Prudential RideLondon Training With Dani Rowe: Week 9

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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Another week down… we really are getting closer now. I’ve been really tired this week with different bits and pieces happening, most importantly being maid of honour for my best friend’s wedding day. I was determined to keep up with my training knowing how much consistency is vital for all important fitness gains. Zwift is my go-to exercise choice when I’m tight on time!

The session I enjoyed most this week was the ‘power max’ session. It consisted of a nice 10-minute progressive warmup into a 40-minute free ride where the aim was to complete 3 short max sprints, finishing with 10 minutes of a progressive decline in power.

With the main aim of the session to produce max power I found it easy to motivate myself to really give it my all. It’s quite natural to not like inflicting pain on yourself, and max sprinting is arguably one of the hardest things to do on a bike since it’s 100% effort–leaving nothing behind. This means a lot of people fail to include this in their training, which is why this session is so important and beneficial.

On paper the session doesn’t seem so hard but my advice would be to give it 100% from start to finish of each sprint. Make every second count–it’s a real explosive effort from the first pedal stroke to the last! You’ll be grateful of it the next time you race your friend for a town sign.

Additionally because I am so competitive, within the free rides I decided to give the two QOM’s a go and surprised myself with personal best times and a snazzy spotty jersey. This is the beauty of a ‘free ride’–it doesn’t have to mean purely riding round. By mixing it up depending on how you are feeling you can make it as hard or as easy as you wish.

I’m looking forward to this week–with less in the diary I’m hoping to feel more energised for my sessions! I’m also taking part in two guided rides so will look at any quality efforts in the plan I can incorporate into these to ensure I’m staying on track.

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