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Following the 'Body weight vs power vs speed' thread I've been wondering if a training schedule should be different for a very light/small rider compare to very heavy/big rider.
Assuming both riders are lean; the smaller rider will never produce as much power as the bigger rider and the bigger rider will never be as light as the smaller rider so they have advantages in different scenarios (ignoring genetic abnormalities).
So should they train differently to maximise their advantages?
Kinda, maybe. In the UK there's zero point in the light rider training for the places they have a real advantage e.g. massive alpine climbs. Everyone ends up in the same boat so you may as well train for cover the terrain we have
So should they train differently to maximise their advantages?
Or to minimise their disadvantages maybe.
Joe Friel talks about this in his cycling training bible. Basically saying you should spend more time training at things you are not so good at than the things you are.
Yeah train for the stuff your bad at to get the biggest advantage. I'd say upping your power would work for both body types, would increase the speed on the flat of the lighter rider and improve the w/kg of the heavier rider in the hills.
Train to improve the things you are bad at. But its all power to weigh ratios for road riding anyway. You can do some gym work to up your power output. My wife has been doing that to good effect over the last few months. Its easy to do, even squats at home, or one legged jumping up the stairs helps. Ive noticed it following her round the local hills. We have short sharp hills where we are, not long ones like in the Alps. Even in Wales the hills are short compared to the Alps.
She is training to do a short burst of high power to get to the top, then recover fast. I just grunt along behind. Soon she will not lose much going up, but probably catch up and overtake me on the long flats.
As an armchair racer with absolutely no chance of ever winning anything, and only a slightly higher chance of summoning the motivation to enter in the first place:
Or pick a discipline you're good at?
If you're 6ft3, 15stone and can leg press a Mini Cooper, take up track sprinting.
If you're 5ft4 and 58kg, Time trialling is never going to be your forte.
Look like a famine victim but have a good VO2 max and like the taste of blood and vomit? Hillclimbing.
Like cake and realistically never going to win anything? Join a club and call for sprints to the next village sign a second after you've already started to wind up your biggest gear.
But its all power to weigh ratios for road riding anyway.
Over a long day in the alps maybe. More generally it comes down to surviving the race and then sprinting. Obviously step 1 is surviving, but the requirements for that will differ massively between a hilly road race, and an airfield crit, the latter is going to come down to your sprint unless you can make a break work, and either case is down to pure power and strategy (either FTP or sprinting) as weight won't be a factor.
Join a club and call for sprints to the next village sign a second after you’ve already started to wind up your biggest gear.
56kg here so for me it's sit at the back before the hill then accelerate just before it starts and go past people while pretending it's easy and make a big show of looking around at the scenery. Spend all the time on the flats praying for a busy road junction!
Look like a famine victim but have a good VO2 max and like the taste of blood and vomit? Hillclimbing.
That's not funny - my club are running the Scottish Hill Climb Champs this year and I'm a portly 62kg at the moment :'(
Spend all the time on the flats praying for a busy road junction!
I bet you love hearing "lets line up TTT style!" mid-ride
I think the training to minimise your bad points is probably about where it's at. In MTB at least there's not much to be gained from being a specialist. You won't be able to get sprint points on a flat stage as a big rider, or hit the top of hilly stages and get KOM points as a climber as you could on the road (or even have a good shot on a particular course). On single stage road races of course it might help to specialise so that you can get some top results depending on the course - better to podium half the time and get dropped the other half than sit halfway up the pack all the time.
I was going to suggest just choosing a discipline that suited your body type and training at that. For MTB this pretty much comes down to XC for small riders, DH for big riders (look up the stats of those at the top of their game and you'll see what I mean).
Of course when you ride with anyone at the top of any discipline, they tend to be immensely fit and fast everywhere compared to mere mortals.
That’s not funny – my club are running the Scottish Hill Climb Champs this year and I’m a portly 62kg at the moment :'(
Mine's running the nationals, thankfully I'm 88kg and qualification is based on last years points so I don't even have to contemplate it. 😊
Anyone training for competition should be focusing on their personal strengths/weaknesses, which will depend on the discipline as well as physical strength, fitness, etc. If you're training for XC races, climbing will be your first priority and you need to be able to sustain it for extended periods, if you're training for DH racing, you need short bursts of extreme intensity.
