Let's Take This Outside!

After too long tirelessly toiling in the confines of his backyard shed, Steve Shrubsall looks to pastures new for a challenge with a fresh set of riding and fitness demands

There’s a lot to be said for indoor training sessions. They tend to make you very fit. Each workout is precisely engineered and tailored to your specific demands. Whether you want to increase neuromuscular power, raise your anaerobic threshold, or simply become more efficient over longer distances, the turbo-trainer has got you covered. However, after a winter, spring and the best part of summer grafting in the pain cave (AKA my garden shed), I was beginning to become a little bored with the view.

Indeed, having added 50 watts to my FTP as a result of a rigorous indoor training plan — a project I wrote about in CW April 18 — it was time to venture beyond the realms of my back garden and pedal in pastures new. The call of the great outdoors was becoming ever more resonant. I needed a new challenge, to physically exert myself in the fresh air and acquire new strength and fitness while I trained for my chosen event. And I had to set my sights on something…

Time trialing was a known entity, with my last outing against the clock concluding prematurely — splayed out, bloodied and battered in the middle of a country lane in Surrey. As much as Ilike country lanes in Surrey, I had no desire to exchange bodily fluids with them again, and with autumn fast approaching, maybe it was time to steer off the tarmac track and into the wooded unknown.

Cyclo-cross and off-road endurance disciplines, however, demand the employment of a different set of biomechanics. The transition from shed-based threshold sessions to the explosive energy and strength required to compete in these events would be far from seamless. I spoke with three experts to find out the type of training I’d need to do to make me more of a complete cyclist.

The way of the cross