Ride Out The Storm: A One-Hour Indoor Cycling Workout
Ready to go for a ride, but don’t have a specific workout in mind? Here’s a one-hour base workout aimed to improve your cycling.
Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members! Download the app.
Our thoughts are with everyone in the Northeastern United States battling the effects of Hurricane Sandy. Because several endurance enthusiasts are stuck indoors and many gyms are closed, we thought we’d bring back an indoor cycling workout to help you ride out the storm. This indoor trainer workout comes from the Book “One-Hour Workouts: 50 Swim, Bike, and Run Workouts for Busy Athletes.”
This is an idea I got from Ironman legend Dave Scott when I was a pro, and it helped make my winter indoor cycling much more tolerable. I’m very reluctant to train indoors, which is why my skin looks like a lizard’s! There are several reasons to do this type of session indoors:
• The variety will give you something to think about (other than how much you’re hurting).
• It’s good to train at various intensities at various cadences so that in a race you can change cadence if the one you’re using doesn’t feel great.
• You will be a better cyclist if you extend the range of cadence at which you’re comfortable and proficient.
Variable Gear Intervals
Time/Distance Description
20 min. Easy warm-up; vary cadence and include a little time out of the saddle RPE 1
6 × 3 min. Continuous 18-min. effort at steady pace RPE 2:
– 3 min. high cadence,100–120 rpm, Go as high as you can smoothly go, but keep the effort in your steady zone.
– 3 min. normal time trial cadence
– 3 min. low cadence, 60–70 rpm; stand for the last half of each rep
– Repeat
2 min. Easy spinning RPE 1
6 × 2 min. Continuous 12-min. effort, alternating 1 min. moderately hard RPE 3:
– 1 min. easy RPE 1
– 2 min. high cadence
– 2 min. normal time trial cadence
– 2 min. big gear, Stand for the last half of each rep.
Repeat
4–5 min. Cruise RPE 1
2–3 min. Stretch to complete the hour
Click here for a printable PDF version of the workout.
This workout republished with permission from “One-Hour Workouts: 50 Swim, Bike, and Run Workouts for Busy Athletes” by Scott Molina, Mark Newton, and Michael Jacques. The book is available in bookstores, tri shops, and online.
[velopress cta=”Shop now” align=”center” title=”Buy the Book”]