One-Hour Workout: Riding with Form and Focus

As we transition to the stage of the year that we’d typically consider (in a “normal” year, anyway) to be the off-season, it’s a great time to focus more on technique and form across all three sports. When it comes to cycling, working on your pedaling and cadence is a prime opportunity to find some “free speed” and learn to be more efficient. This riding with form and focus session is best done on the trainer so you can give full attention to technique without needing to worry about traffic/safety.

After a steady 20-minute warm-up, this workout begins with a prep set of 5 x 90 seconds easy riding at high RPM; your RPE here (rate of perceived exertion) should be 5-6/10 to allow you to really focus on keeping a higher cadence (think 95+ RPM). Riding at high cadence like this forces you to focus on how you’re pedaling—and you want to think about holding good posture and not rocking about/moving too much in your upper body as you increase the RPMs. Take 30 seconds easy spin between each 90-second interval.

The main set sees you up the effort—but only for very short blocks—so as to keep the focus here on technique, not intensity. You’ll do six rounds of 30-second building intervals, increasing effort every 10 seconds from 7/10 RPE to 8/10 RPE to 9/10 RPE. These are only short efforts so make them count! Take three minutes easy spin recovery between each of these 30-second intervals. Again, as with the prep set, keep your focus on good posture, smooth pedaling, and a “quiet” upper body.

Wrap up the workout with a 10-minute easy cool down and you’re done!

One-Hour Workout: Riding with Form and Focus

Warm-up

20 min. steady riding, gently progressing effort

Prep Set

5 x rounds of:

90 sec. high RPM (95+), RPE 5-6/10

30 sec. easy spins between

Main Set

6 x rounds of:

30 sec. builds as 10 sec. @ 7/10 RPE; 10 sec. @ 8/10 RPE; 10 sec. @ 9/10 RPE

3 min. easy spin between each 30 sec.

Cool Down

10 min. easy riding