by Kristin Hilger

For the past few weeks I have been adding more high intensity anaerobic training, including more 30 second, 800 meter and 2 mile maximal efforts to my training on the bike. My upper end power and anaerobic capacity are lacking in comparison to my endurance capacity. This could be expected since I am a true product of my experience (I’ve kept my focus on the longer distance triathlons since I first started). In addition to wanting to improve those factors alone, I wanted to explore the training theory that explosive exercise will also raise my lactate threshold and have beneficial physiological and neuromuscular adaptations to improve my endurance performance. Additionally, by varying power output (either inadvertently or not) during a race, you can save time and energy. Therefore, by working on my short burst accelerations and efforts I can gain a greater anaerobic capacity and complimentarily improve my endurance racing.

There is a convenient closed road loop nearby my place that has a slight rise on two of the roads and a slight decline on the other two roads, making a nice square circuit. The circuit is 800 meters, or half of a mile and generally has a northern blowing wind, making the ascending section more difficult. Over the last month I have trained there twice on my Scott Contessa Plasma TT bike and twice on the Scott Contessa Road bike. My goal for the 800 m and 2-mile efforts was to work on my anaerobic capacity, VO2 max power (my current 1 minute peak power is 323 watts, or 5.47 watts/kg) and my five-minute power (my current 5 min peak power is 274 watts, or 4.64 watts/kg).

After four separate days of 800 m efforts (two on each bike) I noticed some trends. First, I noted that in each session I descended my times and was able to increase my average power output. Furthermore, my perceived exertion improved. Although there was pain, I sensed that I could go harder and maintain a higher level of exertion, which is a positive and important psychological adaptation. I felt similarly for my 2 mile circuit efforts, which are plotted in the table below.

Although considerable gains are not yet visible within my data table, I still wanted to share some of the numbers for a discussion. My average power values for these efforts are significantly lower than my 5-minute peak power mentioned above. I still did maximal efforts, but having 16 turns on the course makes it difficult to mimic a straight time trial effort, which brings me to a bigger point. Consider a triathlon course with hills, curves, turns and wind. If I have trained my anaerobic capacity more, I will be able to generate a short burst over a hill and be able to recover faster on the downhill or power faster out of a corner. This is noteworthy because many triathletes slow down at the corners, sit up and brake. With practice and challenging your anaerobic capacity your body will begin to adapt and be able to handle those bursts of power, saving a significant amount of time in a race. In addition, doing 5 min efforts that are approximately 80% of your peak 5 min power will still be beneficial, physiologically and neuromuscularly. They will help to boost your threshold as you are working your systems above your current threshold.

I believe there are significant gains to be made by triathletes with higher intensity cycling workouts that might be overlooked. I will continue to test my own limits, have fun and hopefully be able to report some huge gains in the future in my endurance racing as well as shorter power bursts. Enjoy your training.