You either by now have had the luxury to develop a good Aerobic fitness base for the Induna race (See QUALITY VOLUME BASE PHASE for some pointers if you want to be on par next year), or you have not (like the majority of us) had the time to give it any thought yet.  Or maybe you are somewhere in-between?  Well we would like to suggest some pointers, in the form of either a SHORT TERM INTERVENTION PLAN or a FULL OUT ASSAULT (or a combination of the two if you are the in-betweener), to help make sure you will definitely have a GREAT ride coming race day.

When applying the SAID (Specific Adaptations for Imposed Demands) principle, your preparation for the BIG Induna will need to be uniquely different and specific for that optimal day in the saddle.

SHORT TERM INTERVENTION PLAN:

Keeping in mind the above mentioned you will in the 6 weeks left need to focus on mainly, fitness and skill.  If you can get these 2 areas conditioned you will leave smiling all the way home. We therefore suggest a something of the following to develop an “optimal as possible” base with the right amount of specific conditioning mingled therein.

Short Term Intervention

Training at 70% of your age adjusted maximum heart rate (Age adjusted maximum Heart Rate = 220 – resting heart rate – age times 0.7 + resting Heart rate) 4 days a week should be sufficient for basic fitness.

Always make sure that you have a good 10 minute warm-up at the beginning of every ride at 60% HR max and also remember to take your last 5 to 10 minutes before reaching home easy as to give your engine time to cool down.

Do a skills session every week where you identify any rooty, rocky, twisting section to your disposal and condition yourself to ride as fast as you can.  Before the skills session it is also very important that you warm up at least 10 minutes at 60% HR max.

For those of you who have a good base training behind you from where you can build you can use  The Full Assault Program to make sure you peak on 09 June for the Big Induna.