As promised, here is the schedule for our current workout block. Feel free to switch around days if you need to!
Monday: Rest day. Spin sooper dooper easily, do some easy cross-training, or take the day off if you’re feeling beat-up.
Tuesday: 6×10 Tempo Intervals. Do six, ten minute intervals at ~80-90% max heart rate with 5 minutes of rest between each interval. Keep your cadence around 90, and feel free to get up out of the saddle every now and then. These intervals should not be that difficult, so are a great time to work on technique. Be sure to keep your upper body as relaxed and motionless as possible, maintain an even pedal stroke, and keep your head up and eyes looking forward.
Wednesday:1×1’s. Do a long warmup with a few short, hard efforts. Then do 6 sets of: 1 minute on at VO2 (HR at about 90-95% of max. This is not an all out sprint, but definitely hard. 1 minute rest (keep spinning!) After 20 minutes at aerobic pace, repeat the 6 sets.
Thursday: Rest Day.
Friday: 6×10’s. (Repeat Tuesday)
Saturday: Tabata Intervals. Take a good, long warm-up (at least 15 min, high cadence, with several harder efforts thrown in to get the big muscles in your legs nice and loose)
-One set of Tabatas/sprints will be comprised of: 20 seconds sprinting, 10 seconds resting. Repeat 8 times for a total of 4min. To be clear, these are zone 5, SMSP, balls-out SPRINTS. If you are monitoring HR, you should be at about 105% of your max HR.
-Complete 6 sets of these sprint intervals for a total of 48 sprints. Take a 3min rest between sets.
A few tips for these intervals. These will feel very easy at first and then get hard quickly. Look to maintain a constant power output in the sprint and alternate between seated and out-of-the-saddle sprints. More importantly, remember that this workout has two purposes. One is to squeeze every drop of power from our legs. More important, at least in my humble opinion, is to improve our pedaling form in a high-output situation. Focus on keeping your upper body stable and your arms your arms relaxed. Keep your pedals strokes round and keep your ankles loose. Use your core to stabilize you and prevent any “side-to-side” rocking on the trainer.
Sunday: LSD. 1.5-2 hours of aerobic riding (i.e. the perfect time to watch a movie!). note: this is not a rest day, so don’t just spin mindlessly. You should be working (just not very hard).
I know it’s feeling like the winter will never end and we’ll be riding inside forever, but it won’t be long before we can take to the roads again! Even this much snow has to melt eventually!
