Sprint power training

Training
7

Here are a couple of my favorite sprint drills that I should have mentioned. Couple of things to keep in mind (most of which have been mentioned).

  • Sprinting works much better outside
  • These are EXTREMELY taxing. Your whole body should be tired after a sprint workout.
  • Doing these drills in the proper position will pay much bigger dividends than a higher power sloppier sprint.
  • Give yourself as much rest as you need in between. 3-5 minutes is pretty standard.

Here are the 4 drills that I like to do. Mileage may vary, and everyone is different. I usually do each of them 5 times with plenty of rest in between.

  • Spin-ups - Start in a low gear (53-21/23) at around 10mph. Stand up, get into position and try to spin up to 120+ RPMs as quickly as possible. This should feel like you want to snap your crank arm off and only take a few seconds.

  • “Stomps” - Start in a high gear (52-12/13) at around 10 mph. Stand up, get into position and then try and get up to 90-100 RPMs as quickly as possible. Really focus on pulling your handlebars into your pedal stroke and perfect the timing of the rocking back and forth during your sprint. These should take 10-15 seconds.

  • Form into Real Sprints - Start in a reasonable gear at around 10mph. Stand up, get into position and then try to do your exact sprint at about 60% of your maximal power. Focus on holding everything taut and getting all of your power into your pedals. After 10-20 seconds ( I can last longer as the season progresses and the sprint training continues) turn it into a real 100% sprint effort like flipping a switch. Hold on to the high power real sprint as long as you can, but as soon as the form deteriorates at all it’s time to sit up and end the sprint.

  • Real Sprint - I think these work the best as a heads up sprint with another rider or finding a 20- 30 second hill that you can you ride into and then unleash a real sprint. You want to push all the way to the end of the sprint and sprint a few seconds longer than you feel like you can. This is just to push you right at the end when you are already fatigued from the rest of the workout.

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