I’ll be sending out a few of these for the newer folks in the workouts. If you’d prefer to not get the primer series, please let me know.
For those new to the workouts, a bit of history. Tom Hendricks was the fellow who started these classes here in NM. Tom rode and trained with Arnie Baker in California. Tom brought the HIT workouts to NM and started these classes with just a few folks in Tom’s garage. My first class was the year after Tom added a 3rd bay to his garage, in part to accommodate the increase in attendance to the workouts, that was around 2000. He led the class until 2010 or so when he moved to Boulder to be near his grandkids. Tom was a fun, interesting, dedicated and talented athlete and cyclist. Tom passed away in December 2011 and these workouts are dedicated to him.
The workout itself is based on Arnie Baker's
High Intensity Training (HIT) for Cyclists. We encourage you to obtain a copy. There are lots of details I won't be able to cover in class, but I will try to hit the highlights. There are two workouts, the ‘A’ session, on Thursdays, and the ‘B’ session on Tuesdays. The B sessions are basically the same as the A sessions, but with longer drill times and repeats of some of the drills. The B sessions can be 5 to 20 minutes longer overall.
We will be using various terms regarding your bike and gearing. At the end of this email is a typograph of the bike that should help you identify the parts of your bike if you’re not familiar with the terms.
Keep your bike tuned and lubed. We will be shifting quite a bit through the course of the work out. Also squeaky bikes are distracting.
For maximum effectiveness, in addition to your bike and trainer, you'll want a heart rate monitor (HRM) and a cadence meter. Many of the drills will be based on your cadence and/or gear selection and a percentage of your max heart rate.
There are many ways to find your max heart rate (the old 220 minus your age formula is not accurate), here is one way Arnie recommends:
To start, be rested, well warmed up and motivated to make a max effort. Warm up on your trainer for 5 to 10 minutes. After working at a moderate pace for 3 minutes increase your effort by about 10% every minute. Increase your cadence 3 - 5 rpm or increase your gearing every couple of minutes. When you get to the point that it is extremely difficult to continue at a pace, sprint as hard as you can for 30 seconds. Watch your heart rate monitor. Continue to watch your HRM after you’ve stopped pedaling, your HR may continue to rise. This value should be close to your max.
I would add, it's a good idea to do this in pairs. One person riding and the other keeping time and watching the HRM.
Although not necessary, the HRM is a great way to maximize the effectiveness of your workout. The same is true with the cadence meter. If you don't have a cadence meter, sit where you can watch someone who does use it.
Some basic tips for the workouts:
Allow yourself to adapt to workloads before performing workouts at high intensity.
Work hard, but do not try to make every interval workout your best - it is unrealistic.
Pace each interval. Generally work harder throughout each interval.
Pace interval sessions. Within a workout, generally work each interval harder.
Bring plenty of water and don't forget to drink it.
As for myself, I would be very grateful for help setting up and taking down the sound system before and after class. I'm not sure what the setup on Tuesday is, but I'm sure the same applies then as well.
After the last workout of the 13 week series we generally have a potluck on Thursday and some sort of get together on Tuesday.
The next in the HIT Primer series will have to do with gears and how we refer to them in the workouts.
Of all the tips above, the most important is to have fun!!
As always, please pass this on to anyone in class that may not have gotten it and also, if this has been forwarded to you, please send me your email and I'll get you on the list. Or if you want off this list, please let me know that as well.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments.
Thanks for showing up,
Mike Lucero