Agree with what’s said about training your weakness. Mine is recovery for multiple hard efforts. In crits and road races it is often a sprint out of every corner, that’s a lot of fairly short max effort intervals. This is magnified later in the race when people start dropping wheels. (As an older chap I struggle with this later in a race, especially on a crit where this happens a lot)
Sufferfest and the 4DP does this exact thing. From doing your test (multiple different tests), it works out your weakness, you then select programmes to work on your weakness. The effort needed for each workout is determined by the power output you achieved in the relevant part of the test.
I find UK hills, especially Wales, just as tough as alpine climbs. They may not go on as long, but in Snowdonia there is some really good 45 min climbs, with some 20% ramps. In Snowdonia it’s easy to link hills up, so whilst there is some descending between hills, you can still get some really good climbing in.
I shall stick to riding with my slower mates 🙂
56kg here so for me it’s sit at the back before the hill then accelerate just before it starts and go past people while pretending it’s easy and make a big show of looking around at the scenery. Spend all the time on the flats praying for a busy road junction!
That sums up most my riding! at 59kg I love hills and anything thats lots of repetitive accelerating. Riding all day in zone 2 with a few hills is fine too. What I suck at is the longer threshold and Vo2 max intervals.
The best training for 3 W/kg for long periods is to ride at 3 W/kg for long periods. For me that's 200 Watts. I'm never going to be a sprinter or a 10 mile specialist. I don't like the taste of blood either so not a huge VO2 max junkie. But 200 watts x 12 hours - now we are talking. It also helps with FTP rises too. The sloooow way.
I understand the train your weaknesses to race your strengths. But if you are racing 12 hrs, 100 miles, you need to train your strengths!
Personally I only feel its valid to 'train your weaknesses' if you stand a serious chance of competing once those weaknesses are up to scratch.
I'm with @TiRed up there, find what you're good at and maximise that. For me its 12 & 24hr MTB, but for $h!its and giggles I try to 'train' for cyclocross and XC, I'm never and I repeat never going to be as good at them as I am / was at 24hr, but hey ho.
The draw of the 24 is always there and may win out again one day.
https://power-meter.cc/home tells me that my power profile to date best fits a "Time Trialist." So I'm now on week 5 of the "TT Tune-Up" plan on Zwift, trying to shoehorn in the odd Zwift race/TT to spice things up.
My 20mins MAP is steadily improving and my 60mins MAP has definitely improved, while I'm shedding fat and losing weight. No race plans, just targetting my PBs up categorised climbs from 2018 when spring comes along.
I've recovered most of what I lost from ~10 months ago when at my best, but feel far more prepared for when the "outdoor season" hopefully starts, because I'm doing far more frequent turbo sessions of over an hour duration and ~3 times a week I'm happy to do multiple sessions throughout the afternoon/day.
These days I'm near middle of the road weight at just under 77Kg, I was 95Kg back in June 2016 and got down to 73Kg by August 2017, before then steadily creeping back up to just under 84Kg last October.
Focus on limitations specific to the event/type of riding you want to do, don't get complacent with your strengths.
So should they train differently to maximise their advantages?
How would they do that?
How would they do that?
Big guy - squats and standing starts
Little guy - amphetamines and hill reps up Alpe-d'huez
You can do some gym work to up your power output. My wife has been doing that to good effect over the last few months. Its easy to do, even squats at home, or one legged jumping up the stairs helps.
@Trimix I'm holding you personally to blame when I stumble and sprain my ankle 🙂
As a pretty light but powerless rider, I keep meaning to do some weights but finding gym time is a real struggle so I'm going to give this a crack
I did start doing pistol squats in December managing 4 sets of 6 on each leg. So think i'll give that a go again. On a rest week now so so just planning ahead. Though I feel I hardly deserve a rest week with a pretty low average TSS but with work and other commitments I'm only managing the shorter, more intense sessions and I'm tired.