- It's incredibly tempting to just jump on your bike
and head out the door and enjoy the ride.
Well, there is nothing wrong with that
unless, however, you want to get fitter and stronger.
If that is the case, then you're going to need
to add in some structure or some planned sessions.
- And no matter how much time you have spent in the saddle,
or indeed, your level of riding ability,
by having a session in place before you head out the door,
it's definitely going to help you get the most out of it.
So, with that in mind,
whether you are struggling for some inspiration
or indeed, you just don't know where to start,
in this video, we're going to give you three session ideas
to help you get going.
And please don't forget to let us know
in the comment section below what you think of them.
(slow electronic music)
- Before we delve into the details of the sessions,
well they all will require a warm-up and a warm-down,
which can easily be repeated for all of them.
And if you've got a high intensity session coming up,
then the warm-up becomes even more vital,
so you might need to extend it
just to make sure you're fully ready to tackle that set.
- Start off at a very easy intensity,
just spinning your legs at a conversational pace
and stick to this for at least 15 to 20 minutes
and gradually build,
but still with the ability to talk comfortably.
Once you're feeling adequately warm,
put in a few short efforts to raise your heart rate
and get you mentally prepared for what's ahead.
Ride hard for 30 seconds
and then pedal easy for 90 afterwards.
Repeat this through five times.
And there should be a significant pace change
in between those efforts.
So then, just take yourself another extra couple of minutes
to let that heart rate settle back down,
catch your breathe, and then decide
upon which session you're going to tackle.
(upbeat music)
- Hill workouts are a brilliant way
to get a decent workout in in a short amount of time.
They take you out of your comfort zone
and really help you to build on your strength.
You could see it as a functional gym workout in disguise.
- Yeah, but we do realize not everyone
has ready access to the hills out on the road,
so you can replicate these sessions
on the indoor trainer just as happily
with the same session outcomes, so fear not.
The session will be eight to 10 times through of a set,
including two minutes at a low cadence,
somewhere around 65 to 70 RPM,
followed by one minute easy spinning at a higher cadence,
around 80 to 90 RPM.
Or you could split this into four to five sets through
with three minutes of extra spinning
before resuming the second half of the workout.
- [Woman] In the ideal world, you want to get outside
and find an actual hill that you can really get stuck in
and push yourself hard on and then, when you get to the top,
you can easily turn around and use the descent
as your recovery before you start the next rep.
- Yeah, but as we already mentioned,
if you don't live somewhere where there's hills close by,
you can easily replicate this session on the indoor trainer
or equally, out in a nice flat section of a road too
by choosing a lower gear
that makes you push a much slower cadence,
the same as you would replicate on a hill.
(upbeat electronic music)
- Having a weekly session
that brings in an element of pace change
is great for your training
and it helps keep your body guessing,
especially if you've got a race around the corner,
as it just starts to replicate a real life race situation.
- Yeah, and a really nice session that I find useful
that was about 10 minutes long in total
started off with some nice short sharp surges
to get the heart rate spiked and the lungs opened up,
then into a more sustained race pace element, too,
and just as things are starting to get uncomfortable,
you got your recovery back, too.
- So, starting out with 20 seconds hard,
followed by 40 seconds easy,
and repeat that four times through
and then lead straight into three minutes riding
at your goal race pace, followed by three minutes recovery
to complete the block of work.
And then, as with any workout,
this can be repeated a number of times
as you get fitter and stronger,
so, start with two to three sets,
then you can build up to four or five.
(upbeat music)
Intervals can sound a little bit daunting,
but in reality, they're a great way
to break up the monotony of a standard bike ride
whilst adding valuable structure to your workout.
- Yeah, and if you ask me,
the beauty about intervals is that
there's no real right or wrong way to do them.
It's that old how long is a piece of string scenario.
And personally speaking,
I used to like approaching intervals
over an extended period of time
in the context of a bigger block of training and each week,
gradually building up the duration of each block of work.
- So with that in mind, start off with shorter intervals
and equal portions of recovery
and you can progress this as the weeks go through.
So for week one, start with eight sets of two minutes hard,
two minutes easy.
Week two, six sets of three minutes hard, two minutes easy.
Week three, five sets of four minutes hard,
two minutes easy.
Week four, do three sets of eight minutes hard,
four minutes easy
and then on week five, do two sets of 12 minutes hard,
five minutes easy.
The great thing about these sessions
is they can be done equally easily out on the road
or adapted to the indoor trainer.
There really is no right or wrong,
it's purely down to personal preference.
(upbeat electronic music)
- Now, riding our bikes for the sake of riding our bikes
is great fun, don't get us wrong,
but by adding in the extra dynamic
of some structured sessions like those
that we have just talked about,
it's definitely going to help you move your training
up a level or two.
- And it might not be your usual leisurely spin,
but trust us, it will benefit you in the long term.
So hopefully, you've enjoyed this.
Give us a thumbs up like if you have
and click on that globe on the screen
to subscribe and make sure you get all of our videos here
at GTN and whilst we're looking at sessions,
if you want some session ideas for swimming,
you can find a video for that just down here.
- And if you want to see a video that I did
about getting a bike fit, well you can find that here.