Time to change it up!
It’s that time of the year again: You get off work, you’re tired and by the time you get home it’s not worth to put on the cycling gear because it’s already dark outside. What you do? Put that bike in the corner and hop onto the couch? Well, that’s one option. But if you have to follow a training schedule or still want to get a good workout in just use the trainer! Many people argue riding the rollers or a trainer is boring. There are no hills, no head wind, no stoplights or descends along the way. Well, it all depends what you make out of it.
There are three easy-to-do workouts which help you to prepare for race season AND keep you from the monotony riding that trainer. For all of the following workouts, you should warm up at least 10-15 minutes at an easy pace. Also, make sure to have a fan available since your body needs to stay cool without the usual breeze flowing over you when riding outside.
I. Threshold – Something everyone can benefit from! Do six to ten 5-minute intervals at your threshold intensity (use your HR Monitor or Power meter to monitor that) with one minute recovery splits in between the efforts. Make sure to get your HR down in between intervals so that you’re actually seeing a difference between “on” and “off”.
II. Cadence – get used to “high” and “low”! Ride at tempo pace (75-80% of your Power Threshold or 90% of your Heart Rate Threshold) for 45-75 minutes and shift gears every two minutes switching between 60 rpm or 120 rpm. This way, your legs will get used to the change of cadence in a race and you’ll get comfortable on both ends of the cadence spectrum.
III. Pyramids – THE favorite trainer workout! Do a set of hard “chunks” that increase by one minute until you reach six minutes and then go back the reverse way. One scheme could look like this: 1-2-3-4-5-6-5-4-3-2-1. Allow your body to recover for a minute between each part of the pyramid. This will help you adapt to the irregular change of intensity during competition.
If those intervals still seem to be boring to you just add some TV-time, or watch a cycling DVD and riding the trainer will turn into fun!