Indoor trainer: ode to the Ultimate Session

I don’t know about you, but as I get older – in 3 years I’ll be turning the half-century mark – cycling winters are becoming increasingly difficult to manage. Especially living north of the famous “Loire River,” a ready-made and rather idiotic expression from our weather presenters. As if Brittany’s mild winter climate had anything to do with the harsh winter in the East or the persistent grayness of Picardy, which marks my difficult period each year.

By Olivier Dulaurent – Photos: Guy Thibault, www.3bikes.fr, www.nature-humaine.ca, Tacx

The classic time change around All Saints’ Day hasn’t helped, and like every year, setting the clocks back on the last weekend of October coincides with the last beautiful days, when arm warmers and knee warmers were still enough for a comfortable ride.

Now, the attire has become significantly heavier, and although clothes are nothing like they were 30 years ago and winters tend to be milder, it’s still much less pleasant to ride now than it was just a month ago.

And yet, it must be done.

Whether the goals are high or more modest (simply staying in shape at 47 is one of them), it must be done.

Certainly, as a coach, I know the path to a spring as radiant as possible with a fitness level already allowing these famous goals to be achieved. But resetting the counters to zero every winter can potentially become more and more complicated.

However, combining explosive strength, hyper-velocity, strength endurance, tempo, regeneration, threshold, MAP… in upcoming rides allows for progress over the weeks. But a reference to the first paragraph shows that the effort is probably more complicated today than a few years ago. Especially since the price to pay translates into a few “struggle” rides, 3-4 numb fingers/toes from cold, 1-2 buckets of water on the head. Certainly, this builds character but it can also erode motivation when the opportunity – or pleasure – to ride longer comes.

Amidst this somewhat bleak picture, Zwift has changed the habits of many cyclists: fun and bringing together virtual pelotons often racing – and thus progressing – without having to endure the effects of darkness and bad weather, this platform allows you to maintain excellent pedaling or, even better, can be considered for progress.

Provided you don’t overdo it, of course, but also on condition of being equipped with the right gear, not to mention the essential: loving virtual training.

If you don’t fall into this category, there’s still the good old “old-school” indoor trainer, with its calibrated sessions allowing you to explore the entire spectrum of qualities that make a good cyclist. Then, another motivation problem arises. Seriously!

The sessions can be tedious, and often, cyclists don’t know what to prioritize while avoiding looking at their watch with the “can’t wait for it to end” countdown.

Fortunately, a “fun-effective” solution exists, and Guy Thibault is behind it. His name may not ring a bell, but he is a doctor in exercise physiology and director of Sports Sciences at the National Institute of Sport of Quebec. Suffice it to say that he is a big name in physical preparation for cyclists among our cousins across the Atlantic, much like Frédéric Grappe is here.

Obviously, the Quebec climate is much more unfavorable to winter cycling than the Picardy climate…

Among other works, Guy Thibault has developed sessions, 17 exactly and called “fetishes,” preferably to be done on an indoor trainer because they are easier to calibrate, allowing for the development of a good part of the qualities required for a cyclist. A careful reading might retort that the notion of cadence and long threshold efforts, for example, are not included, but nothing prevents doing them in addition, whether on the road or on the indoor trainer.

The 17 fetish sessions can be found at this link: Nature Humaine

A related app (on smartphone, called 3-2-1 Go!) is even available for a modest sum, allowing you to easily perform the sessions without always having to refer to their details, as some appear complicated at first glance.

The durations of the main session bodies (excluding warm-up and cool-down, ideally about ten minutes each) vary from 17 min to 1h22.

One of them gave this article its title: the Ultimate session. This one is also available in two other forms, similar in time and slightly more demanding, called “Ultimate plus” and “Ultimate, long version.”

One advantage of the Thibault method is that it does not require the use of a power meter. While this tool remains an advantage for performing sessions more precisely, it is not mandatory. The inventor of the 17 fetish sessions prefers to speak of a “global level of difficulty,” with 10 being the maximum degree of pain and 1 being the level leading to no sensation of effort. This parameter is crucial insofar as an indoor trainer session should not systematically lead to exhaustion, even when physical progress is sought.

For several years, among the list, the Ultimate session has become my favorite companion, punctuating my winters. Short (about 1 hour, including warm-up and cool-down), allowing for MAP-type efforts without the heart rate climbing too high, difficult if the cyclist decides to go all out but not too much so that they want to return the next day, this session above all possesses the greatest quality required for the cyclist sometimes lacking motivation: its extremely fun side. This characteristic is THE key and would even make you want to do an indoor trainer session to get your dose of endorphins. Because yes, they are secreted there!

It involves chaining 3 blocks of 15 min (respectively in the form of 40/20, 30/30, and 20/40) themselves divided into 3 blocks of 5 min in the form of 3 times (effort time + recovery time) + 2 min.

Does that sound complicated?

It’s actually much simpler than it sounds.

For details of this session, click HERE.

By taking 1 minute to calmly read the session or more simply using the “3-2-1 Go!” app, everything becomes clearer.

In any case, my winter 2021-2022 will be no exception, and some days will be scheduled for this session in the garage, with the planned dose of good hormones, the feeling of having fun for an hour, and finally, the satisfaction of a job well done. Because this is precisely the type of effort that allows for progress.

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