Workouts

One-Hour Workout: Bike Power Bursts

Enjoy hitting some higher intensity power bursts that'll get you working hard in this session.

October 19, 2022 Emma-Kate Lidbury

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This one-hour workout from cycling coach and bike fit guru Matt Bottrill will get you working hard, so be ready for a challenging but fun session that mixes up the cadence and intensities.

After a 10-minute warm-up (ideally riding at a cadence of ~90rpm) at 5-6 out of 10 on the RPE scale (rate of perceived exertion), you’ll then begin the main set. The main set consists of four rounds of five minutes continuous riding as 30 seconds at maximum effort (think 9-10 out of 10 RPE) into 30 seconds easy, with your choice of cadence. You’ll then go straight into five minutes at sweet spot power, which is just beneath your FTP (functional threshold power). For those not riding with power, think of this as a 7-8/10 RPE. It should be comfortably uncomfortable! Repeat these two five-minute blocks three more times (for a total of four rounds). For the five minutes at sweet spot power, use your preferred cadence.

Bottrill said: “Be sure to really distinguish between those two 30-second intervals in the first five-minute block: the hard should be hard, the easy should be very easy! This is by no means an easy workout, so be in the right frame of mind to give it your all.”

He added: “To get the most from this workout, it’s best to do it on the turbo on either your road bike or tri bike, whichever you feel you can hit the best numbers on.”

After the main set, cool down with five to 10 minutes high cadence easy spinning to flush your legs.