So what, then, does it take to specialize in track racing? The races are often less than 10 minutes long (save for Madison and Points races), requiring maximal efforts after which racers often need minutes of inactivity to recover. Are sprint repeats appropriate training? Heavy weight lifting? Can you train for the Kilo TT and the 40k Points race in the same season effectively?
Enter the Tabata Protocol; It's a specific interval training workout that has been proven to increase both anaerobic and aerobic ability, even in highly trained endurance athletes. You can have your cake and eat it, too!
You can likely find other Tabata-related studies simply by searching online, though I believe the link above to the 1996 study is the original. This style of workout was originally used by the Japanese speed-skating team, a sport that is very often compared to track cycling and whose champions often switch to track cycling off-season to stay in shape. Serendipitous for track cyclists looking for the perfect workout? Indeed.
A sample Tabata track workout you can do without a coach or helper for timing would be;
- THOROUGH warm-up (30-40 lap slow build with a few sprints towards the end)
- 5-lap build to 80% of max effort
- flying 333m lap starting at the Pursuit start line, soft pedal a half-lap to the next Pursuit line
- repeat flying laps w/ half-lap recovery for a total of 8 intervals
- recover for 5 laps
- 20-lap cool down
(roughly a 40-minute workout)
An important takeaway from this is that even road cyclists can gain both aerobic and anaerobic capacity from Tabata-style interval training. Perhaps we might see a few more roadies cross over to the velodrome to test their sprinting mettle after a few Tabata sessions!
