0-10 mins        Warm up, 5 mins easy pedalling in granny ring change up a gear each min on 5, 6 & 7 then “sprint” 10 secs on minute 8 & 9.

10-16 mins      Isolated leg. Use a gear of around 39x14, ride 40 secs using one leg only, revert to both legs for 20 secs then use the other leg for 40 secs, continue for 6 minutes, concentrate on pedalling in circles, particularly on the 9 – 1 o’clock portion.

16-20 mins      Spin ups, Use a gear slightly lower than above eg 39x15, both feet on pedals, increase cadence until you start bouncing on the saddle then back off slightly (count your cadence) and keep going until you start to lose form, spin for 30 secs and start again. Concentrate on pedalling in circles, listen to the sound coming from your turbo and try to make it as constant as possible, keep the upper body still.

20-22 mins      Easy spinning. Stay in the same gear for 2 mins easy spinning to recover.

22-28 mins      30/30 interval, Shift to the big ring, stay in the same gear on the rear and ride “hard” for 30 secs then easy for 30 secs. The hard 30 secs should be at a level slightly harder than your aerobic level, stay in the same gear for the easy 30 secs but ease off the effort. You might have to change up a gear to get the right level. If you have a HR monitor your HR should level out towards the upper level of your aerobic zone. Use this session to find the correct gear and memorise it. (Gear around 53x16)

28-30mins       Easy spinning, Shift to the granny ring for 2 mins as above         

30-36 mins      Ladder, Shift to big ring and down one gear at the back (53x15). Ride at a steady pace for 2 mins then change up one gear continue for another minute, shift up again for 1 minute. Shift to a lower gear for the next minute and down again for the last minute. Try to keep cadence the same in all gears so that the effort increases with each up shift, concentrate on good pedalling technique. Effort should start at the lower end of the aerobic zone and finish near the top.

36-38 mins      Easy Spinning, Shift to granny ring and spin for 2 mins.

38-44 mins      10/20 interval, Shift to the big ring, same gear at the back. This time the “hard” effort is only 10 seconds but at a slightly higher level, your heart rate should settle at around the same level or slightly higher than in the 30/30 session. (Gear around 53x15)

44-50 mins      Cool down, easy spin and stretching

Write down the gears and other settings that you used for this session.

If you are still racing and want to maintain race fitness then do the warm up, spin ups and isolated legs as above but do the hard part of the intervals at an effort slightly harder than race effort so that your heart rate levels out at around race level, (gear 53x13) and continue the set of 10/20 intervals for 10 minutes.

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