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If you live anywhere where it snows in the winter chances are you are quite friendly with your indoor bike trainer! Many of us spend countless hours spinning to nowhere in front of the tv watching trashy shows (okay, maybe only I do that. New guilty trainer ride show: The Bachelor)!

I’ve had a few inquiries about what kinds of workouts I do while on the trainer. Trainer rides can be quite boring as you can imagine. However, triathletes are made during the winter months. This is where you build that big aerobic engine. One of my goals this year is to rebuild my power functional threshold (FTP) again. In early 2012 it was about 180watts (although I’m sure it was higher at the end of the summer, however we never tested again) and early 2013 it was about 150-160watts. A huge drop that I was never able to recover during Ironman training. Note: FTP is relative to an athlete. It can depend on a bunch of different factors, such as weight, bike setup and, obviously, fitness. It’s best not to compare with other people. I learned that the hard way! 🙂

Here are a few of my favorite rides:

Cadence Pyramid

• Warm-up: 10 min – Build up to Z2 HR every 3 mins, easy 1 min spin before MS
• Main set: (1) 95-100rpm 1 min, easy 1 min, (2) 95-100rpm 2 min, easy 1 min, (3) 95-100rpm 3 min, easy 1 min, (4) 95-100rpm 4 min, easy 1 min, (5) 95-100rpm 5 min, easy 1 min
• 5:00 easy 90-95 spin
• Repeat pyramid in reverse starting from 5 min
• Cool down: 5 min easy spin

I work a lot over the winter months on my cadence. I used to be a really bad gear grinder, meaning I would spin a harder gear at a lower cadence. I had very strong legs from this method, but it killed my running off the bike. Working with a coach in 2012 helped me break this nasty habit and I continue to work towards comfortably pedaling at a cadence of 85-90rm.

 

These are just a few of my bike trainer workouts that I have in my workout library. If you are interested in more than please consider hiring me as your coach! I have a few openings left for 2014! Check out my coaching options HERE! 🙂

What are your favorite workouts?

~ Happy Training!