The Workout: 5x5 Varied
/It’s February! Super bowl is done. For a lot of our road racers it is starting to feel like racing season is just around the corner. As far as training goes, that means that maybe the base is starting to get pretty robust, athletes are getting strong, but now it’s the time we have been waiting for - time to start getting into a bit of that higher intensity and really add some FAST to that strong. Now, one could go on for quite awhile as to debating the ideologies behind how much intensity should be incorporated, what form the intensity should take, how it should change for different races, and on and on. I am certainly a proponent of doing intensity that is specific to certain races, but before doing workouts that are nitty gritty in the specifics of a course I believe athletes need to start building up their “racing tool box” by getting some of the general higher intensity preparation workouts under their belt.
If all an athlete’s been doing is zone two and zone three, and hopefully some sprint work, this workout is going to be a shock to the system. But it’s a great workout because it’s a tight block of VO2 work, but with a twist of doing efforts that are constant power and “broken efforts” where the power is on and off. I like that because you get time across a few different power bands. Basically, it’s both a building workout, but also a system shocker. But it’s a workout athletes can come back to a few times and see the numbers continue to improve as they get towards racing. As I have athletes first do this workout, it’s usually going to hit them a bit hard and knock them down a bit - but it’s just a real shock to the system, and helps jumpstart the legs before jumping into more intensity. I think it’s important to focus on “getting through” this workout. Meaning to shoot for numbers that are doable and finish the workout strong means getting more work done than trying to smash the first effort but falling apart after.
So here’s the workout:
Warm up with easy Z1/Z2 riding, and eventually build into a 10min Z3 effort @ 95+ rpm (a bit of technique work, and loosen up the legs for the main efforts). Then, get into the efforts:
5min in the top of Z4 (105% FTP)
5x40 sec hard / 20 sec easy (don’t think about power, just focus on going hard but even across the set - important to build sense of what athlete can do, without the # prescribed)
5min in mid Z5 (this one should be hard, but not max, numbers can be around 110-120% FTP)
5x40 sec hard / 20 sec easy (don’t think about power, just focus on going hard but even across the set - important to build sense of what athlete can do, without the # prescribed)
5min at max effort - this one is about emptying the tank on tired legs, and building the ability to nail a negative split.
It is 5x5min efforts with a twist; recover for 6min in between efforts if doing as a set.
Another twist on this ride, especially as the season builds and athletes are training for longer races is to do this set of efforts spaced through a 4 hour ride, doing the last effort in the final hour. Try it out, let us know how it goes. Good luck this racing season, and thanks for reading!
