Cycling Session

Sunday Smart-Trainer Session: Easy Tempo

Preparing your body for the intensity that will be replicated and sustained during an event is an essential part of training. This session is great for triathletes, and road cyclists. It can also be beneficial for mountain bikers, especially for events that are about an hour in duration such as a 40km Time Trial or the bike leg of an Olympic Distance Triathlon.

Each Sunday I’ll post a Smart-Trainer Session that you can do in about 60 minutes to enhance your cycling. See a previous post about training intensity (Levels) to know how hard to work. If you are working directly with Coach Ray he will in most cases prescribe either a Power Zone or Heart Rate Zone to work within if you are training with these tools.

The inspiration for this session comes from a workout in an article by Marc Evan in the November 2007 issue of Triathlete Mag.

Easy Tempo

  • 5min Level I-II;
  • 8x
    • 1min Level III Cad 100rpm,
    • 4min Level I-II,
    • 1min Level III Cad 65-75rpm,
    • 4min Level I-II,
  • 10min Stretching

Start the workout with a five-minute Warm Up (WU) riding at Level I-II.

There are eight sets within the workout and each set contains four reps. The first rep is ridden at Level III for one minute holding a cadence of 100 rpm. The second rep is four minutes long at Level I-II. The third rep is another one-minute rep at Level III with a cadence between 65 & 75 rpm. The final rep is another four-minute rep ridden at Level I-II. When you do this rep for the final time it is for all intents and purposes your Cool Down (CD).

Finish with ten minutes of stretching to assist with your recovery.

If you would like further advice feel free to contact me.

I am the Head Coach & Director of Qwik Kiwi – Endurance Sports Consultant.

I specialise in assisting first-timers and recreational athletes to achieve their sporting goals. I can be contacted at coachray@coachray.nz and 021 348 729. Make sure you sign up for my informative newsletter.

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Download the Garmin (.FIT) and Zwift (.ZWO) files for this workout for FREE

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Prior to using this plan, you should be able to ride comfortably for 2 hours.

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Prior to using this plan, you should be able to ride non-stop for 60 minutes.

Purchase of this plan gives you access to my fortnightly coaching calls where you can ask me any training or racing-related questions.

When purchasing, use the discount code “web25” to claim your 25% discount.

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