One-Hour Workout: Building Blocks Bike Workout

If you’re someone who enjoys racing over Olympic or 70.3 distance, this workout is just what you need to get a great fitness boost and the edge over your rivals. Improving your performance over longer distances really is a fine art and doing the right workouts in training will allow you to maintain a competitive pace over the distance required. You don’t need to spend hours in the saddle to achieve it either—this one-hour building blocks bike workout is perfect for the trainer and will help you make great gains in minimal time.

In order to excel over longer distances when racing, you need to work on your body’s aerobic efficiency. Exercising your slow-twitch muscle fibers with this one-hour workout will help train their resistance against fatigue and make your body more efficient. By adding this workout into your training plan and executing it over a number of weeks, you should find you begin to feel more confident pushing harder for longer and that you are able to ride more competitively without fatiguing too fast.

This workout starts with a steady seven-minute warm-up followed by a main set that involves four rounds of 10 minutes at 100% of your FTP (functional threshold power). If you’re not using a power meter, you can use RPE (rate of perceived exertion) as a measure of intensity/effort, with 100% FTP equating to about 8/10 RPE.  This is then followed by 3 x 10-minute intervals at 100% of your FTP/RPE 8/10 with a three-minute easy recovery between each effort. The warm-up plus the main set will take you one hour, but it is highly recommended to do an easy spin cool down afterwards if you have time.

One-Hour Workout: Building Blocks Bike Workout

Warm-up

3.5 min. slowly building to 100% FTP or 8/10 RPE

3 min. building to 110% FTP or 8-9/10 RPE

Recover – 30 sec. at 60% FTP or 5-6/10 RPE

Main Set

Interval – 10 min. at 100% FTP or 8/10 RPE

Recover – 3 min. at 50% FTP or 5/10 RPE

Interval – 10 min. at 100% FTP or 8/10 RPE

Recover – 3 min. at 50% FTP or 5/10 RPE

Interval – 10 min. at 100% FTP or 8/10 RPE

Recover – 3 min. at 50% FTP or 5/10 RPE

Interval – 10 min. at 100% FTP or 8/10 RPE

Recover – 3 min. at 50% FTP or 5/10 RPE

Cool Down

10 min. easy spinning

Thanks to Rich Baker, CEO of Wattbike, for the above workout.