Congratulations on being a Punchy Performer! You are a master of short climbs, using your powerful bursts of energy to leave sprinters and mountain climbers in the dust. You are the most feared rider on these 2-8 minute climbs, and you inspire all who witness your impressive abilities.

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It’s your unique approach that will bring you success in your performance, training, and events without focusing on the wrong things. 

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Measure your progress with:

• Power - Raw watts 2 minute power and repeatability
• Capacity - W’ (15-18 kJ) and/ or VLamax (0.4-0.6)

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But with any rider type, there are key strengths and weaknesses to be aware of…

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Strengths

• You excel on short explosive climbs and are able to sustain high-explosive speed for longer, strong at producing power both in and out-of-the-saddle, prefers non-steady riding, can sprint well, and strong in short time trials.
• Your large anaerobic capacity and explosiveness represent your "more fast-twitch" muscle fiber typology. Spending time working on sharp anaerobic type efforts and repeated “full gas” efforts to find your strength in the 20-second to 8-minute to power range is your key to your cycling success. And don’t neglect off-bike strength work; it’s a critical component of your speed.
• Your shorter, muscular, small frame and bone structure, moderate muscle mass, moderate weight, and low and stable centre of gravity means you can gain muscle easily.

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Potential Weaknesses

• Your shorter, muscular, small frame and bone structure, moderate muscle mass, moderate weight, and low and stable centre of gravity means you might be sensitive to weight gain.
• It has been shown that athletes with more fast-twitch fibers have greater fatigue during a sprint-interval session than athletes with more slow twitch fibers and when muscle fibre typology was factored in, athletes with a higher estimated proportion of fast-twitch fibres risk overreaching as a response to volume.
• Powerful sustained efforts on the flats, crosswinds, multi-day stage races or hard efforts, long time trials, endurance, and recovery are inferior to those of climbers.
• Your body needs high glycogen availability to promote use of the glycolytic energy system during training and thereby train the body to metabolise carbohydrates more effectively. Keep your glycogen stores topped up by consuming a relatively high daily intake of carbohydrates that is still within the recommended daily energy availability (kcal/kg FFM). This will ensure you are providing your body with adequate energy for all physiological functions.

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Practical applications

• ⬇️ Decrease total training volume (hours or TSS per week)
• ⬆️ Increase recovery duration in between intense training sessions
• ⬆️ Increase recovery duration between intense exercises within training sessions

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Training session best-suited for your type:

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Anaerobic Capacity: 90 Second Repeats (1:1.3 work-rest ratio)

WU: 30 minutes building up towards 60-70% CP, including a few 5 second maximal surges to fully activate your muscles.

MS: 2 x (4 x 90 second intervals @125-135% CP, taking around 2 minutes for active recovery @ 30-40% CP (i.e. walking the bike) after each interval. 15 minutes between each block @ 50-60% CP. These power targets are based on the average ability level, and there is a lot of individual variability in the power that can be held, so the first time you do this workout, you will need to pace these based on feel. They should be a ~9/10 effort level. The goal is to hit a power that you can hold consistently across each of the intervals, so don't go so hard on the first one that you have nothing left for the last ones.

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For the 90 second intervals -

1 - hit the target

2-3 - go on feel

4 - finish strong and finish empty

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Remaining time up to 1:45:00 @ 50-65% CP to return the body to resting levels steadily.

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PURPOSE: Develops ability to produce and sustain high amounts of power well above maximal oxygen uptake levels (VO2Max) and promotes recruitment of Type II (fast twitch) muscles in power production. This session, with its relatively short recoveries, works in particular on your ability to sustain anaerobic energy production for longer periods or across repeated bursts. Applied during short, sharp climbs or for attacks within races. This session draws on research that has shown an improvements in anaerobic capacity and lactate shuttling and buffering as a result of intervals similar to this design. Examples include:

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Pilegaard, H., Domino, K., Noland, T., Juel, C., Hellsten, Y., Halestrap, A. P., & Bangsbo, J. (1999). Effect of high-intensity exercise training on lactate/H+ transport capacity in human skeletal muscle. American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology And Metabolism, 276(2), E255-E261

Edge, J., Bishop, D., & Goodman, C. (2006). The effects of training intensity on muscle buffer capacity in females. European journal of applied physiology, 96(1), 97-105.

Weston, A. R., Myburgh, K. H., Lindsay, F. H., Dennis, S. C., Noakes, T. D., & Hawley, J. A. (1996). Skeletal muscle buffering capacity and endurance performance after high-intensity interval training by well-trained cyclists. European journal of applied physiology and occupational physiology, 75(1), 7-13.

Bangsbo, J., Mohr, M., Poulsen, A., Perez-Gomez, J., & Krustrup, P. (2006). Training and testing the elite athlete. J Exerc Sci Fit, 4(1), 1-14.

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Ideal Races/Events

Endurance events with short, punchy climbs, short time trials, criteriums, and shorter road races with explosive uphill finishes.

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How you can ride events better / win races

Explosive, surging race that comes down to a small group in the finish. Ideally the finish is an uphill in which the puncheur wins the sprint from the small group.

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What do you think? Does this rider type match you and your events? What type of rider do you want to be? What type of events do you want to ride? Find out more about rider types by clicking here: RIDER TYPE RESULTS