I missed the other comments and questions.
You might be handling 3 or more sets of the bike tempo for soccer as 2 sets with nothing in-between might not be enough.
You could also do 1 min sometimes and 15 seconds off.
We would go as high at 140 to 160 rpm with no resistance at all, then just pass time with as little rpm to keep the bike going. Repeat. The stuff in-between can be easy or hard depending on the goals you have or fitness.
I’ve used my bike at the park for this too when my running has not been great or if I have any issues with my feet. IT’s fun.
I understand what you are saying about the gym workout. What I have done at the gym is get a mat and steak out my turf and only do exercises close to the bike I am working with. I’ve been successful at that but there is always some wise guy who wants your bike because you are not using it;)
Cool yeah I tried doing the 3 sets and I took 2 breaks after 10 reps of 1 set just to stretch and not become tight from the biking motion. I felt it was pretty easy. My rpm on that bike was a lot lower than the recommended it was around 115-120 rpm. I still felt like I was working in those 45 seconds and was hesitant to go too fast as this was my first bike workout and I didn’t wanna be sore and flat tomorrow for speed/strength.
As for my soccer tempo goals did you mean I do 3 sets of bike tempo with no break between those sets?
Thanks
The answers might be here http://jap.physiology.org/content/98/6/1985
You can try above, I have been doing it with my guys with quite good results.
Thanks for the feedback.
A starting point with this workout is anywhere from 90 rpm to 120 rpm in the very low and very easy category.
The Jr. World ranked tennis players we worked with found the bike rpm’s hard but adapted quickly.
Remember, most things have a specificity to them. Meaning you only get good at it once you are doing it, repeating it and then you can work on time/duration/load/ frequency issues.
As a very basic progression to this use the same rpm, method, numbers and rest breaks for 2 weeks , assuming you are doing this workout and or other tempo one or 2 other times per week. The progressions will change depending on other things you are doing.
A guideline we used for breaks was anywhere from 2 minutes as a minimum especially if you are staying on the bike , up to 5 minutes total break even if you are getting off the bike doing other things. If the work is done properly, you will not need , nor should you use more than 2 to 5 minutes rest/ break between sets.
Always remember that you need to finish , more or less how you have begun the intervals and if this is not the case you are over doing the work somehow.
This can be checked by heart rate, general feeling and or observation if you are the coach or person administering the workout.
As for doing 3 sets with no break , I would start where you have already and grow the tempo to where or what you need it for. I know the female 400 meter runners where doing back to back Big Circuit with 2 to 5 minutes between sets. Or Big Circuit with Small circuit no break . You can’t start there or it no longer works as tempo and starts to cut into your speed and power work.
I agree with lots of things Angela has said above, we have operated around 120rpm at moderate resistance (lv10, max resistance on the bike is 20) for some time 6/8weeks, max 8 reps with 4.30sec recovery, around 40rpm. Lv3. Also workouts were always completed, when athlete was struggling with sustaining the rpm of the workout we were dropping resistance so that the workout could be completed.
Also I was experimenting with bit longer spins as long as 1.30sec fast spin with recovery between 3.30/7.30.
The feedback I am receiving is that they are fitter than ever before.
I love this feedback. Sometimes people hate the bike and or water but both offer opportunities to buffer pounding for the main dish which is SPRINTING.
It’s always about the relationship between the work and the athlete’s ability to come back again and work again and repeat the gains.
It really does not matter too much how you do this. But , it MUST be done. TEmpo is essential in the role to make the most of what you want with your spikes on.
We did a lot of unconventional things in place of tempo if the situation presented itself.
- depletion push ups in place of tempo.
- an entire session of bumkicks down a 60 meter straight away in place of tempo.
- sets of 30 on and 30 off situps in place of tempo.
Any and all things you might be able to do to get fitter or stay fitter or grab onto more fitness is better. You need to know what the cost of the exercise is . ( How intense is a particular exercise and what is the physical cost) and you also need to make sure you are operating in a very high and very low case scenario.
BTW. Why do you need resistance? Remember, more is not better and keep low , low and high high. Power stuff is not for tempo days. 50 percent of the resistance is still high in my opinion. Am I mistaken on what you have said?
I note this only because for some reason people just can’t accept easy anything.
I remember first meeting Ben and Angella way back in 1988 in the summer. I thought I was such a star because when we were jogging to warm up I was beating Ben around the track.
I did tempo with one of them and kept up. How delusional was I? VERY.
The Lv10 is not an equivalent of 50% is a bit lower, at least feels like it.
Some guys were quite tight around adductor so instead of running/ sprinting we did bike 30sec spin. Sometimes when weather was really bad we have done accelerations and finished with longer bike spins all out over 1min/1.30 x4/6 with 7.30sec recovery mostly for 200/400m guys, 100m guys went max 1min. x6
Anyway, we are trying to maximise what we have and if we cannot run we spin.
That makes sense. Today I am going to try go 4 sets of 10 reps of 45 sec on and 15 sec off as I found the 3 sets fairly easy last time. Between the sets I will just slow pedal for minimum of 2 minutes and if I feel like I need to get out to stretch or something I will do that.
Thanks for the suggestions.
That is too much of a jump even if it is tempo and on a bike. Have methodology and follow it . Don’t do stuff just because you can. Do workouts because it’s part of a long term plan and part of a bigger puzzle.
I would NEVER have someone do 2 sets and then decide it was so easy I would do 3 sets that same week.
OVer time yes.
THe same week never.
The same month , maybe , depending on what else I was doing.
I know this workout is easy. That’s the point. If it’s not easy , it will interfere with other work.
Unless you just want to train and be fit and dig big deep holes in your Supercompensation curve… it makes no sense for me to add another set.
I
Ange posts a lot of great recommendations!
On the bikes in our gym, doing 125-135 RPM with resistance level 1 (minimum level) was good for us. We would do 2 sets of 10, doing various ab exercises as rest (100-400m sprinters). As the weather became warmer, the transition to doing Big Circuit and other tempo variations was not hard at all.
During cross country season, I would have my girls do 30 minutes continuous on the bike at about 120 RPM, which was pretty good for them. They would get off feeling like they worked hard, but not drained, and usually dripping in sweat. This would be for someone 800m and up.
I don’t think that 120rpm with that particular resistance is very taxing, the layout of weekly program was Monday acc. Tuesday tempo or swimming pool (A’s) core etc… or bike Wednesday SE I or II Thursday off, Friday acc/speed. Saturday tempo or bike. Sunday off.
When we couldn’t run on Wednesdays then we were performing all out spins.
What I can say from observation that workouts were quite interesting. This season is my second one where bike workouts took place on weekly basis for prolong period of time.
My thoughts are that during first week back guys looked fit but not as sharp during SE runs, in week two everyone comeback to sharp running.
Just observing and learning.
Yeah I get your point but endurance is important to me as a soccer player and I can’t run a whole lot because of my legs still so that’s the only way I can keep my cardiovascular fitness in check and I wanted to see how much I could do and be okay the next day. I was sick with a stomach upset that day and it continued to today and I really suffered in my speed and strength session today…At the start I was feeling good and did some soccer specific quick skill work before sprinting and after doing a few reps of 10m acceleration I felt like I was physically and mentally drained already, but I definitely think it was more due to the sickness than the 4 sets of 10 bike tempo I did the day before :P. But I understand your point Ange and am I supped to feel like my thighs are burning when I’m biking in those 45 seconds? Because I was trying to hit 120-130 rpm consistently and could feel like my quads burning through the biking. I was worried that was lactic acid or something because that would not be good for a recovery session I supposed.