Bike Workouts
14 June 2020
23:02
The following basic bike workouts are categorized according to the five abilities: AE, MF, SS, ME and AnE.
By combining portions of the workouts that follow, you can create new workouts, including multi-ability workouts, to match your specific needs. Merging multiple abilities into one workout is most commonly done in the build period.
The MF, ME, and AnE workouts listed below should be preceded by a warm-up. You should use these three ability categories only in the main set. The more intense the main set is of the workout, the longer your warm-up should be.
Do this workout in heart rate zone 1 while using the small chain ring on a flat course. Pedal with a comfortably high cadence.
An important purpose of this workout is to boost aerobic fitness by improving the body's capability for delivering and using oxygen to produce energy in muscle. Use a heart rate monitor to gauge the intensity of this workout. Your AeT heart rate is approximately 30bpm below your Anaerobic threshold heart rate.
Following a warm-up, ride at your AeT heart rate ±2 bpm on a flat to gently rolling course or indoor trainer. The length of time you spend on the AeT portion of the workout depends on the length of your target race:
To find your efficiency factor (EF) for this session divide the normalised power for the AeT portion by your average heart rate for the same portion.
Do this workout year round, initially to build and later on to maintain your AE. When you are using it to maintain do this workout about half as frequently as when you were initially building aerobic fitness.
This workout develops AE while also building ME. After a warm up ride for an hour or more on a course with small hills while staying mostly in heart rate zone 2, but with frequent brief increases to zone 3. Remain seated on most Hills. You can also do this workout on an indoor trainer by frequently shifting gears to increase the load and simulate Hills. A common variation of this workout is to run 15 to 20 minutes immediately after the ride. The purpose of the workout is to boost your body's capacity for processing oxygen to produce energy.
This is an interval workout involving 1 to 3 sets with 3 reps within each set. Warm-up well before starting the reps. Do this workout no more than twice per week with at least 48 hours between workouts. Do not do this workout if you have knee problems.
Be aware of how your knees feel on each rep. This is a high risk high reward workout. At the first time of any tenderness stop the workout. Power, not heart rate, is the only gauge of intensity for this session. Strive to produce very high wattage on each rep
Select a course that includes several moderately steep hills with a grade of up to about 6% that takes 2 to 5 minutes to climb stay seated on all Hills. Cadence on the climbs is 60 rpm or higher. Increase power to zone 4 or 5 on each hill, ride in power zones one or two in the latter portions of the course.
Do this workout no more than twice per week with at least 48 hours between workouts. Do not do this workout if you are prone to knee injury
On a steep hill with a grade of about 6 to 8% that takes 30 to 60 seconds to climb do 3 to 8 reps with 2 to 4 minutes of recovery between them. Maintain power zone 5 for each uphill climb. To recover coast while descending before starting the next rep. Maintain a cadence of 70 rpm or lower on each rep.
Stop this workout if you find your knees becoming sensitive. Do this workout no more than twice per week with at least 48 hours between them. Do not do this workout at all if you are prone to knee injury.
On a flat or slightly downhill section of road, or on an indoor trainer set to light resistance and in a low gear, gradually increased cadence for one minute to your maximum. Hold your maximum cadence for as long as possible which will probably be only a few seconds. Recover for at least a minute and repeat several times. This drill is best done with a handlebar computer that displays cadence. The purpose is improvement of your pedalling efficiency, indicated by an increasing maximum cadence.
On a flat or slightly downhill section of road, do 90% of the work with one leg while the other rests. Spin with a high cadence. Change legs when fatigue begins to set in. Focus on eliminating the "dead" portions at the top and bottom of the stroke
After warming up do 3 to 5 work intervals in zone 3 with brief recoveries. The work intervals may be 12 to 20 minutes long with recoveries that are about 1/4 as long. This workout should be done on a mostly flat course or on an indoor trainer. Recover by using easy paddling in zone 1. Tempo intervals are foundational workouts for long-course triathlon preparation.
On a relatively flat course or an indoor trainer, complete 3 to 5 work intervals with a duration of 6 to 12 minutes. Each work interval is done in zone 4, recovery in zone 1 with easy pedalling for about 1/4 of the preceding interval. During the first such workout of the new season the duration of the work intervals should typically total 12 minutes or less. Gradually over a few weeks increase the combined work interval duration to 30 to 50 minutes. Stay relax an aerodynamic and listen closely to your breathing. The work interval intensity is very similar to that of an Olympic distance triathlon pedal. An optional variation that challenges you to work harder is to shift occasionally between your normal gear for this intensity and higher gear.
