1-Hour Bike Workouts

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By: Dan Frost, MP Multisport Coach

This week’s bike workout comes from coach Dan Frost of MP Multisport in Fort Collins, Colorado. Coach Frost is USAT Level I, ASCA Masters Level II, and also an active technical official with ITU and USAT while serving as the Elite Athlete Coordinator with US Military Endurance Sports.

 

The following hour-long workouts are designed for these summer months when you can ride outdoors. They are good for athletes racing any distance, but are specially suited for the half and full-distance athletes who only have an hour during mid-week to perform a high-intensity ride.

First a quick definition of Threshold: Your threshold power/speed/distance is the MAXIMUM you can sustain for one hour! To test your threshold, we often use a controlled environment on the indoor trainer away from stoplights and hills. 95% of your 20 minute output is a great approximation of threshold.

 

WORKOUT #1

This is a combined power-building and tempo ride for the athlete preparing for a triathlon on a rolling or hilly course.

  • 20 minute ride to a hill (or if no hill available, ride to a flat, open area)
  • 3 x (3 minute big gear/60-70rpm/100-105% of threshold + U-turn and EZ spin back to starting point)
  • 10 minute tempo effort at 80-90% of threshold
  • 10 minute very easy cooldown

 

WORKOUT #2

When you don’t have time to do a multi-hour tempo ride, this is an hour-long workout that you can do as an out-and-back from your home.

  • Ride 15 minutes out at less than 70% threshold
  • 2 x (4 min at 90% + 4 min at 70%)
  • U-turn
  • 3 x (4 min at 90% + 4 min at 70%)
  • Ride home very EASY less than 70% threshold

 

WORKOUT #3

This workout is focused building stamina needed to attack those short hills well enough to maintain the momentum necessary for a fast bike split on a rolling or hilly bike course.

  • Ride 15 min easy to a hill that’s about a 6 to 8% grade
  • 6 x (1 min working it up the hill, seated and going for it, spin down the hill for recovery)
  • Spin 5 minutes easy between each set
  • Repeat the 6 x 1 minute climbs
  • Ride home easy effort capped at 70% of threshold