Why sprinting can boost anyone’s riding
To build on the success of CW’S Max Watts Challenge, Josh Owen Morris makes the case for sprinting as a time-efficient form of training with universal benefits
“There are gains in performance and health to be had from sprints”
Even if you’re not usually one for pinning on a number and chasing a bunch of other cyclists round a circuit before lunging for the line, you’re probably at least curious about your sprinting ability. The chances are, the first time you rode with power, there was a little voice in the back of your head egging you on to see just how high you could make the numbers go. It’s that very instinct that Cycling Weekly’s recent Max Watts Challenge competition keyed into and gave you the chance to indulge. Here,
I want to investigate why sprinting matters to all cyclists, not just those who consider themselves max-watts specialists.
Sprinting may well be a sport within a sport, at the extreme end, but the average rider may well be doing more of it than they’re aware. Every time you pull away from the lights in a hurry, find yourself having to catch on at the back of the pace line, or – more seriously – want to beat your mate in the sprint to the cafe, you call on this ability. It’s not all about surging to cross the line first; there are gains in both performance and general health to be had from regularly doing sprints – and it doesn’t mean you have to start chasing the powerlifter-like physique of an Olympic track sprinter.
Regular sprinting could increase testosterone levels for some older men, and doing as few as four 30-second sprints in a week has been shown to help increase insulin sensitivity. Many riders also tout the mood-boosting effects of being able to put everything they have into a sprint, and improvements are usually measurable within a few weeks. What’s not to like?
Kevin Stewart is podium sprint coach for British Cycling, looking after the elite side of things, but has coached at every level of the development programme.
“Sprint training is either on or it’s off, and requires a huge amount of effort,” he said.
“Everything is maximal. We know from the research that there is a big amount of satisfaction and gratification that comes from that: applying yourself completely and seeing what the outcome is. What you would have considered 100 per cent at the start, you realise was only 75 per cent when you look back 12 weeks later.”
In Stewart’s view, the special satisfaction from sprint training comes from “going home feeling like you’ve left everything out there”. Some of the highest peak power outputs seen by British Cycling have been recorded during talent ID programmes
– occasionally seeing athletes on stationary bikes producing peak watts even higher than those required for medals in team sprint events. Indeed, the winning woman in CW’S Max Watts Challenge contest, 18-yearold Rhianna Parris-smith, is one such example: she produced her max effort on a Wattbike at Oaklands College’s Wolves Cycling Academy, and according to her coach Jez Cox, she outperforms many of the riders on the national academy.
Power calls for control
Unfortunately for some, raw power doesn’t always translate into speed on the track, since other factors come into play – and of course in standing-start events, power to weight still matters a great deal.
“We could have a chap who’s putting out 2,400 watts,” Stewart continued, “but if he’s 115kg, he’s not going anywhere quickly. Most of the GB men hit around 29 watts per kilo in terms of peak power they put out in that first lap, which normally puts them at around 2,200 to 2,300 watts at under 80 kilos.”
One of the reasons federations still have talent ID programmes for athletes from other sports – and this is good news for those of us who’d like to have a bit more power – is that sprinting isn’t all about ‘natural talent’. Though top sprinters tend to have more fasttwitch muscle fibres and some genetic advantages, they also have the ability to apply that power efficiently through the relatively small surface of the pedal as they feel their way through the stroke, plus the grit and determination to push through difficult training and competition – many of these are trainable characteristics.
Exercise physiologist Dr Mehdi Kordi, who
has worked with British Cycling and now works for the Dutch Federation, said: “People aren’t born good pedallers; cycling isn’t a natural movement, so to say that someone is ‘a natural’ doesn’t make much sense. People develop better techniques to apply the force and have better genetics to respond better to strength training.”
Do sprinters need to be bulky and very muscular? It may be no surprise to anyone who has seen a track sprinter up close, but Dr Kordi’s research shows that sprint cyclists with higher peak power outputs have much larger quads than their endurance counterparts. The size of the muscle is responsible for as much as 76 per cent of the variability. Core muscularity is also helpful for efficiency in delivering power, but there is little point building your upper body beyond the point of functional benefit.
“The bigger you make your muscles, the more power you can put out,” said Kordi, “but that’s just the averages. There are always exceptions to the rule – people who are not as strong but can pedal quicker, or people who are super strong who can’t produce as much power as someone with a slighter build.”
There is significant potential for improving sprint power simply through regular practice, with some coaches estimating untrained sprinters could add as much as 10 per cent to their peak power output in the early stages of a plan, depending on their background. However, longer-term gains are much harder-won.
“You can get a quick improvement just by practising and getting better, but then because it’s so intense and you need a lot of rest in between training sessions, you have to be patient to see progressive improvements,” Kordi continued. “If you want to take it to another level by introducing specific training, the likelihood is your progress will plateau
off for a bit, then you’ll start making gains in the next six to eight weeks.”
Even without chasing long-term gains, there are other benefits to be had from sprint work, and it’s not all about pushing up your peak watts.
“You do see aerobic benefits as well, even if the efforts are as little as 20 seconds long,” Kordi explained. “There has been a lot of research to show that doing just two 30-second all-out efforts twice a week improves your insulin resistance [blood sugar control]. There is a muscle-building hormone effect as well, which is good for maintaining quality of life in older age.”
