Recommend me some 40 min turbo/spinner training sessions

grazer

Hi all

Due to time constraints, i am only really getting long rides in at the weekend. During the week i can usually get on the gym spinner a couple of times for 30-40mins. Normally i just plod along in Z2 (around 145-50bpm). It feels now like this is a bit of a waste of time and i was thinking that there must be a better use of this time

So i was thinking of doing say a 30 min session in Z4, or something like a 2x20 (would be more like a 15x15). Should i try anything else??

Suggestions welcome.....

Thanks
Graeme

Alex_Simmons/RST

5 min warm up, 30 min Z4, 5 min warm down.
5 min warm up, 30 min Z3 with a 15 second surge every 3 min, 5 min warm down.
5 min warm up, 4 min each in order: Z2, Z3 ,Z4, Z5, Z4, Z3, Z2, 5 min warm down
next

Ken Night

I understand to get the maximum benefit, you increase the overall load over 3 weeks, take a 4th week easy. Increase the load slightly the next 3 weeks, 4th week easy etc-with your target event at the end of a fourth week

Your target event/s will dictate your training type

Here are some ones I've found useful

"6 x 4 minute intervals
Warm up thoroughly, then do a 4 minute interval at 89-94% (ideal would be 180). Recover for 3 minutes and repeat x 5, making 6 intervals in all.
Ensure a good warm down."

"
Sustained Effort 2-exploring 82-89% or Z4
Warm up, then ride at 165 bpm for 15 minutes then 160 bpm)for 5 minutes then 170 bpm for 10 minutes. Do not take any recovery between each effort, then warm down. Make sure the increase from 160 to 170 is nice and smooth.
"

"Speed Session 1
4 miles at 24 mph
3 miles at 25 mph
2 miles at 26 mph
1.5 miles at 27 mph
1 mile at 28 mph
0.5 mile at 29 mph
Recovery
Take 4 minutes between each interval spinning at 14 mph.
"

"Speed Session
Warm up
5 minutes at 21 mph
5 minutes at 22 mph
5 minutes at 23 mph
5 minutes at 24 mph
5 minutes at 25 mph
5 minutes recovery at 17 mph
3 minutes at 26 mph
3 minutes at 27 mph
3 minutes at 28 mph
3 minutes at 29 mph
3 minutes at 30 mph
5 minutes recovery at 17 mph
1 minute at 31 mph
1 minute at 32 mph
Warm down
"

"Turbo Session High Cadence
Warm up for 15 minutes (WU) then spin in small gear at maximum rpm for 5 minutes. Recover for 5 minutes and repeat x 5 (making 6 in all). Warm down for 15 minutes (WD). Note down your max rpm and max HR for each.
"

For the last one, I choos emy cadence sometimes-varying between 90-100, 90, 110, 90-115, 90, 90-100, 90-110, 90-115.....with a warm up and down of course

Alex_Simmons/RST

Ken Night wrote:

I understand to get the maximum benefit, you increase the overall load over 3 weeks, take a 4th week easy. Increase the load slightly the next 3 weeks, 4th week easy etc-with your target event at the end of a fourth week

All good workouts although using HR for the shorter 4-min efforts is not much of a guide as HR has too much lag. Pace, power or RPE would be better.

As to progressive overload, since these are only 30-40min sessions, pretty hard to actually build overload into it as you are likely to be working at the upper end of the duration/power curve anyway. Overload would have to come from weekend work.

As to 3 weeks on 1 off, well I don't subscribe to that. Have a recovery period when you need it, not based on some artificial notion of 3 on 1 off.

And tapering for an event beyond a couple of easy days is not really needed when riding such volumes. When your long term training levels start getting up there, then a longer taper makes sense for an important event.

bahzob

I find gym trainers boring, especially plodding along in the lower zones.

My preferred sessions for a 30-40 minutes time span are to play around about my 1 hour pace.

If the machine has a power meter I trust one option is to criss cross, spending 2-3 minutes above 1 hour power 2-3 under. Exactly how far above above and below depends on how I am feeling/where in training schedule workout occurs.

Other option is to pick a HR zone around 10beats under up to threshold level. Then vary resistance/cadence to increase HR up to this point hold for a while (how long again depends on how feeling/schedule) back off a bit down to the lower point of the zone then repeat.