One-Hour Workout: Punchy Bike Cadence Set

This week’s workout comes from Denver, Colo.-based Louie Frank Cicchino, an eight-year veteran of the sport who has raced both on- and off-road. During that time, Cicchino earned his bachelor’s degree in exercise science at Metropolitan State University of Denver, his USAT Level 1 certification, and his NASM CPT. This year, he qualified to be a part of Team USA at ITU off-road world championships and is the head-coach/owner of Accelero Endurance.

“This bike workout should be placed in your program as a key workout,” Cicchino says. “Its purpose is to generate short bouts of power for an off-road course that has short, punchy climbs. It is also great for a crit/circuit style road course with corners and turnarounds that demand efforts to bring you back up to speed.

“This workout can be performed indoors on a trainer or outside on a sustained climb that takes at least 15 minutes to reach the top. When the RPMs change in the main set, add resistance, but keep the watt output or effort the same. Your watts should not vary much between intervals except at rest.”

Warm-Up
10-minute spin, building from 50% to 80% effort at 90 rpm
3 minutes of intervals as: (30 sec at 90% at 90 rpm, then 30 sec recovery)
2 minutes of recovery

Main Set
5x rounds of the following:
30 sec 90% effort at 90-95 rpm
30 sec 90% effort at 85-90 rpm
30 sec 90% effort at 80-85 rpm
90 sec 50% recovery effort at 90-95 rpm

2-minute recovery after 5 rounds, then repeat again for a second set, changing to 95% effort. As fitness progresses throughout the season, try for a third set with limited rest between sets and with 100% effort.

Cool Down
5-minute easy spin

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