Travis Woodruff is a USAC Level I (elite) certified coach who holds a
B.S. in Kinesiology with emphasis in Exercise Science. He’s coached riders to
five MTB National Championship wins and has over 10 years of personal racing
experience. Since 2005 he’s competed as a pro mountain biker and has coached
full-time. His business, Momentum Endurance LLC, is
based out of Tucson, Arizona where he hosts wintertime training camps.
QUESTION:
I am a terrible starter. In the
first 10 minutes of a race the leaders are just pulling away from me and I
can't go any faster. Then I start to pull them back but it takes a huge effort.
How can I train to be faster in those first 10 minutes without blowing myself
up?
ANSWER:
The question of pacing strategy and
just how hard to start is one that all racers will have. It’s a fine line between knowing how
fast you can go versus understanding how hard is too hard. Course design, the level of competition,
and your fitness should all affect your strategy for the start of the race. Assuming you’ve got a feel for the
strategy based upon the course and competition you’ll be up against, we’ll
focus on what it takes to get physically stronger for those first 10 minutes.
It should be mentioned that if
you’re able to regain contact with the leaders sometime after the first ten
minutes of racing, your pacing strategy is likely working quite well for you. A steady effort done over a longer
duration will leave you with less fatigue than would a harder effort that
tapers off over the same duration. So if you get dropped, but can routinely catch back on, there
isn’t much reason for undue concern. If this is the case chances are good that you’re pacing the
effort better (more steady) than those who you’re regaining contact with.
When a rider loses contact with
the leaders within the first ten minutes of racing, odds of regaining contact
later are slim at best. The effort that a racer is able to sustain for 10 minutes
correlates strongly with the intensity that can be sustained for the entire
race when a racer is well conditioned.
If you can’t match the effort for ten minutes, it’ll be a tall order to
match it for two hours. Both durations
(ten minutes and two hours) are highly dependent upon your maximum sustainable
power – the balancing point where you’re riding hard and any harder would
create an undue amount of fatigue.
The average intensity of a xc race hovers right around this
threshold. Racers with a higher threshold
or a greater maximum sustainable power will start faster and place higher when all
other factors are considered equal.
In order to improve the maximum
sustainable power that you’re capable of producing, it’s important to do
training that specifically replicates this intensity. I might suggest doing 3-5
repeats that each last 8-12 minutes. For example, doing 4x10 minute repeats
will allow you to accumulate 40 minutes of workload that closely mimics the
intensity of a race start. Do your
best to make each 10 minute effort of equal intensity. As you accumulate
training time spent at this intensity, you’ll be creating the overload that’s
required in order for improvements to occur. By doing this type of training approximately twice per week
for a span of 2-4 weeks, you’re bound to see improvements, provided you recover
well and have fun with the workouts along the way.
With improved threshold fitness
you’ll be better prepared to hang with the leaders throughout the first ten
minutes of the race and beyond.
Plan some specific training that fits with your schedule, work hard,
recover well, and enjoy the faster (not easier) starts that you’ll have as a
result. If you can hang with the
leaders for ten minutes you’re that much closer to hanging in there for the
full duration of the race. Go for
it!
