Overview

This section of the book contains three sample sprint training programs.  One is "intensity first", the other is "capacity first" and the third is the "Hybrid" program.  There's no correct way to do this, try all three and see which works best for you.  We suggest the hybrid as it's what we're using now, having used the other two.

Intensity and Capacity use three week blocks in the order : Strength - Power - Speed and are suitable for sprint cyclists with up to two years of sprint training.  More advanced athletes will require more complex planning and possibly double-dosing (multiple sessions in one day, eg gym in the morning, track in the afternoon etc) which is beyond the scope of this book.  There's no recovery cycle in this program, it is not necessary for beginning sprinters.  You can't dig a deep enough hole yet.

The programs assume you can get to a track twice a week and a gym twice a week, and that you have access to a quality ergo trainer such as a Kurt Kinetic Road Machine or a LeMond Revolution or similar. You can improvise without a track using road efforts.  They also assume you have access to a pacing motorbike, but this can also be worked around using downhill sections of road and dropping off the bank of a banked velodrome.  Use your imagination.

They also make reference to gear choices.  For the strength section, generally you'll use a gear 6-10" bigger than you would normally race on.  If you're racing on 90", you'd use 96"-100" for the first strength set.  For power, generally you will use your race gearing, plus or minus 2"-4".  For speed, mostly your race gearing.

The Power three week block includes mostly motorbike chasing efforts, this can be replaced with or mixed in with rolling accelerations from 30-40km/h instead, use your imagination.  The key is the starting cadence, ideally around 70-80 rpm starting cadence during the power training phase.

The strength section also includes some high cadence work, we recommend that you start your session with high cadence work, just one effort, but at the start of the session.  High cadence work is best performed when fresh, not fatigued to get maximum benefit from it.  The efforts can be motorpaced 500m or 250m efforts on small gears (82"-84") or similar, use your imagination to break them up and provide variety.  The technical aspect of the high cadence work is not important as long as it's done and is around 250m-500m.

You will notice that the day before each track session is either an easy road ride or a rest day.  This is to make the track sessions as high a quality as possible.  As this is a beginner program there is no taper and no recovery weeks, at the conclusion of the nine weeks, the program is repeated. 

Days can be mixed and matched to suit available time at track and gym, but we recommend keeping a day between gym and track sessions to keep track quality high.  This is not a perfect program, it is just a couple of examples to get you started.