Merry Christmas all! Cycling Workout #4

Here is a special christmas edition cycling workout... okay there is nothing really special about this workout other than I am posting on Christmas Eve so you guys have something to do on Christmas day if you get totally bored at home. Here she goes...

Total time: 1 hour

Warm-up:

- 5 minute Warm up

- 2 minute seated flat; level 5, flat road, *this will be your active recovery pace

Main Set:

Set 1; 4 minute seated flat; level 6-7, 85-90 rpm *(turning relatively big gear)

          4 minute active recovery; same resistance as above but all out of the saddle, level 5

          4 minute seated flat; level 6-7, 85-90 rpm

          2 minute full recovery; in saddle

Set 2; 3 minute standing climb, high resistance, level 7, 70 rpm

          4 minute active recovery, seated flat, level 5

          3 minute standing climb, high resistance, level 7, 70 rpm

          2 minute full recovery, flat

Set 3; 3 minute seated climb, enough resistance and pace to get to level 8/threshold (i.e. push hard!)

          4 minute active recovery, same resistance as above, out of saddle, level 6 (i.e. lower pace)

          3 minute; repeat first 3 minute interval in set 3

          2 minute full recovery

Set 4; 1 minute seated climb, heavy resistance, level 8-9 (FAST!)

          4 minute seated flat, active recovery (steady and fast)

          1 minute seated climb, heavy resistance, level 9 (sprint on the hill!)

          

Cool Down:

10-15 minute easy cool down         

5 minutes of stretching

P.S.

*Profile Summary: So this profile is designed to get you to focus on active recovery in between increasingly hard intervals. Thus, for each 'active recovery' set, focus on keeping the legs/body engaged and not going into total recovery/cool down mode (i.e. level 5). This will help to get your body used to race efforts as well as getting your body to take advantage of smaller and smaller recovery times. Thus, you can go faster for a much longer time. Think about it in terms of continuing to ride but adapting your speed/gear to recovery vs. completely stopping or sitting up to a slow cadence to get a drink of water. Thank you Bill Pierce!