Coaching and Training for Cycling and Multi Sport Athletes

We are a little over a month away from the official start of spring and at the time of year where temperatures are starting to rise and more outdoor riding is taking place. For all who have been stuck training on an indoor trainer through most of this winter, there is a transition period to training outdoors. Indoor training is slightly different than training outdoors. There is less movement indoors, and no gravity pulling against you while climbing a hill. This places more focus on your prime movers for cycling, such as your legs and less upper body. When transitioning into outdoor training you place more emphasis on upper body movement, a greater amount of muscles in the legs and overall more aerobic demand.

Through the winter we usually place a bigger focus on force or high tension workouts along with short and moderate efforts in the zone 2-4 range, along with plenty of zone 2-3 tempo efforts. That should continue as you transition to outdoor training with a focus on longer zone 2 to 4 efforts when possible. A mix of zone 2-4 efforts builds your base and while this is important through the winter, its also important in your first 4-6 weeks outdoors as you use more upper body, and more muscle overall pedaling. If you have a high priory race event in early spring, that would change this focus but for all others who race early in the year, use the races as a higher intensity workouts that will compliment your late winter/early spring base training.