for this 20 minutes to be at at least the same pace as the first.

Progression: Try to increase distance covered in each 20 minutes every time. Good approach is try to set a 20 minute best on the second 20 then make that PB the target distance for the first 20 next time round.

3: Under Overs

Warm up for 5-10 mins. Then do the following:

• Exercise for 2 mins at the steady state pace from exercise 2.
  
• Push hard for 1 min. You should already be breathing hard through your mouth>> during this minute you should feel a shift from where you are under control of your breathing to a point where you feel you have to really suck deep on every breath just to keep going. However don't push so hard you give max effort and sprint (except for the first 2-5s or so to get pace up). You have to maintain a high pace for the full minute, not peak and fade.
  
• After the 1 min ease back and do another 2 mins at steady state.
• Push hard for 1 minute
• Another 2 mins,
• Then another minute hard.
  

Ease right back and do very easy pace for 5 minutes

Repeat all above again and again. So in the end you do 3x9 mins, each 9 min consisting of 3x 2 mins steady, 1 min hard.

Progression: Record the distance covered each 9 mins. Aim to cover more each time you do this drill. Another progression is to do 2 mins steady then 2 mins hard, making each interval 12 mins long.

4: VO2s

Warm up for 5-10 mins then do the following:

• 5 minutes at the 1 minute pace from exercise 3.
• 5 minutes rest
• repeat 3 times (so total 20 minutes exercise)
  

That's it. If time permits you can take a long rest (10 mins or so) and repeat.

Don't push too hard on the first interval. You need to complete all 4. The first 3 should be at a very similar pace. Your body takes a while to warm up fully to working at this intensity, so don't be surprised if the third feels easier than the preceding two.

Progression: If you feel up to it push harder on the last. If you succeed in keeping a higher pace to the end use that as a benchmark next time round.

5: 1x1s

Warm up for 5-10 mins then do the following:

• Go as hard as possible at a pace you can sustain for a full minute. Breathe really hard just before starting then first 15s or so sprint to get up pace. (you won't breathe much if at all during this time. Sprint should be hard but not max effort, you need some reserve for completion). Hold pace for 45s. You will be breathing very very hard.
• Rest 1 minute
• Repeat for at least 4 times.

Fully rest for 10 minutes or so then repeat. So total of 8 minutes very high intensity exercise.

Progression: Increase pace of each minute or add extra minutes (so 5x1 minute> 6x1 not just 4x1 minute). Hard alternative is to repeat until exhaustion. So just keep doing 1 minute effort, 1 minute rest until you can't complete a full minute. Keep a note of pace and number of minutes completed and use this as benchmark for the future.