Lunch ride

Seriously training on a bike is time-consuming. When a busy professional life and a demanding family life are added, the equation seems unsolvable.

Certainly, indoor trainers in general and Zwift in particular have changed the game for many, along with the appearance of the Covid-19 pandemic, but nothing can replace a real road ride, both for the pleasure of riding and for the pedal stroke, which is slightly different from that acquired “indoors”.

However, for many, work hours are “office hours” and correspond to daylight hours. Under these conditions, and unless using a lit circuit or very powerful lights, which can sometimes involve some risks, the most interesting option is to ride between noon and two o’clock.

By Olivier Dulaurent – Photos: Ozio, Ineos Grenadiers, Gruppospa, DR

Only advantages when well organized

This time slot used for training seems to have only advantages:

– The outside temperature is the highest of the day, which is very pleasant once summer is over.

– The fatigue generated by half a day’s work will be less than that felt after a full day.

– The production of endorphins, these pleasure hormones linked to endurance efforts, will even make you more efficient in the afternoon with the satisfaction of a good training session where quality is prioritized. For quantity and saddle time, there’s still the weekend and its longer rides to work more on endurance.

– Family life will be preserved since, once evening comes, you will be totally available;

In practice, the break granted is often actually 2 hours, which ultimately leaves 1h30 on the bike, counting the time to put on and take off clothes, wash up or, even better, a real shower, or even eat, as we will see later.

It is obvious that this practice requires well-oiled logistics: for this, and depending on weather conditions, you must be prepared. You must therefore have all the necessary clothing at your workplace, if possible in a warm corner, to be “operational” from the first kilometers.

It goes without saying that time is limited from the beginning of this 2-hour break. So, tire inflation and water bottle filling must be done in the morning. Upon your return, clean and dry clothes will, of course, be ready to allow you to quickly resume work without incurring the wrath of your superiors! The luckiest among you will have real changing rooms with integrated showers. But with a minimum of organization and equipment, it is possible to maintain proper personal hygiene: water, a washcloth, a towel, wipes, and cologne may suffice in most cases. Of course, you can forget the superb hairstyle you sported when you arrived in the morning, but that is not the goal of the day.

A change in eating habits

With the reorganization of the day around this training session at a time when everyone is having lunch, it is necessary to modify your eating habits. Because, in addition to the calories expended, you will be unable to eat at the moment your colleagues can enjoy a good “coq au vin”. Thus, and to avoid any deficiencies, it will be necessary to fractionate your food intake throughout the day.

Among the essential measures, breakfast will be prioritized to make it a real diversified meal with on the menu: fruits, cereals in all its forms, dairy products and proteins. Think of eggs and ham for those who can eat them in the morning, whose ingestion at that time is often only a matter of (good) habit, adopted by many other European countries. To cover the needs for cereals, dairy products and proteins, you can also be original with rice pudding, semolina cake or some pancakes which contain the 3 categories mentioned. Some fast sugars taken at the end of the meal can supplement the carbohydrate intake.

To cover the total energy needs due to the extra energy cost of the midday session, but also to be able to wait until returning from training, it also becomes essential to have a snack around 10 am, consisting for example of fruit, yogurt and/or a cereal bar and gingerbread: indeed, one cannot impose a fast of approximately 6 to 7 hours on one’s body, within which a quality session is inserted! During the session, preferentially consume energy drinks that will help prevent cravings and maintain the required effort.

As soon as you get off the bike, the priority will be to restore glycogen stores and promote recovery. Several solutions are available to you depending on the time you have and whether or not you can eat at your workplace: dried fruits, fresh fruits, energy drinks will easily find their place in the first few minutes. You can then consume a sandwich with good quality protein (ham, chicken, egg) supplemented with a dairy product. While continuing hydration in the afternoon to reach a minimum total of 1.5 L of water per day, another snack around 4 or 5 pm based on gingerbread, dairy products, biscuits can supplement the caloric intake in anticipation of the evening meal or the next day’s midday training. Great importance should be given to the evening meal to qualitatively complete the other food groups of the day: cooked vegetables, fish, meat, dried fruits (almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts) and starches, especially if you have to train again the next day. Indeed, despite your dietary efforts, the midday meal will not be totally balanced and by evening it will be time to compensate for any deficiencies.

1h30 of quality

We will take 1h30 training sessions as an example, which seems to be the reasonably achievable duration for a “noon to two” break.

In terms of training content, everything will obviously depend first and foremost on your practice and your objectives. Indeed, riders aiming for the beginning of the season will not have the same content as a sportive rider whose goal is to be a finisher at the Étape du Tour.

Let’s first examine the organization of a typical session:

• Despite the limited time allotted for training, the session will always begin with a warm-up of about twenty minutes during which the heart rate is increased to about 75% of maximum.
• The main part of the session will not exceed one hour. Within this, quality is prioritized.
• Finally, the last ten minutes will be dedicated to a cool-down necessarily on the small chainring, at a high cadence, in order to perform active recovery to eliminate muscle toxins.

