Wintertime Workouts: the Cheetah Pounce & Sprint > Stalk > Catch ‼️

How about a little anaerobic work to go with your sweet spot base training? In this training tip we will describe five wintertime workouts (over unders and criss cross) for you to perform during the week to supplement your aerobic endurance training. 

note: all of these workouts are 1 hour and available in the CoachCat app and are sprinkled in various plans such as our 16 weeks of Sweet Spot Base Building Plan, Sweet Spot Part 3 and our WinterTime Intensity Plan.

CoachCat likes to caress and nurture an athlete's anaerobic system. One training myth we’d like to dispel is to only do base training for 2-3 months.  Why not do both simultaneously, in the right amounts. We’ve long been fans of fast fun wintertime group rides for the short 10 - 20 second forays above threshold that are specific to zwift races, group rides and all performance based events. 

While not a ton of time is spent above threshold there is value and benefit to including anaerobic work to your base training. After all, isn’t this how the sport of cyclocross was invented?

Group rides (Zwift and outdoors) over variable terrain with mixed high and low power output are OK but not as effective the same as these 5 workouts we are presenting below.

First, what is ‘Wintertime Intensity’? Wintertime Intensity is 2 - 4 cumulative minutes of zone 6 anaerobic work per hour. Two to four minutes is not a lot considering a one hour criterium or cyclocross race has more than half or 30 minutes spent in one’s zone 6. Wintertime Intensity as you would guess is prescribed in the second half to final third of one’s aerobic endurance phase or Training Load build. As in our sweet spot part 3 plan or our new wintertime intensity plan.

These variable power wintertime intervals mimic the power demands** of road, mountain bike, gravel, fondo, cyclocross and even punchy time trials. There's a 'goldilocks' art to over under and criss cross workouts, "not too much, not too little".  Do these five workouts in progression from easy to medium and even 'diabolical' 👿

**surges in the peloton, steep pitches up climbs, switchbacks, and technical singletrack, cyclocross accelerations

** compatible with Zwift and others 3rd party riding apps.

These Wintertime Intervals are what we call variable power workouts and they have 5 main benefits:

1. Specificity of real world conditions
2. Help the time pass quicker during indoor training sessions!
3. Concise short high quality 1 hour workouts (designed for indoors and smartTrainer) but just as easily performed outside with longer zone 2 warm up and cool downs.
4. Nurtures your Anaerobic System
5. Provides an introductory amount of intensity to one’s base training before the high intensity interval training phase

Wintertime intervals are structured over under or criss cross style workouts with short 10 - 20 second efforts at the beginning and/or the end of the interval. For example 10 seconds @ 150% on FTP followed by 2 minutes and 40 seconds at Sweet Spot wattages and/or heart rates followed by 10 more seconds @ 150-200% of one’s FTP before a 1:1 work to rest ratio 3 minute recovery. Then repeat.

That's a 3 minute variable power sweet spot effort with 20 seconds total (10 second before and 10 second afters on zone 6 work of zone 6 work. One can do 6 of these in a one hour workout for 18 minutes of ‘wintertime intensity’ split 88% sweet spot and 12% anaerobic, zone 6. Or 16 minutes of sweet spot work and 2 minutes of anaerobic work. That’s a perfect ratio for your wintertime base training Dec-Jan-Feb. Now the progression lies in spending more time in sweet spot and more time in zone 6 in the context of a one hour workout.

To get started with your wintertime intensity interval training we have the Cheetah Pounce #1, 4 x 6 minutes. We like to have a little fun with sports psychology and animal imagery in these workouts. And of course we are talking about the world’s fastest land mammal, the cheetah.

Carefully sweet spot stalk your prey (your prey being your training goals) at sweet spot wattages and/or heart rates for 5 minutes and 40 seconds and the “pounce!” on them for the final 20 seconds at a 115 - 150% FTP Zone 6+ effort.

Pounce out of the saddle as if you were going for the win and and uphill sprint. Really give’er here because you have a 3 minute recovery interval after. Take a 2:1 work to rest ratio 2 minutes recovery and repeat 3 more times. 

