And how to fit training into your week.

There are many benefits to riding a bike – both physical and mental. Cycling is great for aerobic fitness, social interaction (especially during the coffee debrief!) and getting a dose of ‘nature’ in a world where we spend so much time indoors.

The challenge for many of us is finding (making!) the time to ride regularly so that we get to experience these benefits as well as improving our cycling performance/fitness and overall health.

As someone who has raced/ridden bikes for 30+ years and operated fitness businesses for 20+ years, there are 2 simple things that I’ve learnt which have helped me to achieve my cycling goals despite having very full weeks of work and family commitments.

1. Planning AKA getting organised!

Most of us put ‘plans’ in place for our career/business, our families and for other areas of life that are important to us. This may involve thinking about what our goals/hopes are for each of these areas, mapping out a process to get us there and setting up various weekly activities/routines that will advance us towards these goals.

Applying this type of planning process towards our fitness/cycling is important if we want to progress, even if our goal is simply consistency. Ask yourself the questions below to help shape a training plan to deliver on your goals:

• What are my cycling or training goals? Is there an event I want to target? Do I want to improve my climbing or the distance I can ride? Do I want to keep up with a particular bunch? Do I want to ride at least once per week the entire year?
• How often can I realistically ride? Where are the ‘slots’ in my week where I can schedule rides or other training? Are these gaps sustainable? How will this interact with my other commitments/responsibilities over time?
• Once you have got answers to these questions, put together a weekly training plan. This may include a combination of bunch rides, solo rides, indoor training and beneficial cross-training such as strength or core work. If it’s not in the diary, it’s unlikely to happen. 

I’ve found that a few of the tips below help to make it happen most weeks:

• If you are doing morning sessions, have all of you cycling or exercise gear ready to go the night before and tyres pumped. Sounds simple but a total game changer.
• Know what time you are leaving, where you are going, who you are meeting – minimise the decision that you need to make just before you ride as you may just talk yourself out of it otherwise! Set yourself up so that you can simply put your clothes on and go.
• Schedule in some easier weeks. This may be on rotation or purposefully scheduled in to overlap with holidays or what you know will be an extra busy time at work. Having a planned easier week now and again can be motivating and help prevent the all-or-nothing slide.
• Share what you are trying to achieve or the routines you are trying to create with the people that you live with. Ensure the commitments you make work in with others and included in family calendar. It may need to change seasonally but lock in a routine for as long as you can.

2. Know the value of intensity

Intensity is the best friend of busy people! Most people in endurance sports like cycling and running tend to think that the best training is about racking up as many weekly kilometres as possible. A long ride is certainly important but if you’re keen on improving your cycling performance then incorporating some high-intensity or interval type training even once into your week is not only critical for performance but can be a big time saver too.

High-intensity training is well researched and is relevant for people of any level of fitness. This type of training is particularly useful for people who are time poor because of the greater metabolic and fitness improvements achieved for a reduced time investment compared to traditional ‘steady’ exercise.

There are many ways to incorporate intensity into your exercise sessions with examples including:

• Climbing is a good natural intensity builder. Try pushing yourself harder for first 400m of every km or alternate 1km easy with 1km hard – there is not one right interval duration and a variety is good.
• Safely use designated Strava segments to beat your own time.
• Create a local loop near you where one part can be safely ridden at intensity and the remainder of the loop recovery (Covid restrictions proved I could get a pretty good workout not leaving a 5km radius from home!)
• Adding an indoor cycling session to your week which has structured high-intensity intervals. You can achieve great training value in 30-60 minutes in a safe environment. Mix up the work and rest intervals and try different cadence targets.
• Make it enjoyable! This is essential to maintain regular training routines.

Kristin Lewis is a former U23 Australian Road Champion and Managing Director of Life Personal Trainers (Adelaide, Unley Kent Town) and Echelon Cycling Studio which deliver coach led, high intensity indoor cycling sessions.