Let’s therefore look at the content of the sessions.

A/ Concrete case of a racer or sportive rider preparing for an objective rather early in the season (or after 2 months of competition)

To be in shape early in the season, it’s time, about 2 to 3 months before the objective, to start the VO2Max development phase, i.e., by performing efforts at speeds close to MAP (Maximal Aerobic Power, in other words, the maximum but stable intensity you are able to sustain for 5 minutes) as the well-known “30/30” can do.

Previously, it will have been necessary to include a fairly long base cycle (also 2 to 3 months) including, depending on the sessions, short sprints (less than 10 seconds) performed at 100% interspersed with recovery times close to 5 minutes, long sprints (about 30 seconds), technical strength and/or cadence work, and already some efforts at MAP pace but prioritizing longer recovery times than effort times.

Here are some examples of sessions. Only the main part of the session is mentioned here, knowing that each of them is preceded by a progressive warm-up and a cool-down phase already described above:

Session 1: 1 hour main session. Start with 15 progressive minutes then include 2 blocks of 8x (30 seconds MAP pace – 30 seconds recovery). Recover for 5 to 10 minutes between the two blocks. Finish with easy spinning.

Session 2: 1 hour main session. Start with 15 progressive minutes then include 2 blocks of 5x (1 minute MAP pace – 1 minute recovery). Recover for 5 to 10 minutes between the two blocks. Finish with easy spinning.

Session 3: 1 hour main session. Choose a climb of 800 to 1000 m with a 4 to 8% gradient depending on your level. Climb it as fast as possible, alternating between riding out of the saddle and seated on the saddle but spinning. Effort time = 3 minutes. Recover on the descent for 3 minutes also by spinning your legs. Repeat until failure, i.e., 5 to 10 times.

Session 4: 1 hour main session. Start with 15 progressive minutes then include 2 blocks of (10 minutes race pace / 5 minutes “1-3 km/h faster” then 30 seconds as fast as possible). Recover for 10 minutes between blocks then finish with easy spinning.

It goes without saying that the proposed sessions are only examples among many others that you should know how to adapt to your current level. However, they are presented with a certain logic in terms of progression.

B/ Concrete case of a sportive rider preparing for a mountain sportive in summer

If your objectives are exclusively summery, and the sportives of April or May are of little interest to you, the base phase can be extended longer, namely until April.

If the dominant factor is therefore “volume”, the “intensity” parameter is nonetheless present. However, the exercises cannot be maximal so as not to trigger peaks of form. On the contrary, this is the time to prepare the body for the significant training loads that will follow or to undergo a stress test to verify the benefits of winter training and to have references for the sessions that will follow.

From the end of February until the end of April, the training themes will be as follows: “sportive pace” work, speed and explosiveness work, or “natural” muscle strengthening.

Let’s detail the key sessions of the preparation itself. Between the long group rides on the weekend, it is advisable to alternate the work themes presented below:

Session 1: Speed and explosiveness work

1 hour main session. Include 6 explosive sprints for 20 to 30 seconds on the small chainring to reach the maximum pedaling cadence you can produce. Recover for 10 minutes between efforts.

Over the sessions, the workload will be increased (8 then 10 then 12 sprints).

Session 2: Maximum strength work

Similar to Session 1, but here with very different gears, you will need to perform sprints starting from the large chainring (from 5 to 10 km/h) during which you will develop maximum power to launch your machine.

Session 3: Race pace work

Here, the intensity corresponds to a pace just below the “anaerobic threshold,” which will have the effect of pushing back that limit. Let’s look at the typical sessions:

1 hour main session, include 2 sets of 10 minutes at sportive pace. Over the sessions, the load can be increased to 2 x 30 minutes.

A reminder of this pace can be undertaken during long weekend rides.

Session 4: Muscle strengthening/Strength endurance work

Whether or not you follow a gym strength training cycle, it is important to transfer your muscular abilities to the specific movement. This type of strengthening can be done on flat terrain or uphill.

In the first case, for a 1-hour main session, include 2 sequences of 10 minutes “all out” on terrain consisting of false flats or gentle climbs, using the largest possible gear and therefore the lowest possible pedaling cadence.

Logically, here again, we will seek to increase the difficulty progressively to achieve, for example, two sequences of 20 minutes.

In the second case (uphill), the method is more well-known: for a 1-hour main session, choose a climb of 800 to 1000 m with a 4 to 8% gradient depending on your level. Climb it with the largest possible gear while maintaining a good position: seated on the saddle, without swaying and without pulling on the handlebars, with a pedaling cadence of approximately 40 rpm. The exercise should not cause a significant increase in heart rate (limit to 80% of max HR or 70% of MAP). You should spin your legs on the descent.

Over the sessions, increase the number of repetitions.

In summary, training from noon to two during your lunch break can ultimately become the miracle solution for cyclists with limited availability due to their professional and family obligations. While this requires very meticulous organization and a change in eating habits, this method allows for new training slots and thus improved future performance, provided you prioritize quality within your sessions. Whatever your goals, you will find many advantages!

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