Bicycle Training

Are you a recreational cyclist or do you cycle to keep fit?
A bit of both I suspect!
Do you cycle outdoors or do you use an indoor cycle as part of your gym work?
Indoor cycling can be pretty tedious (not two words that go together well) even with some fast pumping music on your mp3 player.
Outdoor cycling can be interesting as well as good for fitness.
Sometimes it is great to just get on your bike and cycle, without any pre-conceived ideas of where you are going or how long for.
You get to see more of your surroundings, possibly meet likeminded people and get fitter as you do it.
Sometimes though, you need to get more specific and train to get fit.
As I mentioned cycling is a great way to get fitter but to get the best out of your cycling you need to push yourself further and do a bit of specific training.
So it's a win win situation. You cycle, you get fit, you cycle more, you get fitter, and you enjoy being fit and cycling. You are inspired; you cycle round the world bringing about world peace you......
....Wake up. You fell asleep at the roadside. You had tried pushing yourself too far before you were ready.
How to design your own workout.
You can make your workouts as complicated or as easy as you like. I prefer the KISS method (keep it simple stupid) as keeping things simple works for me.
So I will now demonstrate how to make a simple cycling training routine.
Step 1. Decide what type of training you will be doing today.
There are many different training techniques and I normally use heart rate and rate of perceived exertion for outdoor training and heart rate and power readings on the indoor bike.
There are also a number of training zones but the ones I tend to use in my quest for simplicity are Recovery rides which basically are easy spinning and are used to aid recovery from a recent harder ride.
Aerobic intervals. Which are generally done at 70-80% of maximum heart rate.
Anaerobic intervals. Which are generally done at 80-90% of maximum heart rate.
Leg Strength Training. Which can be done on the bike or at the gym using weights.
Endurance Training. Any rides of more than 1hr 30mins are generally classed as endurance rides and are done at a pace you can manage for the duration of the ride.
High levels of concentration are required to keep you in the correct zone for lengthy periods. It is easy to relax or to push harder than is needed on an endurance ride.
As recovery and endurance rides are basically just rides with different lengths and resistance, the other three zones are the ones we can make more interesting by designing our own routines.
Step 2. Indoor or outdoor training?
Step 3. How much time do you have? You can get a good workout in under an hour, but I usually aim for around an hour if I can. If I only have 30 or 45 minutes I will do a more intense workout. Usually a leg strength workout.
Step 4. Short or long intervals or a mixture of both? Interval training is a great way to push your body further than if you just rode at a set level.
You can design extremely complicated routines with any number of intervals of differing lengths of time, resistance or speed. Or you can design a more simple (yes please) routine. A routine you can actually remember.
I have seen a workout that consisted of 30 different intervals ranging from 20 second bursts up to 1 minute, with different recovery times. How you are supposed to follow that is beyond me!
Step 5. Let's put it all together!
For an example I will design a new (simple) aerobic routine that lasts around an hour.
It will be done outside on my bike. At this point I must admit I have to really push myself to do this type of training outside. I much prefer to just ride and let the route be the fitness provider. However, sometimes we have to do things we don't like if there is an overall benefit for us.
On the other hand, I find this type of training keeps me motivated when I am indoors as just riding an indoor bike can be mind numbing to say the least.
This routine will consist of 3 minute intervals with a 10 minute warm-up and a 10 minute cool-down.
A nice flat route of about 10-15 miles should be ok, or one that has some gentle hills.
If you can't find a suitable route, you can always use a shorter one and go over it as many times as needed.
Start off with 10 minute warm-up with easy spinning.
Using either your gears or a hill to give you more resistance, sprint for 3 minutes at around 80-90% of your maximum cadence.
You should still be able to hold a conversation. If you find you are out of breath, you are pushing too hard.
Recover with 3 minutes easy spinning.
Repeat 6 times and cool-down with 10 minutes easy spinning.
Total time = 62 minutes.
That was a really simple workout, but I hope it gets you thinking and helps you to design your own workouts.
Now's a good time for a disclaimer!
Any of my routines are not endorsed by any medical or professional sports bodies and are used at your own risk. I cannot be held responsible for any routines that you design based on my ideas.
Please let me know if you do design any good routines. I will add them to my forthcoming book with full credit to you.:)

For more tips and routines visit Cycling For Fitness

If you really can't be bothered to design your own you can easily get a copy of David Ertl's 101 Cycling workouts. He is practically giving it away, so I won't blame you for being lazy and not making your own! Get your own copy here....101 Cycling Workouts

If you have ever tried a spinning class you will know how good they are.
I recently joined a class after many year thinking they would not be for me.
Once I tried it and found that I liked it and was really feeling the benefits, I realised there was a problem.
I was restricted to the class times and dates, so I searched the internet for any mp3 downloads.

There are a few, but some of them are not to be recommended.
Two that I would recommend are Tracey Mallett and Mathew Reyes.
You can download their mp3's at iAmplife
iAmplify's Blog

It is just like being in a class, but the best thing is you can do it whenever you like.