042 : 018 Fan Bike Inoculation
I have quite a few people working on a 10-minute air bike test, I really liked the liner progression outlined in the capacity manual, but it has been fun gamifying the process a bit, loosening the reigns but still finding a way to get the same message across. The idea is to build on success, we want to accumulate time at race pace, and find a way to hammer in the feeling of “this kinda sucks but I can do it” – the structure should make you reach, but still be able to just barely achieve the goal. At the beginning, this structure moves pretty fast, and can even be implemented as a rather intense warmup on strength days – especially when there is an upper body focus.
Pre:
Easy warmup for 5, then 5 more minutes doing small sprints for the last 15 seconds of each minute.
Work:
1:00 at race pace
2:00 rest
2:00 at race pace
4:00 rest
3:00 race pace
6:00 rest
2:00 race pace
4:00 rest
1:00 race pace
Modifications
The structure here is much like the pyramids that I used to get better at pull-ups if the 3:00 feels easy, the option is there to do 4:00 at race pace and then back down the ladder (1/2 – 2/4 – 3/6 – 4/8 – 3/6 – 2/4 – 1) If I feel good after 4:00 the option is there to do 5:00 at race pace and not bother going back down the ladder (1/2 – 2/4 – 3/6 – 4/8 – 5)
This is also repeatable if you like the structure, to add difficulty after building up I will start shrinking the rest to 1.5 the duration of work, then equal to the work, and if you really want: .5 of the work. I used to feel so much stress associated with these benchmark tests (10-minute air bike, 2k row, etc) and the way I dealt with it was to increase the difficulty and stress of the training to the point where the test seems like a relief.
I would love to hear anyone’s experience of using this pyramid structure repeatedly to train for a test, the one caveat is if you make a mistake and realize you won’t be able to hit your calorie count, just pull the pin (if you are 2:00 into your 4:00 piece and realize you aren’t going to make it, stop trying. Ride easy for the rest of the time, and decide if you can work your way back down the ladder. Again, we want to build on success here and we aren’t trying to prove how tough we are by not quitting after we already failed (I tried that for far too long)
