I’m probably known within the club, as the guy who metronomically cycles pretty much the same route between Godalming and Tilford every other day, titling my rides on Strava ‘something something L2 something’. But there is some method to my madness, and it’s specific appeal is due to it being one of the flattest, most uninterrupted stretches of tarmac local to Godalming.
A couple of years back I was captivated by the idea of entering the Haute Route, a 7 day stage race from Nice to Geneva, taking in 22 of the major and well known Alpine cols. It took me a second to decide to enter, a minute to pay up, and then a whole week trying to work out how to train for such a huge event. I’d never even ridden an Alpine climb before, let alone about 3 or 4 of them every day over the course of a week. Despite having a year to train, I immediately felt up against it.
After taking on a coach and quite a bit of reading, I soon realised the perfect way to train for climbing the Alps would be to train on the flats. I’m being serious.
A typical Alpine climb would be somewhere between 5-12% in gradient but will rarely match the steep ramps we have in Britain. But it’s not the gradient that will hamper progress, it’s their length, with most somewhere between 10-20km long, a few even longer. With little opportunity for respite on the ascent, you need to be able to keep turning the pedals at a near constant power for up to two hours at a time, and even with the easiest gears on a compact transmission, you’ll probably need to generate upwards of 200watts.
It’s impossible to find long stretches of hills in the UK that simulate the effort you need on the Alps, as after 10-15min on the UK’s longest climbs, you’ll probably find yourself descending and backing off your power. Even a small reduction of power will allow your body to recover. Whilst hill reps are good training for going uphill, you’ll be training your body for inadequate periods of time, and also likely to go a touch harder than you’d think you’d need to.
By training on pan flat course it is easy to pedal at a constant effort, uninterrupted, which perfectly mimics what your legs would do on a long climb. Exciting? No. Effective? Most definitely.
Before I began my ‘year of training’ I was tested with a VO2max test, which analyses your breathing and the gases you exhale as you exercise at different intensities. What was really important about this test wasn’t the nice headline VO2max number that most get excited about, it was more about establishing heart rate zones based around the different fuel sources my body was using. We wanted to find the maximum intensity I could ride at where my body was still using fat as a primary fuel source. Through training at this intensity the body would adapt and I’d be able to increase the power I could ride at whilst still using fat as a fuel source. Consequently, come the race, I’d be able to keep my carbohydrate stores for the times when harder efforts were needed.
Those long winter months of riding the same road day-in day out in my ‘endurance zone’ L2 paid dividends. My legs got used to turning the cranks for up to three hours at a time without as much as a slight freewheel, and I found my power increased by well over 20% for the same level of exertion.
When I finally made it to the Haute route I was in very good shape and although it was as tough as I expected, I found riding the climbs at a constant power was just like it was riding on home on the flat as bizarre as that sounds. Finishing in the top 75 out of over 600 riders confirmed that the training paid off. Even though my focus this year is somewhat different, these rides are still my go-to sessions as I’m still finding healthy improvements by doing them. I’ll still be found riding between Godalming and Tilford before work on most weekdays if you ever fancy saying hi!
So now I understand… great post, Mark.
Really useful article Mark. On a much more modest scale, I prepared for going out to Mallorca by doing extended low-cadence moderate efforts on the turbo which I think really paid off when I got there.
Thank you for an interesting and encouraging blog as I contemplate a trip to Alpe d’Huez, Croix de Fer and elsewhere in that area next week – although fortunately I’m not contemplating racing up any of them – just riding up them as best I can. Now, out to find some flat roads for a steady effort.
Interesting! This makes sense at lots of levels, Mark. But it’s quite unorthodox. Here’s my thinking (as I ready myself for an attempt to improve my times up a two 1000m Cols in Corsica next month): riding uphill uses your muscles in such a different way to riding on the flat; your position will be much more upright; your cadence should be higher. So whilst your L2 (which I would call ‘tempo’) training will certainly give you the fitness to get up a mountain, I don’t think it should be *all* that you do if you want to get the fastest time you are capable of (and of course I know it’s not all that you do). For me the best way to prepare for riding up a big long hill at around your threshold is in fact to ride up lots of hills, ideally at above threshold. It doesn’t matter that you have recovery on descents – there’s at least as much as much to be gained from a hilly ride with threshold efforts as from a constant tempo ride. We live in the Surrey Hills so it makes sense to me to use those hills! But it’s also a matter of personal preference and experience, and particular goals. A week-long event has different demands to a single ride taking in just one peak.