I recently purchased a new training book by Gale Bernhardt titled Training Plans for the Multi-Sport Athlete. In that book she gives detailed workouts for each sport. The workouts for biking often call for an indoor trainer or a mostly flat course. Where I live, there are no mostly flat areas to bike on, so I decided to splurge and buy a trainer. I decided on the Cyclops Magneto Trainer rather than the Wind trainer because it is quiet yet has progressive resistence to mimic riding on the road. It doesn’t feel exactly like being on the road, and the average speed I get on it is less than when I’m out on the road, at the same average heart rate and perceived effort. However, doing the workouts in that book, I am now finally feeling like I’m making progress on my cycling skills.
I have been doing the isolated leg workout (S2) that Bernhardt describes on page 238. That’s where you take one foot out of the pedals and prop it up on a chair, and work the other foot to eliminate the dead spot in the pedal stroke. Then switch feet. That really helps me get the feel of proper circular spinning and I feel like my stroke is getting more powerful.
I’ve also been doing the Time Trial workout DVD that came with the Magneto Trainer. It is really hard (I can’t do the power intervals for the length of time specified)! But, I feel like it’s also help me improve greatly. My plan is to do that workout once a week until I can do the whole thing. I’m also writing down my average heart rate, max heart rate and average speed during that workout. I want to track whether I am acheiving a greater average speed during the same workout and same effort level.