While any driving will help, there are some workouts that are more effective than others. Some attractions are to prepare you for training. Others are to help you recover. But there are certain key workouts that require a lot of effort and rewards with great improvements. Spring is just around the corner, so here are the top 5 workouts that will improve your speed, endurance, and help burn off winter chubby by speeding up your metabolism.

Warning: As with any exercise program, check with your doctor to make sure vigorous exercise is safe for you.

Velmax intervals

These are power-based ranges that I created based on research on increasing VO2 max and threshold power. To do this properly, you will need a power meter and have tested your functional power threshold. These are among the most difficult intervals I have done, so if you have less than a year of training under your belt or are coming off a break, don’t do them as you will probably throw up if you do it correctly.

The performance gains from these are pretty quick, so the prescribed intensity is your first time doing these intervals. Typically, with each workout you will increase the number of intervals or the power at which you perform them after the first workout.

Warm-up 15-20 minutes

Velmax intervals

30 seconds at 135% FT power / 30 seconds easy Repeat until unable to maintain power.

As the power fluctuates, I usually set a goal and when I can’t keep 10-20 watts below that level, the workout ends.

For example, if your threshold is 300 watts, your Velmax goal for your first workout is 405 watts. It’s okay to go above, but not below 400. When you can’t keep it above 395 watts, the workout ends and it cools down. The first time you do this, it is common for you to only get 15-20 reps. Keep the same power goal until you can get more than 30 reps. When you can increase your power for the next workout by 10-15 watts.

The athletes I work with have gone from an average of 400 watts in 18 intervals to 450 watts in 31 intervals in just 3 weeks. This translates into more sustainable power, a more sustainable heart rate, and better resilience from hard efforts.

The reason they work so well is that the 30-second work period really does get your heart rate up, but the 30-second recovery isn’t enough to get your heart rate down too low. With each interval, your heart rate and oxygen use keep increasing until you reach your Vo2 max. The recovery time is enough for your legs to clear a bit, allowing you to do more work than you could if it were continuous. This allows you to accumulate for a long time at your maximum oxygen capacity, causing a rapid improvement in your cardiovascular system. While very effective, once again I don’t give them a try if you are not used to intensive training.

Tabata intervals

Tabata intervals are named after the physician who investigated the efficacy of short, high-intensity intervals versus longer moderate exercise. Tabata describes the interval protocol. 20 seconds of work / 10 seconds of rest repeated 8-10 times. Dr. Tabata’s research showed that these intervals are the most effective in bringing about an improvement in both the aerobic and anaerobic systems.

The key is maximum efforts with shorter recovery periods. Incomplete recovery leads to increased oxygen debt leading to a better ability to process oxygen. In a six-week study, these 5-day-a-week intervals increased VO2 Max by 13 percent, aerobic capacity by 14 percent, and anaerobic capacity by 28 percent. This is with just 20 minutes of exercise a day, including a warm-up and cool-down.

20 seconds of strength / 10 easy spins X 10 reps = 5 minutes from hell

Then drive gently for 5 minutes and do it again.

Measure your level of effort based on your current physical condition. If you are new to cycling or are just getting back to cycling at 80% instead of doing it all. If you’ve been training regularly, make every 20-second interval a 100% effort. Don’t try to control your pace, just attack each interval as if it were the last of the set.

If you are using a power meter, you want to aim for 150% of your functional threshold power for hard 20 second efforts. When you start out, do only one set of intervals, but as your fitness increases, you should increase the number of sets you do.

4 x 4 intervals

Norwegian researchers Hoff & Helgerud have found that you can get better increases in cardiac output with frequent high intensity exercise than with a longer but less intense workout. The basis of Hoff & Helgerud’s resistance training theory is the 4 × 4 interval. This means 4 intervals of 4 minutes each, at 85-95% of HR max. (For high performance athletes between 90-95% of HR max.), With low intensity breaks of 3-4 minutes. This is a workout that is meant to give the biggest increases in VO2max âEUR “which, according to Hoff & Helgerud, is the deciding factor for endurance (something I only partially agree on, but nonetheless).

The theory is based on training the heart to maximum stroke volumes to expose it to maximum shear stress, conditions that are only achieved with the highest heart rates. Why 4 minutes? Apparently it takes more than 2 minutes for the heart to reach maximum beat volume under these conditions, so you have to keep working for a longer period of time to get the maximum training effect here. They have found that intervals that last longer than 4 minutes generally signify a drop in intensity and are therefore less effective.

The researchers had athletes perform several days in a row of only 4 × 4 intervals (up to 18 sessions in 14 days) with 2-4 weeks of lower volume training to facilitate recovery, while maintaining gains without as much work required. . On average, subjects saw a 5% improvement per workout.

The experiments have resulted in large increases in VO2max, up to a 10% increase over the course of the experiment for already highly trained athletes. If you are training with a power meter or heart rate monitor, do the intervals as follows: Warm-up 15-20 minutes. 4 minutes at 120% of your threshold power at a high cadence of 100-110 rpm or increase to your maximum heart rate from the fitness test.

– Recover for 4 minutes

– Repeat a total of 4-6 times.

– Cool down for 10-15 minutes

Muscular endurance intervals

This workout is good for increasing strength development. Generating a lot of power is the combination of pedal cadence and gear selection. The aerobic conditioning exercises and pedaling will allow you to turn, and this workout will help you to be able to do it with a higher gear. This exercise is great because it works the cardiovascular system and it really works the legs. Over time, your legs won’t get as tired from hard, sustained efforts.

As you do the low-rev intervals, focus on being smooth and relaxing your upper body. If you have knee problems, switch to higher cadences until your knees don’t hurt.

Do this workout twice a week with at least two days between exercises, as it will take longer for your legs to recover from this workout than heavier aerobic driving.

Warm-up 15 minutes accumulating the upper limit of your aerobic range (90% of your average heart rate from your fit test) Cadence 90-100 rpm.

5 x 10 second step work series with 3 minute recovery between efforts (choose a hard gait, slow pace when walking, and then step on the pedals trying to accelerate as hard as you can for the 10 seconds). 5 minutes of smooth riding after stomping followed by 10-30 minutes at 70 rpm at the upper end of your aerobic zone. (If you are using a power meter, it will be 85-90% of your functional threshold wattage.) Cooldown 10 minute easy twist to clear legs and gradually reduce heart rate.

Threshold intervals

Your functional threshold (FT) for practical cycling purposes is the maximum heart rate or power that you can sustain for about an hour. The higher the power threshold, the faster you can go for an extended period without your legs exploding on you. Simply put, the way to raise your anaerobic threshold is to drive your heart rate or threshold power for progressively longer periods. These are difficult but effective. If you’ve taken the fitness test, you will have calculated your anaerobic threshold heart rate and / or power if you have a trainer or meter on the bike that measures power.

Start with 2 X 10 minutes at your threshold heart rate with a 5 minute recovery between intervals.

Each week, increase the amount of time for the intervals by 2 minutes until you reach 20 minutes each.

To increase from there, look to add a third interval or several days of threshold intervals in a row. This can be very exhausting, but when you recover from workouts, you will be stronger.

Mix it up

While you will get your biggest improvements in fitness from high intensity workouts, you still need to take longer and easier runs. While you can build great endurance performance with the workouts listed above, if the events you do are long (i.e., longer than 2 hours), you need to get your body used to spending that kind of time on a bike. Also, lower intensity walks are great for promoting physical and mental recovery. Sometimes it’s hard to push yourself hard enough to get the interval training benefit due to mental exhaustion, so mixing up your training is a great way to stay mentally fresh and keep progressing physically.