Road bike training: so close to heaven
Uphill, every step counts. No rolling like on the flat, no catching your breath, hardly any slipstream. If you want to master the mountains, you have to learn to dose your pedalling and not let up; you have to train your mind to always see the positive despite all the effort and to enter a meditative state early on. The physical prerequisites for this are a sufficiently large "motor" and muscles that are used to riding uphill. You can gain this ability with the Basic trainingspecialisation for the Mountain with the mountain training camp and the special plans below.
For small and large mountains
The small plan with 8 hours per week prepares you for a climbing tour with 2500 metres of altitude, the large plan with 12 hours per week for 5000 metres of altitude and more. This allows you to tackle marathons, mountain tours of all kinds or adventures such as Everesting - the repeated ascent of an incline until the metres of altitude you have gained equals the height of Mount Everest.
Central to climbing training are - surprise! - mountains. The kick is different uphill and the upper body is also challenged differently. Long mountains are ideal for training long mountains. If you can't find any in your training area, you can achieve a similar effect by repeatedly climbing shorter slopes. The criterion is the total uphill exertion time.
Ride long intervals
Long, so-called sweet spot intervals at 90 per cent threshold power and intervals in the development zone at and slightly above the anaerobic threshold are essential key workouts in the mountain plans. Both forms of exercise are not super hard in terms of intensity - the difficulty comes from the duration: 20 minutes sweet spot is good to do, but 45, 60 or even 90 minutes is hard. Repeated long intervals, however, are essential to get epic mountain marathons under control.
Road bike training: Plan Marathon, Level 1
Road bike training: Plan Marathon, Level 2
The training plans at a glance
How to read the units of the day
You train according to time in hours, minutes and seconds. The plan initially shows the total training time for each training day, the colour of which also indicates the basic pace: with the exception of compensation training, this is (light green) - always in the basic area 1 (medium green). Embedded in this are various time intervals (different coloured boxes) that you ride at a higher speed.
Contents of the key training sessions
Key training sessions are the content that you should not miss out on because they make you fit for your specific goals. Key workouts can include special interval forms or have a special basic form, such as fasting and group training.
