I have been with TR now for a year and loving it. I have been racing crits in the Masters arena here in Australia for 3 years. I have build a big aerobic engine thanks to TR but my sprint is stuck at 900w it have tried a lot of things only to see it grow in duration not power. I am 48 weight 87kg and my new FTP is 261w. Help?
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Fellow Australian here.
Do you do any sprint specific stuff? I personally find I cant do all out sprints on a trainer and not sure you should anyway.
Here is my sprint schedule.
Find a flat piece of road 250-300m long- where you know where the start is, hell draw a line across the road. Have a good lead in, 300-400m into the start of the sprint to set yourself up. Come into the sprint around 90 rpm, And practice snapping off that line and all out sprint until the end. Turn around, and roll slowly recovering back. x 5 times.
Alternatively to practice just your snap, 20min warm up, low gear and SNAP for 3-4 seconds. x 5
Alternatively to practice high cadence, warm up as usual and then high gear and spin above 110c for 20 seconds., x 5 with recovery between. These are non taxing and easy to do.
Sprinting is a technique and something to practice to become good at it. And then comes all the technique like how to kick, sit down, kick again, sit, kick again for the final sprint. Practicing to go with someone then kick around.
And pretend to kick, which might get someone to start the sprint for you and then you tuck in behind them and kick around.
Sprinting low over the bars, which at first feels very strange but you do get used to it.
When I practice I also visualise a finish line and what the sprint finish might look like.
Also one I have taken from @Nate_Pearson and Pete is the seated on the trainer sprints and no hands.
Hope some of this helps.
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I’ll try that 250-300m sprint that is something I haven’t done before. I have managed to catch others on the line as I can hold my power at 900w for 11s which is a pb from a race I did 2 weeks ago went from mid pack to 7th at the line. This race I sat in the whole at as it was really fast 42km/h.
Gym work! Box jumps, dead lifts, step ups, squats, and single legged calf raises.
I’m 62 and went from 750w → 950w last season with strength training (I’m an endurance rider). A fellow teammate (sprinter) of similar age, went from 1100 ->1500W with a similar routine.
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So guessing here this would be an off-season improvement?
No, these improvements were all in-season. For me, I do weight training year round. The sprinter I mentioned does as well, but his heavy work for sprinting performance takes place at the start of the build phase.
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Either way it takes time.
Build strength first, then maintain while building explosiveness. Both are use-it-or-lose-it, and both will take time and energy away from working out on the bike.
Righty oh then I’ll start doing some weight training then.
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Maybe this also will help you: Building FRC and Pmax with WKO5 - YouTube
The webinar from Kolie Moore about sprinting and building FRC.
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definitely consider getting into the gym all year round, for anyone 35+! the benefits are phenomenal.
Good luck with the SPRINTS!!!
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Out of curiosity, how long did it take your friend to get that increase?
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The length of build and specialty phases (about 10-12 weeks) . . .
George is a M55+ cat 1 crit racer (he’s been racing for 20+ years) and for the 2019 season, a fellow club member and I (both TR users) convinced him to use TR instead of his outdoor training. He loved the program and started his heavy weight training at the end of base.
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Not bad. How many times a week did he do the routine?
I’m myself stuck and can’t get passed a certain level and it is driving me furious 
Was thinking of maybe starting this sort of extra routine like twice a week to get those sprint muscles going.
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Sorry, I don’t recall (we discussed our gym routines during the winter of 2019). He was on TR’s Low Volume plan in order to accommodate his strength training which he knew was critical to his performance (many podium spots including lots of 1sts). So, if I had to guess, probably 3x/week.
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I think Coach @chad mentioned doing gym as many times as you have hard days ie sweet spot or Vo2 training just do it opposite end of the day so if you train in the morning gym in the evening. This was with a provision that if it affects your training to back of on the gym. During race season you can drop this down to once a week to maintain.
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