Criterium Training Plan for Cycling – Criterium Training Program And Workouts
Criterium training and racing is about attacking corners rapidly and forcefully through multiple corners. These races are raced around a 1-2km circuit and not a road race. Criteriums focus you on keeping your line and making you sprint hard in and out of every corner.
Criterium Training Program
Following a good criterium training plan, is not just adding intervals to your weekly riding. To be a successful crit racer, you need to have a high vo2 max, aerobic conditioning and have explosive short-term repeatable power. These should all be included in your criterium training plan and based around the criterium races course.
Speed wins, and it is never more evident than in a crit race. If your criterium training does not include speed and agility, you will get lapped out quickly. In a typical criterium, it requires you to produce more than 100 separate efforts and your training plan should replicate this. Target your efforts through 1-minute intervals and maximum sprints. Both these require you to soft-pedal between and allow for a full recovery. Your goal here is to produce multiple efforts in a row with minimal power loss to replicate criterium racing through your criterium training plan.
Criterium Intervals Workouts
Muscular endurance intervals help you to apply constant muscular tension at a high workload. Adding multiple efforts, or one single attempt at a lower rpm allows you to train the body to resist failure and cramping. Learning to resist and delay fatigue during a criterium race is the key to a good result. These types of repeatable efforts help you to create fatigue resistance.
All intervals should be performed between the sweet spot and threshold power zones. Try todo these efforts either up a hill or into a headwind and then add some longer aerobic-based rides on the weekend.
This should be enough to get you started putting together your Criterium training plan. But our coaches have years of knowledge and hundreds of criterium races behind them. To understand more how we can help improve your results contact us.