This session is the same as ME2 cruise intervals, except it is done on a hill with a long, low gradient such as 2 to 4% or into a strong headwind. Stay in the aero position and work on a smooth stroke with minimal upper body motion. Recover after each climb by turning around and returning to the bottom of the hill in zone 1 this descent means that the recovery intervals will be longer than when you are doing Me 2 intervals but with a somewhat increased intensity for each interval and a slightly greater benefit for MF. Variation of this workout is to shift between your normal gear for such a climb and a higher gear every 30 seconds or so. Be sure to stay in zone 4 when doing this.
This workout is very similar to Me 2 but somewhat more challenging. On a mostly flat course or on the indoor trainer, do 3 to 5 intervals with durations of 4 to 8 minutes in zone 4. After each interval, recover for 1/4 of the duration of the preceding interval. The combined total of the work intervals in a single session may be 12 to 25 minutes. During each work interval, shift to a higher gear or increase your cadence to build gradually to the top of the zone four, taking one to two minutes to do so, then gradually reduce intensity by shifting to a lower gear or by reducing cadence so that you slowly dropped back to the bottom of zone 4, taking a one or two minutes to do so. Continue this pattern throughout each interval. This is an advanced workout that shouldn't be attempted until you have done 30 minutes or more of combined work interval time with workout E2. The first of these workouts in the season should include short intervals (4min) with a low total combined interval (12min).
On a mostly flat course ride 20 to 40 minutes non stop in power zone 4. Stay focused on steady pacing while listening to breathing throughout. Don't attempt the threshold ride until you've completed at least four MF interval workouts.
Ride with a group of people that includes some that are somewhat stronger riders than you there is no structure to this ride push yourself to stay with the faster riders for as long as you can the intensity goal is to achieve zone 5 for a few minutes several times during the ride be cautious with this workout not only in terms of how intense it may become but also in regard to Rd safety pay attention to traffic and to other riders who may not be skilled at reading in groups
After a long warm-up on a mostly flat course, do several work intervals each with a duration of 30 seconds to 4 minutes. Recover with easy pedalling in zone 1 for as long as the previous interval. As your fitness improves, reduce the recovery by half. Start with about 5 minutes of total interval time within a workout and gradually over several sessions build to about 15 minutes in a session. The goal intensity is power zone 5 and cadence for these intervals is at the high end of your comfort range.
This workout is the same as the AnE2 session, except the work interval progress in is 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2 and 1 minutes in power zone 5. The recovery after each interval is equal to the preceding work interval. After having done a few of these or the AnE2 workout, reduce the recovery durations by half. Cadence for these intervals is at the high end of your comfort range.
Find a relatively steep hill with a gradient of 6 to 8% that takes 2 to 3 minutes to climb. Following a thorough warm up do 5 to 7 climbs in power zone 5 for a total of 10 to 15 minutes of workout climbing time. Sit upright with your hands on the handlebar tops while staying on the saddle with a cadence at 60 rpm or higher. Recover by coasting down the hill. Start a new interval every two to three minutes. This is a very hard workout that is best done only once in a week an followed by at least 48 hours of recovery
This test of your aerobic fitness is best done after 3 to 5 days of greatly reduced training to allow rest and recovery. Follow the instruction for workout AE2 above, following the session divide your normalised power for the portion by your average heart rate for the same portion to determine your current EF. This test should be done year round at least every 6 to 8 weeks. If possible, use the same course every time.
The purpose of this test is to determine your functional threshold power and functional threshold heart rate. Do this test following 3 to 5 days of active rest and recovery. Find a stretch that is flat to slightly uphill (grade of less than 3%), you will probably need 10 to 15km depending on how fast you are. A safe course is critical. You may also do this on an indoor trainer. Ride as if you are in a race that lasts 20 minutes. Hold back slightly in the first 5 minutes. Every five minutes decide whether you should go slightly faster or more slowly for the next 5 minutes. After the workout find your average heart rate for the 20 minute tests, subtract 5% and you have a good estimate of your bike FTHR. Find your average power (not "normalized" power), subtract 5% and you have a good estimate of FTPo.
This test is done to determine your functional aerobic capacity power. It may be done in place of a costly clinical test of VO2max. This test is best done following reduced training for 3 to 5 days. The selected test course should also be flat to slightly uphill (grade of less than 3%). Warm up thoroughly and then do a steady all out effort for 5 minutes. Your average power for the 5-minutes test portion is a good predictor of your power at aerobic capacity.
After a thorough 15 to 30 minutes warm-up, complete a 10km time trial on a flat course. A safe course is critical.
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