Its spring time and lets all face it, we have eaten to much, done to little and yet again arrive in March not doing our laid out plan for the year. So we need to get fast again, fast. Here is one thing I do to get my spring back on track.
Build a better aerobic engine. This concept is based around the idea of lactate threshold, aerobic threshold, or just threshold. While all these terms are slightly different, they are mostly tossed around to mean the same thing. This type of workout teaches the body to better utilize oxygen and it is accomplished through several (mostly painful) methods.
If you’re here to get the “perfect” method breakdown, it’s this: 20min at threshold two times, 10min at threshold four times, 30min threshold intervals with .5 – .75 work / rest ratio. Whatever that means.
The reality of it is, you just need to go hard for 10, 20, and 30 mins at a time and rest in between. These are quite easy to do with out having to find perfect sections of trails or roads. Don’t get fixated on being exactly 20 minutes. Sometimes on my ride, the first time I do it, I get 17 or 18 minutes. If you go short, maybe make up some time by going over on the next one. One reason for not getting fixated on doing exactly 20 minutes on, and exactly 10 minutes of rest, and exactly 20 minutes on is there is no trail or road perfect enough to make this happen. Since trails are never straight and perfect if you’re on a mountain bike, really focus on always being on the gas to do these intervals. A side benefit will be an increase in your trail-riding prowess to keep up! These intervals should leave you feeling pretty zapped after. Do this 2-3 times per week and each session should contain 2-3 hard intervals for a minimum of 12mins.