In total this will be 24 minutes of WTI with 94% or 22.66 minutes being Sweet Spot and 6% and 1.34 minutes being Zone 6 Anaerobic.

ERG mode is fantastic for these variable power workouts but toggle if OFF to be able to get 'EXTRA CREDIT" with more watts for the Pounce.

Pro Tip: Shift Down 3-4 seconds ahead of the pounce to be able to respond to to load

Cheetah Pounce #2, 6 x 4 minutes broken up into 2 sets

Its a progression from the Cheetah Pounce #1. Again visualize yourself as a cheetah stalking your prey, which is your a #1 training goal and sweet spot for 3 minutes and 40 seconds. Then just like #1 pounce out of the saddle for 20 seconds at a 115 - 150% FTP Zone 6+ effort. Really get after the pounce effort because you have a 2 minute recovery interval to catch your breath after.

Little known cheetah exercise physiology nugget: Cheetahs are all fast twitch and anaerobically gifted but at the expense of their endurance. A cheetah is wicked fast for 30 - 60 seconds but if the antelope can outrun the cheetah for longer than that cheetahs lose their speed quickly. Would make a terrible endurance athlete but a world class obviously kilo and pursuit rider! Cheetahs need more sweet spot training! … but I digress.

#3 Sprint > Stalk & Catch! 2 sets of 3 x 3 minutes continues on with the cheetah imagery. The progression of # 3 come from added in a 10 second anaerobic out of the saddle sprint to the beginning of the effort like a traditional over under. The Sprint > Stalk & Catch Goes like this:

Sprint out of the saddle for the first 10 seconds of each interval @ 150% of FTP. Then settle back in the saddle to sweet spot stalk your prey (your goals) before going for the Catch with an out of the saddle > 150% FTP sprint!

Really visualize your goals here because this is a hard workout - think and see yourself in the crux moment of these races, making this kind of power. Bring a winning mindset to this workout just like it is in the Serengeti because if you bring a killer mindset to your training, you’ll make Eddy Merckx (the cannibal proud).

#4 Sprint > Stalk & Catch! 2 sets of 5 x 2 minutes and is a progression from #3.

Same deal, sprint out of the saddle at 150% of FTP settle back in the saddle to sweet spot stalk your goal before going in for the Catch at 200% of FTP for the final 10 seconds.

Visualize your Goals to Sprint FAST like a Cheetah! Accelerate, Settle In to your Sweet Spot and then go Full Gas for the Catch! I believe Duran Duran says it the best ‘Hungry like the Wolf”. To our knowledge no cheetah has made it into pop music culture .

The Sprint > Stalk & Catch #3 contains 18 total minutes of wintertime intensity with 88% and 16 minutes being sweet spot and 12% and 2 minutes being anaerobic.

The Sprint > Stalk & Catch # 4 progresses to 20 minutes of WTI with 83.3% and 16.6 minutes of Sweet Spot and 16.7% and 3.4 min of anaerobic zone 6. The progression comes from a little bit less sweet spot and a little bit more anaerobic.

Finally! If you know us well you know we always include a ‘Diabolical’ workout version for all the young buck whippersnappers out there who can handle the load and want to get their cat 2 upgrade.

The FasCat # 5 Diabolical “Cheetah Pounce” is diabolical because you don’t have time to catch your prey with sweet spot - you need to stalk them faster at THRESHOLD WATTS! There's is no set break either in order to get 8 reps in an hour workout.

The # 5 Diabolical Cheetah Pounce goes like this: 8 x 3 minutes with 10 seconds zone 6 followed by 2 minutes and 40 seconds at zone 4 followed by 10 seconds at 200% of FTP. There’s a 1:1 work to rest ratio to enable you to complete the workout but the 8 reps add up - pace yourself especially for the first 2 or 3 because the last 2 reps, 7 & 8 will hurt!

When you complete this workout, you will know you are ready to compete and WIN! 

Caress and nurture your anaerobic system this winter with these 5 wintertime intensity workouts. Get on the bike, get down to work, get off, go win in the kitchen and go on about your day.

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