Greg LeMonds Tips to Improve Climbing and Endurance

The following excerpt was taken from From The Science of Fitness: Power, Performance and Endurance by Greg LeMond and Mark Hom, M.D. It was reprinted with permission of Elsevier/Academic Press ? 2015.

Whether you want to ride your first century or tackle a big hill on your local route, every cyclist is looking for ways to get faster.

Former 3-time Tour de France champion Greg LeMond, in conjunction with Dr. Mark Hom, have come up with several simple ways for your to improve performance on the bike in their latest book, From the Science of Fitness: Power, Performance and Endurance.

Check out this sample to get a better idea of how they recommend you approach your training in the upcoming year.

Hill Climbing Training

Whether it is the Tour de France or a local club ride, there is one challenge that separates cyclists the most: a long steep hill climb. When people first try cycling, hills are associated with exhaustion and discomfort and are often avoided. Once you get some miles in your legs, you will find that a long steep hill is your best training partner. Fighting the unrelenting pull of gravity offers the perfect resistance to put your muscles into the energy sapped state that boosts mitochondria. Fast paced climbing and hill repeats are the best methods to trigger mitochondrial biogenesis.

More: 11 Climbing Tips for Cyclists

At the base of a hill, you can start with a high cadence and low pedal pressure to stay in a comfortable aerobic zone. This method of hill climbing also avoids pumping up the muscles which can restrict arterial blood flow. However, if the pace increases or the climb steepens, you must increase pedal pressure. This incorporates more muscle fibers per pedal stroke and this "horsepower" can be accurately measured with an on-bike wattage meter (either hub, crank, or pedal based). Your heart rate and respiratory rate will start to soar.

In lieu of monitoring devices, you can rely on perceived pedal pressure and your breathing as indications of the effort you are expending. As you surge on the hardest part of the climb, you are out of the saddle applying maximum pedal force and breathing hard and fast. Although you are now in an anaerobic zone and nearing exhaustion, you are also triggering your mitochondria to multiply. In a few days, you will find yourself going up that same hill at a faster pace.

Hill repeats are an excellent and practical way to boost your mitochondria. Just find a challenging local hill on a loop with little traffic. After a warm up lap, try attacking the hill at an ever increasing pace each lap. For a real challenge, try riding up the hill using only your big front chain ring (higher gear range). Use the downhill section to recover for the next lap up the hill. This method not only triggers mitochondrial biogenesis many times (on each uphill section), it also encourages rapid clearance of lactic acid during the downhill sections.

More: 2 Indoor Trainer Workouts to Improve Climbing

For variety, try different terrain contours. Good examples include a hill which gradually steepens (to test your pacing) or a hill with multiple steps in gradient (which can be attacked with brief but intense bursts). If you must train after work, there may be too much traffic on the major roads during the rush hour, but you may be able to find a less trafficked hill circuit near your house that will allow for an intense hill repeat workout. If you train on hills, you will see benefits when riding on flat roads too.

If you race or ride with a club, you will find that you can breakaway from the pack at will, or when you see riders ahead you will find that you can chase them down with less effort. Remember that gravity and acceleration are the same. Training against gravity will make it easier for you to accelerate and breakaway, on any terrain.

Power Training

Performing with power requires a combination of aerobic and anaerobic fitness that can be accentuated with special methods. An example is a single speed bike which encourages the muscles contract more forcefully. Instead of down shifting to an easy gear when climbing a hill, a single speed bike forces you to ride up that hill with high intensity. At the top of the hill you will be exhausted and breathing hard, but satisfied knowing you are triggering mitochondrial biogenesis.

The next time you ride your multi-speed bike, you will be stronger and faster. If you feel that you have reached a fitness plateau on your regular road bike, a single speed bike can help you break through that ceiling. Sprinting is a great way to boost muscle strength and mitochondrial power. An example is Mark Cavendish who began his career as a track cyclist and now has tallied an extraordinary number of Tour de France stage wins. Sir Bradley Wiggins (the 2012 Tour champion) was also a track cycling star who strengthened his legs on a single speed bike.

More: 8 Single-Leg Exercises to Increase Cycling Power

Measuring oxygen consumption on the bike is not practical and heart rate monitoring has its limitations. However, power metering can give the athlete real time readout of his output in watts. This technology is miniaturizing and becoming more affordable to everyday athletes, making wattage metering an increasingly important part of training and fitness coaching.

Time trialing is a discipline that builds sustained high levels of power. Although commonly identified by the wind-cheating aerodynamic equipment (pioneered by Greg LeMond) time trialing is really about human power output. To succeed at time trialing you need the same qualities that are measured with VO2 max: a high cardiac output and high oxygen demand from your muscles.

Endurance Training

A common misconception is that long steady distance (LSD) is the best way to train for endurance events such as a marathon, century ride, or triathlon. Long-distance competitors often train for their events by gradually lengthening their training distance, but maintain the same slow to moderate pace. Compared to training at a jogging pace, HIIT will do more to trigger mitochondrial biogenesis.

Endurance athletes can benefit by integrating periods of intensive effort, that is, interval training into their workouts. This will increase the number of their mitochondria, which in turn will supply them with extra energy they will need when participating in an event. Even for the endurance athlete, quality (high intensity) training can boost mitochondria more than quantity (high mileage) training. Many long-distance runners are reluctant to give up on the idea of LSD training because of lore and tradition.

Another reason is because the physical act of running causes foot and joint impacts that require recovery on "easy days." They should be aware that running with sore tendons and joints is a setup for overuse injury. Either nonimpact training or a day of complete rest would be better than running in pain. LSD training has one major benefit in that it encourages fat burning over glycogen utilization. Fat is very energy dense and a very efficient fuel source for your mitochondria. Glycogen, on the other hand, is a more limited fuel source that is best reserved for shorter bursts of speed.

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More: 10 Workouts Every Cyclist Should Do

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