ok, i’ll put my advice up here. but remember that i’m not a coach, have no qualifications whatsoever, and am only writing what i’ve gleaned from other coaches over the past four years.
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yes rollers are best for aerobic fitness. i’m gonna assume that’s all everyone here is interested in - if you want to be a faster racer, get a wind / fluid / resistance trainer and a coach. my coach only costs me $60 a month - forgo two coffees a day and you’re sorted. BUT you should ride your road bike on the rollers, so you have the extra resistance gears can provide. it’s simply too easy to spin out on your track bike, which means that you’re not getting the full benefit.
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the best thing you can use in conjunction with your rollers is a HR monitor. speed and cadence are totally arbitrary, and have no reflection on your fitness - though i occasionally do cadence based drills to get my leg speed up ahead of a big track carnival. find your resting HR by taking it first thing in the morning - strap on the monitor for two minutes as soon as you wake up, note the average. then find your max HR by doing a step test (google will help you with this), where you gradually raise the intensity until you can’t any more. do not simply take the highest max HR you’ve ever seen, as usually that involves a fair bit of adrenaline, which gives you an inaccurate gauge for training purposes. for example, my max HR is 189, but i regularly see HRs in the 190s while racing. once you have your max worked out, figure out the percentages.
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don’t just jump in and smash yourself. you need first to build an endurance base - the stronger the foundations, the stronger you will be. start by doing two ten minute efforts at 60%, with ten minutes warm up / cool down, and ten minutes recovery in between. do that for a month or so - it takes about that long for your body to adapt to anything new. then next month build up to two 15 minute efforts at 70%. month after that, two 15 minute efforts at 90%. that should be fucking hard. sure, they aren’t the most exciting sessions, but this is how you build fitness. all that “sprint every time phil liggett says ‘suitcase of courage’” or some such bullshit is for shunters who value entertainment over improvement. put something good on TV while you do it.
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after you’ve built your base, your efforts depend on what you want to work on. first i’d recommend a VO2 max booster, with 15 minutes warm up (in which you gradually build to about 90%), then 24 x 15 second absolute max efforts / 30 seconds recovery between each effort, the 15 minutes cooldown (cooldown is always recovery pace, ie less than 60%). do them for a month and all of a sudden those hills will be much easier, and your recovery after sprinting to catch that orange light will be much quicker.
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once you’ve recovered, the cooldown is for your skills. practice riding no hands, reaching for things no hands, riding with one foot, closing your eyes, turning your head. all of these are good for your riding in general.
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when you’ve done those four months of roller efforts, email me. i’ll give you some phone numbers, or some more programs.