For those of you who thinking about racing next year, or currently road race or time trial then you will know how important it is to warm-up properly before you approach the start line. The winter is a good time to perfect your warm-up routine and memorise it by heart. I use the ‘British Cycling 20 minute Warm Up’ as a turbo routine for many of my competitive clients to drill a good warm-up and cool down routine. The aim of the session is to progressively increase the intensity, culminating in some very intense six second efforts.
There are many options with this routine as you could ‘warm-up’ for the ‘BC warm-up’ and repeat the set twice for a 1 hour session, or have a quick 5 minute spin before completing the session below and then reverse it for a pyramid set.
|
Time
|
Cadence (RPM)
|
Focus
|
|
5 minutes
|
90
|
Smooth pedalling
|
|
2 minutes
|
95
|
Smooth pedalling
|
|
2 minutes
|
100
|
Smooth pedalling
|
|
2 minutes
|
105
|
Smooth pedalling
|
|
1 minute and 30 secs
|
110
|
Smooth pedalling
|
|
30 sec
|
120-130
|
Maintain form
|
|
2 minutes
|
90
|
Relax and recover
|
|
6 secs
|
150+
|
Max rev out
|
|
1 minute
|
90
|
Smooth pedalling
|
|
6 secs
|
150 +
|
Max rev out
|
|
1 minute
|
90
|
Smooth pedalling
|
|
6 secs
|
150 +
|
Max rev out
|
|
2 minutes 42 secs
|
90
|
Relax and recover
|
Use a relatively high gear, but one that allows use of the same gear throughout ie. Large chainring, halfway up the rear cassette.
Kerry works for Revolution Cycling which is a uniquely conceived coaching company focused on female cyclists. Stirred by our own enthusiasm for cycling, motivated by increasing numbers of women cyclists and the boom in women’s sportives and road racing, we decided to design a bespoke coaching service dedicated to female cyclists.
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