Prudential RideLondon Training With Dani Rowe: Week 2

About this Series

Welsh-born Dani Rowe is a former pro road cyclist and three-time world champion and Olympic gold medallist in the women’s team pursuit with Great Britain.

Each week she is sharing her story preparing for the 2019 Prudential RideLondon 100 using the “Prudential RideLondon 100” Zwift Training Plan.  See her full list of stories, or learn more about Zwift’s Prudential RideLondon Training Plans.

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Week 2 of the PRL Training Plan is complete. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I love having structure to my training because it takes the thinking out of trying to construct a training plan every morning.

As a former professional cyclist, figuring out training was never a problem. My coach did that. After retiring, I struggled to find structure in my working week. As a coach, I am always writing training plans for others. However I find it hard to develop a plan for myself  — there’s no accountability and support network.

That’s why I love Zwift’s Training Plans: high-quality structure!

The weeks will fly by, and we will be on the start line before we know it. For me, training is about consistency. I try to get through as many of the sessions as possible every week without missing big chunks of work.

You should do the same. This way you’ll see significant improvements and gain the confidence to complete the challenge of  Prudential RideLondon . So, if you can’t complete a long road ride or Zwift session, swap it for a shorter one, rather than sitting on the couch and eating crisps.

My favorite session last week was the Anaerobic Capacity (AC) maintenance session 2, which included 30 mins of hard effort. By splitting the efforts into one minute followed by 75 seconds of recovery, you accumulate 10 minutes of more power than you would have been capable of for a 10-minute effort.

This session improves your threshold and sustained power above threshold. Thanks to workouts like this, in a challenge like PRL you will have better fitness to get you through the event.

The session finishes with a subthreshold 20-minute effort, which teaches your body to work at an uncomfortable level. Come the day of the Prudential RideLondon the ride won’t be a shock to the system. You will not only complete the event faster, but the whole experience will be more enjoyable!

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