This is an important point: although sprinting at a high level is a (relatively) young person’s game, the health benefits become more pronounced as you age.
“If you do strength training, that will help give you a much higher quality of life than just doing miles and miles and miles,” said Kordi. “It improves your bone mineral density, which means you’re less likely to have a stress fracture or broken bones, and it will improve your metabolism as well.”
Many sprint-focused athletes eat upwards of 1.6g of protein per kilo of body weight per day, which is more than double the recommended daily allowance – all the while keeping a lid on the total number of calories, as well as eating enough carbohydrates to fuel the hard efforts. There are also benefits from supplementing with creatine for training sessions, although this does cause temporary weight gain through water retention.
When it comes down to it, there are simple reasons why the top sprinters perform like they do. The cumulative effect of the narrow, specific training results in their being able to put out almost other-worldly numbers.
“For a man, if you want to be in the same stratosphere as internationally competitive track sprinters, you have to hit at least 2,000 watts,” stated Kordi, matter-of-factly. “That’s non-negotiable really. As a woman, you have to hit at least 1,400 watts.”
Max Watts winners
Getting very close to that latter figure, the female winner of CW’S Max Watts Challenge, Rhianna Parris-smith, recorded 1,322 watts (19.44w/kg) – despite being only 18 and having only one year of sprinting experience behind her. We asked the teenage sensation for her tips on putting out big peak power.
“One of the big things that endurance riders probably don’t initially ‘get’ is that you go all-out for 30 seconds or 10 seconds and you’re done, but you really do have to dig deep and empty the tank,” said Parris-smith, who lives in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. “That’s why you have to sit around for 10
minutes to get your energy levels back up. It’s hard to master, emptying the tank like that, but you get there in the end.”
Why should sprinting have wider appeal, beyond the velodrome?
“You don’t have to go and buy a whole bunch of new kit, and it’s something different,” added Parris-smith. “For road riders, when they get into breakaways, it’s good to have a good sprint, as most races finish with some kind of sprint. It’s definitely a good thing for everyone to work on, even if they’re road-based, longer-distance riders. It’s also quite nice to be able to pull out a good sprint for a sign when you’re out with friends and find yourself rolling away alone.”
Topping the table for the men, 45-yearold Danny Lake, from Swindon, has been using sprint intensity intervals to improve his power over slightly longer durations, as he intends to target hill-climbs this autumn. As well as improving his peak power from around 1,450 to almost 1,700 watts, he has increased his power in intervals of up to 30 seconds long.
“I started doing more sprintspecific training around February time,” said Lake. “I’d hit a nine or 10 per cent hill and just hit it as hard as I could at the base and see how hard I could go for 15 or 20 seconds. It improved my 30- and 15-second peak, and my five-second peak a little bit, but it was mainly that initial kick, just that acceleration I could put down where I noticed the biggest increase.”
What does Lake enjoy most about this type of training?
“Being able to empty the tank over 30 seconds is very satisfying; I hate threshold training. Doing steady state or hard efforts for 10 or 20 minutes – I’m not a fan. I’d much rather absolutely obliterate myself for 15 seconds, or up to two minutes, really.”
Not just for summer
Many who perform well in sprints, such as multiple US National champion Justin Williams, keep on top of the skill all year round, using it to add variety to longer rides and competition to shorter ones.
Multiple masters champion on the track, including match sprint and scratch race, Fleur Stoops, of Glasgow Green Cycle Club, told us: “I’ll do sprints in my rides on the road all year round – I find that if I’m doing a ‘birds and flowers’ ride, I’ll get bored, so I’ll see a lamp post and think, ‘Right, let’s go for it’.”
Stoops, 45, described the demands of her event. “To do a 500m TT, twice round the track, you want to be looking at between 38 and 40 seconds to be up there and competitive. Often, you’d be up over 1,000 watts as you’re literally out of the gate from a standing start pushing on those pedals.”
If your riding buddies aren’t always keen on trying to beat you to street signs week in, week out, the fact these short intervals are quick and easy to complete mean you can fit them in around your more sociable riding.
“There are clear benefits from putting out short, maximal efforts”
Commonwealth Games medallist Jon Mould, who now runs Forte Coaching, advised the following roadmap to sprinting progress: “Early on in the year, in the build-up to racing, I’ll do a proper sprint session at least once a week – usually doing the sprints in the first hour. You just carry on with the ride afterwards, but normally I’ll choose a specific day to get these efforts done.”
One option is to do your sprints before your group ride.
“You can do them on the way out to your social rides,” said Mould. “I used to get the sprints done on the way out to the cafe, and then you can relax knowing you’ve done the work without stressing or worrying about everyone riding too easy. If you’re smart with it, you can time it round the more social side of riding.”
Conclusion
OK, you’re never going to be an exceptional sprinter as well as a racewinning endurance rider, as the demands of the respective disciplines are just too dissimilar, each highly specialised in different ways. Nonetheless, there are clear benefits to be gained from putting out short, maximal efforts regularly as part of your routine. With big gains available in general health as well as performance from just a few minutes’ dedicated work each week, adding sprinting to your schedule is a no-brainer – even if you don’t intend to be surging for a finish line any time soon.