Re training

[mcg]

Okay guys i have a 14 yr old son who is into cycling big time.

I had to pull the plug at the end of the term due to his rapport wich was not good at all he was riding 25 to 40 km a night offroad.

I have now purchassed a indoor trainer for him and tonight he did 20km in 33 min at 55km/h what i need to know is how do we go about indoor training for racing cross country.It will be the 45km from here on in due to his age and getting ready for next yrs racing season.

Any advice here would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers Terry

Edited July 17, 2012 by mcg

[Cycho]

Where in KZN u based? Work with a couple of the local youngsters, so always happy to chat and help out. Drop me a PM...

[mcg]

Where in KZN u based? Work with a couple of the local youngsters, so always happy to chat and help out. Drop me a PM...

Unfortunatley we based in Port Shepstone.

[The_Break]

Any training whether indoors or on the road should follow the basic training principles of endurance sports. Even though your son is doing MTB, his power should be born on the road. In other words, most of his training should be road type of training whether done on the indoor trainer or on the road itself and should specifically start (due to time of season) with a lot of base work to build him up for the seaon. Once you get closer to season you can start adding in the harder more intense sessions, but generally one does not really go too far with these kinds of workouts with younger athletes as one needs to look at long term athlete development and at his age it is borderline what he should be doing depending on what else he is doing.

 

The reason I say power is born on the road is more to do with one being able to keep a relatively constant and lower HR on the road than one can typically keep offroad due to undulating terrain. It is this constant lower HR type of training that is base training upon which all other type of seasonal training should be launched in order to properly develop and athlete. Especially a young athlete. I must also stress here that it is not recommended for young athletes to spend hours and hours training like adults or older riders do. A good indication of what he should be doing is to search the web for Australian Young Athlete Development recommended mileages and also put it on a good training ratio relative to the races he will be doing. E.g. if he is doing 40km races he does not need to go out and ride 60km in the bush during training. Overkill and total over training for a youngster.

 

There is so much to say here, but I would propose, and it is not exciting or rocket science at all, that he does mostly easy riding at between 50-70% of MHR during the week on the trainer and get out on weekends into the bush to keep his skills sharp on one day and a nice long ride on the road on the other day. Once he has built his base up nicely through season he will have so much more of a base to build upon than interval training indoors through winter that I am guessing most other will suggest here (unfortunately incorrectly in my books and probably most other coaches).

 

It is also important to get him the correct amount of rest even during easy base type training. Training is when the body is strssed and is broken down, rest is when it reacts to the stress and rebuilds itself to a stronger state in preparation for the next stress event. If you dont rest correctly you will not improve.

 

I would further suggest you get some sound long term advice from a coach who knows what he is talking about even if it is on an ad hoc basis.

 

Good luck and nurture the talent!

[mcg]

I appreciate the comment and it makes complete sense to someone who knows jack about the sport especially comming from a motor sport background.

I have a trainer in mind and that is Maryke, so the best will be to go in that direction and try do whats best for my son.

[The_Break]

Motorsport, hehe then its easy to explain like this.

 

Base work is like adding cylinders to an engine.

Once you have as many cylinders as you can get in you do the interval type training that ads the turbo chargers.

 

An engine that has 4 cylinders will at best be a 4 cylinder turbochared engine, but it will never be able to compete against an 8 cylinder turbocharged engine. The only difference being the base work done at the right time. I.e the extra cylinders added during the initial design of the engine.

Edited July 17, 2012 by The_Break

[The_Break]

One more thing about training on an indoor trainer. Never try and average any hEart rates or power that where given to you for the road as it will be too hard. Outdoors you have about 10-15% freewheel time and loads vary, but on the trainer there are no rest and normally just constant load so it is harder to average set for set. You will need to modify sessions for indoor trainers or specify to your coach.