Speed Interval Training

My next race is the San Ardo Road Race on Saturday, August 22. With such a big gap in my racing schedule caused by my relocation to Northern California, I've had a lot of time to work on my endurance and stamina. My workouts of late have been to get a couple of hill climbs (see Howell Mt. Road in my Hills of Napa series) in during the week, followed by long rides on either Saturday or Sunday or both (rides to Davis, Bodega Bay, etc.) So stamina is not an issue right now. What I really need, with a race just 3 weeks away, is sharpening or working on my speed. San Ardo is a pretty much flat course anyway and ends in a slightly uphill sprint. So now is the time to drop some of my threshold workouts/week and replace them with speed.

For the most part I follow Training Peaks workouts as I've been a paying member for several years now. I am also very much a student of Joe Friel and his workouts in both training Peaks and his "Training Bible." But this week I chose a workout from Chris Carmichael, as laid out in the August issue of Bicycle Magazine)see page 42 of that issue for a complete discussion. But here's how I completed the workouts in a nutshell:

Monday: Core Day (I do light weight lifting and stomach/lower back work

Tuesday: Interval Day (Descending Ladder) - 2' hard/2' recover, 1:30' hard/1:30'recover, 1:00' hard/1:00 recover, 45" hard/5 full minutes to recover between sets. I do this workout over my 21 mile circuit around Calistoga.

The above makes one set and after 5 mins. I do another, followed by one more, so I do three sets of the above. Coach Carmichael advises beginners to do only 1 set, intermediates 2, and advanced to do 3. I start each interval by going as hard as I think I can maintain for the full allotment of time for that interval. In other words, as I start the first 2' I ramp up to the highest power I can maintain and not lose power over the complete 2'.

Wednesday: recovery day - I do my usual 21 mile circuit around Calistoga but back off on speed and complete the 21 miles in around 1:07 or so.

Thursday: Interval Day (pure speed) - I alternate between going full out (maximum speed and power) for 30" followed by 30" of recovery. I do 7 of these and then recover over 4 minutes to do the whole thing all over again. It would look like this in my workout journal:

7 X 30" (30" RI) X 2 (with 4' RI between sets)

Carmichael advises that beginners 2 sets of 5, intermediates 3 sets of 5, and advanced 2 sets of 7. Again, I do this over my 21 mile course.

Friday: recovery day (same as Wednesday)

Saturday: Long ride. I like 3 - 5 hours for this ride.

Sunday: Easy ride of around 1.5 - 2.5 hours.

This should get me peaked for San Ardo. I also have a couple of races right after, one just the next week; the Winters Road Race, so I hope to maintain my peak for this race too. The last race is the Henleyville Road Race and it is also the last race of the season (not counting Tour of Tucson in November which is kind of a special thing for me) held on September 19th, and it is a class B race for me so I'll start tailing off on intensity and working on endurance again to prepare for the 109 miles in Tucson.