Workouts

One-Hour Workout: Rach McBride’s Building Blocks Bike Session

December 8, 2021 Emma-Kate Lidbury

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This week’s One-Hour Workout comes from pro Rach McBride and it’s the bike session from yesterday’s Triathlete Zwift ride, which McBride led. It’s a fun and varied workout with the main set varying in intensity from 75% of FTP (Functional Threshold Power) to 90% FTP.

Begin with a 10-minute warm-up, slowly increasing effort as you progress. You’ll then hit a five-minute “priming” set, which involves five rounds of 30 seconds hard, 30 seconds easy. It’s then time to get into the main set.

McBride said: “This workout is four rounds of solid seven-minute building intervals. It’s a great muscular endurance session to work on sustained power as well as mental toughness.”

You’ll do four minutes at 75% of FTP (which equates to RPE, Rate of Perceived Exertion 7/10 for those not using power/watts), followed by two minutes at 85% FTP (RPE 7-8/10), finishing off with one minute at 90% FTP (RPE 8/10). You’ll ride smooth and steady for three minutes to recover, before beginning the next round, hitting four rounds in total.

McBride added: “If you want to spice it up some more, you can do some intervals at lower cadence to add more time under tension—or you could increase that final one-minute to 100%+ FTP to really zap your legs!”

Wrap it all up with a five-minute easy spin to cool down.

Our next Triathlete Zwift ride is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 4 at 9 a.m MT/11 a.m. ET. Look out for sign-up details closer to the event!