One-Hour Workout: Batman Forever Bike Intervals

This week’s workout is brought to you by Cody Moore, founder of Boulder-based Forever Endurance, and was originally designed and named by Neal Henderson of APEX Coaching.

Cody coaches professional cyclists and triathletes, including a Mexican elite road race and time trial national champion. He is certified by USAC, USAT, and the NSCA.

“Every bike course presents unique challenges,” Moore says. “While spending time training at your ‘goal power’ is essential, amateur and professional triathletes alike need to be prepared to handle many different stressors during the bike leg.”

This workout helps athletes avoid the pitfalls of training at one intensity throughout a session and prepares them for the real-world conditions of race day. Working at different intensities and intervals also helps triathletes push through any self-created plateaus in their training.

“The key is not just being able to have the power to pass a rider ahead of you, or climb a short, steep kicker, but also to be able to recover from it quickly and settle back into your goal power,” he says. “Batman Forever intervals start hard, settle into threshold power, then finish just as hard.”

Ideally, this is a session surrounded on both sides by recovery – the intensity of the workout requires some time off tired legs post-ride and fairly fresh legs to begin. Also, while it is ideally done on a trainer, the workout can be done on open roads, provided the environment is safe and free of interruptions like stop signs and traffic lights.

But what do bike intervals have to do with Batman? “The power graph tends to look like the wings of the Batman logo when all is said and done,” Moore says.

Batman Forever bike intervals warm-up

4 minutes easy spin (<55% of FTP or Functional Threshold Power, <3 RPE or Rate of Perceived Exertion, on a scale of 1-10)

3 minutes build from 70% FTP to 100% FTP (5-7.5 RPE)

1 minute easy spin (<55% of FTP, <3 RPE)

5-second sprint “opener” (90% of max effort)

2-minute easy spin (<55% of FTP, <3 RPE)

Main set

4 x
(
10 seconds max effort
20 seconds @ 130% FTP (9 RPE)
4 minutes @ 100% FTP (7.5 RPE)
20 seconds @ 130% FTP (9 RPE)
10 seconds max effort
5 minutes easy spin (<55% of FTP, <3 RPE)
)

Cool-down

5 minutes easy spin (<55% of FTP, <3 RPE)