November Coach Speak Column

From The Racing Post, www.theracingpost.us, November 2011 Issue

The Myth of LSD

Coach Speak

Last month I promised you that we’d talk about the myth of LSD, or long, slow distance training. So let’s jump right in.

It’s common knowledge that you have to ride easy during the winter. Talk to an old-timer, read an online forum or a book, or look at a pro’s schedule, and it’s easy to see that you have to go easy during the winter.

Here is where I call BS. First off, all old cycling knowledge should be considered with a grain mountain of salt. Let’s look at a few examples of old cycling knowledge, shall we?

# Riding a trainer for 3 hours, staring at a brick wall, is good for building mental toughness. (From the 1970’s)

# Drinking a glass of chocolate milk after a 200kilometer road race will make you fat. (From the 1990’s)

# Climbing hills at a low cadence will make you stronger. (Current)

Oh, I bet I ruffled a few feathers with that last one. And, I’m sure I’ll ruffle a few feathers with this article. But that’s okay. The Europeans, keepers of the old school cycling stone tablets, laughed at Lemond and his aerobars. They laughed at Lance and his singular focus on the Tour. And they’re still laughing as savvy teams and countries embrace technology and science and kick their asses.

As a coach and an athlete, I’ll gladly accept ridicule if that is the price for being the vanguard, and for having a legal edge for my athletes and myself.

For starters, while LSD is not a half-bad plan for pros living in certain climates, you’re not a pro. You didn’t just race over 100 days this season, and none of your races is anywhere near as long as theirs. In fact, you’re longest race is probably still shorter than their shortest race. Ergo, you don’t have a ton of accumulated fatigue you need to shed.

Next, you don’t have the time to train like a pro, and you probably don’t have the luxury of wintering someplace temperate like they do.

Shall we go on? I bet you don’t have two team training camps in Solvang or Mallorca at the start of the season, do you? Or nice leisurely races in sunny places like Jakarta or Dubai to ease your way into the season? No, I didn’t think so.

The point is that you are a time-constrained amateur cyclist, and you need to train in a way that maximizes your time and options. How do you do that? First, keep one hard group ride a week in your schedule; whether it’s the Saturday shop ride or the local weeknight cross race. You will maintain race-specific fitness and not have to start over next spring.

Next, ride the dirt. It’s fun and will improve your handling skills. This can be a simple as 25c tires on your road bike and a gravel road, as intense as a ‘cross race, or as laid back as mountain biking the local state park.

Take advantage of nice weather to build endurance. Living in the Southern US, we’ve got our fair share of beautiful winter days. If it’s 60 and sunny, screw what the training plan says and go ride 4 hours.

Also take advantage of those dark, dreary nights on the trainer to do focused workouts. Intervals and the trainer were made for each other. You can knock out a quality interval workout in the space of two tivo’d sitcoms, and the trainer is the safest, most effective place to crank out the types of intervals that will raise your threshold.

Finally, do appropriate cross training to stay mentally fresh, address functional weaknesses and build general fitness. I’m about out of space, but suffice it to say that if you’re just going to the gym and moving a barbell, you are missing out.

Steen Rose is the owner and Head Coach of Athletes On Track and an Elite Coach for Training Bible Coaching. He has been competing in cycling and multisport events for 16 years with 13 state titles and 3 national medals to his name. He has been coaching since 2003 and works with all ages and abilities of athletes locally, nationally, and abroad. He can be reached at srose@trainingbible.com