How to develop more "explosive" power
 

I have been riding for a mere 1 year and 2 months after being off the bike for years. I guess it has all come back to me rather quickly and I am getting stronger by the day. I started to ride with the local club 3 monts ago and I can now ride with the secong to fastest group.

I can ride at their average pace easily and even climb long hills better than some. What I don't have is the more explosive instant strength that especially younger guys seem to have when attacking a smaller hill or sprinting.

So I am looking for the magic training tip to get that explosive strength back :D . I am 50, used to race when young and have been riding about 600-700 miles per month since I got back on the bike.

Sprints and intervals. You need to max out your HR at least 10x a week in training...

Downshift and spin fast when you want to suddenly accelerate

It depends on how long you want to go. 5 secs? Hit the weight room.

xrazer,

there are two categories you may need to improve: biology and training technique

biology:
I have taken a few bottles of ConcenTrace colloidal minerals over the past few years, which helps out in numerous ways with basic health
along with this, it is necessary to expose myself to as much cold weather as possible (or cold water [cold shower] or sleeping without covers)

training:
I would recommend running(getting proper shoes, of course) short distances (100yards to 8miles) as fast as possible as much as possible, next in frequency only to cycling as exercise.
Also, it would be nice if you did some Bruce Lee Jeet Koon Do martial arts training (not the actual fighting, though).

Thanks,

Jacob

Yeah, running sprints really helps with developing powerful sprints on the bike. :) And gear-selection is critical on the bike. I find that most people use too big and difficult a gear. I just shift down and spin faster than them and out-accelerate them easily.

Running, that is interesting. I recall some posts in the past where people generally recommend against running to benefit cycling.

for explosive power, ive seen some good improvement by practicing my jumps and sprinting in one. basically I find a flat road and ride in a 53-15 at 19 mph then jump as hard as possible really concentrating on pulling up. then get on top of the gear as quickly as possible and holding that for 300m.

Doing about 5 of these on my 1*1 interval days.

explosive power.....erm sounds like a catchline for an ED tablet. If the younger dudes are in there 20's or 30's of course they are going to have "explosive power" because they are younger. just my 0.02 cents

Running sprints really develop the quads and glutes, which is what's primarily used in biking sprints. Running would be of marginal benefit in developing the hamstrings and other muscles used in biking though. So it wouldn't benefit endurance or TT speeds. That's probably what you've heard.

there have been some great posts about sprint and jumps...

search the road racing forum.

Do you wanna develop 5 sec sprints or 1 minute pulling power? They're different energy systems. The 5 second spurts require recruiting of the anarobic phosphate system in which case you can do 55-5's, which is real easy cruising for 55 seconds, and then sprint for five. Weight room max strength training after a coupla-three months of general strength conditioning and hypertrophy training benefits plenty in this case.

Anything else takes intervals, but that you probably already do. The simplest of course is to go all out until you feel like puking. Rest as long as you need to get your HR down to 50% or below, do it again.

Sprints up to ~20 seconds use ATP, which is adenosine triphosphate. If you are already depleted, though, you cannot use it. Sprinting in road cycling and crits are mostly about your anaerobic system, which is why you do intervals.

how about strength intervals my coach has given me some 5 min massive gear intervals to get my strength up for sprints

it also helps to be able to predict attacks look for gear changing muslce tensing, arse shifting etc

Actually Kuan's got it down. The muscles run off ATP under ALL conditions. It's just a matter of how you produce that ATP

1. Under 10-seconds at 100% effort, you're using phosphocreatine to generate the ATP

2. Longer 10s to 4-5 min anaerobic efforts will use anaerobic fermentation of glucose to create ATP. Builds up H+ and lactic acid.

3. Steady-state aerobic efforts of 5min+ will be using aerobic glycolysis of glucose to create ATP. The fatty-acid spiral is also used to create ATP under areobic conditions.

If you want to sprint with the youngsters I suggest knocking about 20 years off your age. Until then, ride hard, do intervals and accept what Father Time has in store for you.

Have you considered endurance cycling? Randonneuring, and Ultracycling races (12 hour, 24 hour, RAAM) are the domain of the middle aged.

Biking has already effectively "knocked" off several years from my real age. Prior to taking up cycling again I was completely out of shape and overweight. I have no particular desire to race any more than what my competitive nature dictates while riding with others. I will add more interval training to my routine as many of you have suggested.

I already spend way too much time on the bike and 2-4 hours in the saddle at a time will do it for me:) . Thanks everone for the suggestions.

yeah, no need to spend that much time on the bike unless you're interested in distance events. To get the spurts of speed needed to do those group rides, you need just 1.5-2.0 hour rides with sprints & intervals. Longer than that and you'll interfere with how hard you can do the sprints & intervals.

Yeah, that makes sense. When I started to ride, I concentrated on getting enough power just to be able to clear some local hills and then increased distances slowly. I think I need to increase the intensity now that I can climb and go pretty far without issues.

The group ride is about 50 miles and that is about my max training ride distance too.

Power = strength training
If you want that explosive power at the end of your ride, start doing shorter rides and ending with a sprint. Work your way up after that.