I recently decided to give the whole indoor cycling workouts and Zwift thing another go after getting a smart trainer. My first time hadn’t gone smoothly, and now, I’m much more acquainted but sometimes, I could do without the extra steps to get on my bike and get moving.
One of my goals for 2020 was to work with a cycling coach and train for an event – maybe Red Bull Timelaps 2020?! Pretty much every event is off the cards for Spring and the start of Summer, so all I need to work on is my base level of fitness.
I’m yet to check out the training plans on Zwift, but I’m keen to have a bit more structure in my cycling especially now the majority of it is indoors. One place I enjoyed indoor cycling is at The Altitude Centre.
Beyond the current climate, if you can’t make it to the AC in London, you can get a taste of their medicine with the three indoor cycling workouts they shared with me for the blog. If you put the effort in, you’ll feel just like you’re in the chamber with reduced oxygen!
Your Indoor Cycling Workouts
These workouts will take you between 30 and 45 minutes to complete. If you can spare twenty minutes before each session, then you need to include this dynamic warmup.
Session 1: Nine Bars
- 5 minute warm up easy spinning with 5 x 10 second cadence surges each minute
- 9 x 50 second effort / 10 second recovery
- 90 second recovery
- 9 x 45 second effort / 10 second recovery
- 90 second recovery
- 9 x 40 second effort / 20 second recovery
- 5 minute cool down, taking cadence down each minute.
Session 2: Power Up
For this session and session 3, you will need to know what your Functional Threshold Power is.
BLOCK 1
60:60 @ 130% FTP
Recovery time decreases 10 seconds with each effort down to 20 seconds
90 sec recovery
BLOCK 2
60:60 @ 135% FTP
Recovery time decreases 10 seconds with each effort down to 20 seconds
90 sec recovery
BLOCK 3
60:60 @ 140% FTP
Recovery time decreases 10 seconds with each effort down to 20 seconds
Session 3: Block It Out
2 minute warm up
3 x 4 minutes
1 @ FTP
2 @ 110% FTP
3 % 120% FTP
Each one with 60 seconds to recover in between rounds.
3 minute cool down
As much as it’s disappointing not being able to get out on the roads right now, I’m trying to use my time as best I can to improve my cycling and training.
I’m pretty sure that my indoor miles will translate to outdoors… I just need to decide what I’m training for (i.e endurance, fitness, a particular distance etc) and go for it!
If you’re keen to learn more about training at altitude, you can read about my experience of their 6 week training programme here.
Have you been enjoying cycling indoors?!
Elle
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