So far, the weather in New England (I’m in CT now) has been quite poor as of late. As such, I’ve been riding a lot on the trainer. During the first phase of my training, I was just working on my base fitness, riding zones 1 and 2. I found I could get 45 minutes to an hour on the trainer without losing my mind by breaking it up into 15-minute segments. I’d go for 15 minutes, then get off, stretch a little, then get back on for another 15.
That being said, riding the trainer is still like watching paint dry. It’s tedious and not very fun.
In my next phase of training, I’ve started to incorporate intervals. One workout I did yesterday was the 5 x 1 minute interval workout. This training is a great workout to do on the trainer. Here’s the details:
Warm up for 15 minutes, then start into the intervals. This works out well for my “go for 15 minutes” strategy that I described above. After the warm up you’ll do the following:
- 1 minute on, 2 minutes off for a total of 5 intervals.
So I’ll start the first minute of the next 15 minutes of trainer torture, then do the following scedule:
- minute 2 to 3 – full on interval 50 x 11 (or whatever your largest gear is that you can handle for a minute)
- minutes 3 to 5 – 2 minutes light spinning
- minute 5 to 6 – another full on interval
- minutes 6 to 8 – 2 minutes light spinning
- minute 8 to 9 – another full on interval
- minutes 9 to 11 – 2 minutes light spinning
- minute 11 to 12 – another full on interval
- minutes 12 to 14 – 2 minutes light spinning
- minute 14 to 15 – last full on interval
You’ll see that nicely fills the 15 minute sections of riding the trainer.
The last 15 minutes you’ll ride easy, just cooling down. This workout packs a punch and works in to an only 45 minute trainer workout. Maybe you should try it out today! (if it fits into your training, of course)