The best lunch hour indoor cycling workouts

With winter bringing dark evenings and icy mornings your lunch hour now becomes a vitally important training time. We reveal four of the most original and efficient lunch hour workouts.

Your daily lunch break is a powerful but often neglected training time. Thanks to the reduced daylight hours and bad weather over winter, it is harder to perform quality outdoor training sessions in the mornings and evenings. And sometimes your weekend training rides can be ruined by rain, ice and snow too. That is why your regular and reliable lunch break is so important over winter. It’s a dedicated daily training time when you can perform a quality indoor workout, without worrying about the weather, and without eating up too much time. With the right training ideas, you can enjoy huge training gains with no more than an hour of work. And you will feel fitter and fresher when you are back at your desk in the afternoon.

To sharpen up your lunch hour workouts, we asked Dr Dave Nichols – a cycle team coach and sports scientist who works as a Cycle Training Consultant for indoor bike specialists Wattbike (www.wattbike.com) – to share some new lunch hour workouts.

Workout 1: Fitness Step Builder

Duration: 01:01:00
Focus: Aerobic fitness

What is it?

This progressively hard all-round fitness workout is suitable for any cyclist wanting to add structure to their lunch time fitness workouts over winter. “It is a progressive HIIT session which predominantly works the aerobic system, but builds in intensity throughout the workout,” explains Dr Nichols. “The objective is to maintain a strong power output while keeping your pedal cadence consistent and smooth.”

This is a short but powerful workout which lasts just 61 minutes. By the end your legs and lungs will be burning, but it will be worth the effort when you feel your aerobic fitness soar over winter. “The last effort will definitely require grit and determination as it will be approaching VO2 max intensity,” explains Dr Nichols.

How to do it?

Ramp – 10 mins (peak at 55% FTP)
Effort – 5 mins at 85% FTP
Recovery – 3 mins at 40% FTP
Effort – 5 mins at 100% FTP
Recovery – 3 mins at 40% FTP
Effort – 5 mins at 105% FTP
Recovery – 3 mins at 40% FTP
Effort – 5 mins at 85% FTP
Recovery – 3 mins at 40% FTP
Effort – 5 mins at 100% FTP
Recovery – 3 mins at 40% FTP
Effort – 5 mins at 105% FTP
Cool-down – 6 mins at 40-30% FTP

Workout 2: Indoor Climbing Workout

Duration: 01:04:00
Focus: Climbing

What is it?

It is not always easy to work on your climbing skills over winter, but with the right indoor workout you can boost your mountain-conquering fitness during your lunch hour. “This climbing workout will improve your robustness over sustained climbing efforts and build an ability to cope with surges in power throughout the efforts,” explains Dr Nichols. This workout is very easy to squeeze into a lunch break, but it will simulate the experience of riding a long and challenging climb. “This particular workout was written for anyone wanting to improve their climbing ability, particularly over longer climbs and mountain passes,” says Dr Nichols.

How to do it?

Ramp – 10 mins (peak at 100% FTP)
Effort – 2 mins at 50% FTP
Recover – 30 secs
Effort – 2 mins at 50% FTP
Effort – 4 mins 30 secs at 85% FTP
Effort – 30 secs at 105% FTP
Effort – 4 mins 30 secs at 85% FTP
Effort – 30 secs at 110% FTP
Effort – 270 secs at 85% FTP
Effort – 30 secs at 115% FTP
Effort – 4 mins 30 secs at 85% FTP
Effort – 30 secs at 150% FTP
Recover – 5 mins at 50% FTP
Effort – 2 mins at 50% FTP
Effort – 4 mins 30 secs at 85% FTP
Effort – 30 secs at 105% FTP
Effort – 4 mins 30 secs at 85% FTP
Effort – 30 secs at 110% FTP
Effort – 4 mins 30 secs at 85% FTP
Effort – 30 secs at 115% FTP
Effort – 4 mins 30 secs at 85% FTP
Effort – 30 secs at 150% FTP
Cool-down – 5 mins at 40% FTP

Workout 3: FTP Endurance Push Pyramide

Duration: 01:24:00
Focus: Endurance

What is it?

This stamina-boosting workout is slightly longer at 1 hour and 24 minutes, but it is still possible to do it in an extended lunch break. It is cleverly designed to elicit the kind of physiological response you would get from doing a longer endurance ride. “This endurance workout will provide a solid foundation to build future sessions on,” explains Dr Nichols. “All of the work in this session is below FTP and it is therefore suitable for anyone looking to improve their cycling endurance.”

How to do it?

Ramp – 9 mins (peak 90% FTP)
Recover – 30 secs at 30% FTP
Effort – 30 secs at 120% FTP
Recover – 30 secs at 30% FTP
Effort – 30 secs at 120% FTP
Recover – 30 secs at 30% FTP
Effort – 5 mins at 95% FTP
Recover – 5 mins at 30% FTP
Effort – 10 mins at 95% FTP
Recover – 5 mins at 30% FTP
Effort – 15 mins at 85% FTP
Recover – 5 mins at 30% FTP
Effort – 10 mins at 95% FTP
Recover – 5 mins at 30% FTP
Effort – 5 mins at 95% FTP
Cool-down – 5 mins at 30% FTP

Workout 4: 30/30 UP AND UNDER 10S

Duration: 01:00:00

Focus: Functional Threshold Power

What is it?

This is a challenging but rewarding workout which will help to pump up your FTP so you are better able to sustain a high power output when you ride. “This session will increase your FTP but it will also train your ability to respond to sudden changes in pace when you are already working hard,” explains Dr Nichols. That means it will improve your racing skills and your ability to ride in solo breaks at speed. “This session is best suited to cyclists who are experienced with interval training and already have a fairly good level of fitness,” adds Dr Nichols.

How to do it?

Ramp – 9 mins (peak 90% FTP)
Recovery – 30 secs at 30% FTP
Effort – 30 secs at 120% FTP
Recovery – 30 secs at 30% FTP
Effort – 30 secs at 120% FTP
Recovery – 3 mins at 30% FTP
Interval – 30 secs at 110% FTP / 30 secs at 80% FTP x 10
Recover – 5 mins at 30% FTP
Interval – 30 secs at 110% FTP / 30 secs at 80% FTP x 10
Recover – 5 mins at 30% FTP
Interval – 30 secs at 110% FTP / 30 secs at 80% FTP x 10 Cool-down – 6 mins at 30% FTP