Of the three disciplines in the sport of triathlon, cycling is probably the easiest skill to initially pick up. After all, it is “just like riding a bike.” This level of comfort can lead to complacency resulting in simply riding rather than training. There is a pronounced difference. It’s easy to ride, but getting faster on the bike takes training.

This article is dedicated to giving an overview of some key methods to get faster on the bike. This is a broad topic, just as it is in running, so this will provide a brief overview of several ways to introduce intensity into your cycling training to get you on the road to faster bike splits. To avoid injury, try not to incorporate all of these at once into your training. Instead, incrementally introduce these workouts over time.

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1) Speed Intervals This is a way to introduce speed-specific work to your riding. The goal of a speed interval workout is to cycle faster than your desired race pace or effort for a specific period of time. The hard effort is then followed by a brief period of easy riding, or “rest intervals,” allowing your body to recover, so that you can repeat the hard effort a desired number of times. This workout is to cycling what a track workout is to running. Just as one would do different workouts on the track like 400s, 800s, miles, or 2,000s, you can vary cycling interval durations to fit your training and racing goals.

2) Low-Cadence Strength Training Muscle strength is an important component of cycling. There are specific exercises you can do while riding to build your cycling strength without ever stepping foot in a gym. Low-cadence muscle tension intervals are a very effective way to build your strength. For this workout, after an appropriate warm-up, shift your bike into a much harder gear than you normally ride. Then simply ride for a set period of time in that hard gear. You’ll be pedaling much slower and pushing much harder than you are used to, but that’s the goal of the exercise. You’re overloading your muscles to stimulate strength gains. Also, by quickly fatiguing those muscles your body will respond by recruiting additional muscles and muscle groups. This is accomplished without ever doing one squat or leg press. Just as in the other interval-based workouts, after the hard effort, shift to an easy gear for recovery before repeating the exercise. As you get stronger over time, increase the number and duration of the intervals, as well as the difficulty of the gears.

3) Hill Work In addition to the low cadence work described above, hill climbing or hill repeats are workouts that provide strength training on the bike. Hill climbing is a specific skill and developing the strength to climb quickly and powerfully will shave loads of time off of your bike splits on hilly courses. Even if you’re planning on racing in flat areas, the strength gains from hill workouts will transfer over to riding faster on flatter terrain. Climbing makes you work harder by forcing you to push against gravity. Find a hill that takes you anywhere from 2 to 15 minutes to climb. Push hard up the hill, then coast or easy-pedal down to recover; then repeat. This workout tends to be one of the more time-efficient ways to keep intensity in your cycling training. Hill repeat workouts can quickly fatigue your legs, so the ride does not have to be particularly long to achieve the desired training effect.

4) Tempo work Once you’ve developed your cycling speed and strength, the final component to the speed puzzle is tempo riding, or riding at the pace you wish to hold in a race. For instance, if your goal is to average 18 mph for 25 miles in an Olympic distance triathlon, then you need to do workouts where you hold near-to or at that effort level for increasing periods of time. Simply riding at 15 to 16 mph in every ride won’t get you to your goal. Similar to other intervals, start shorter and build up over time. You don’t need to do the entire race distance at your goal pace in training, but incorporating longer intervals at your goal pace/effort level will better prepare you to ride strong on race day.

5) Continuous pedaling One downside to cycling training in an urban environment is the inherent riding stops from traffic lights and other obstacles. Every time you stop at a light, coast along to chat with a friend or take a break, you’re giving your body time to recover. In a race, you don’t have these rest opportunities. Aside from steep downhill sections, you should never stop pedaling in a race. Without practicing this in training, it often shocks athletes how much more the cycling in a race fatigues them compared to in training. Riding your bike for longer periods of time without stopping or coasting in training will prepare you for a race. To do this on the road in training takes extra route planning. Getting to roads where you don’t have to stop pays off tremendously. You’ll notice the difference right away in your legs between a training ride where you stop every 5 to 10 minutes for a traffic light and one with few to no stops.

ONE FINAL NOTE:
A stationary bike is a very useful training tool. Every workout described here can be done just as easily on the trainer as on the road; sometimes more efficiently and effectively. On the trainer, you can continuously pedal without stopping for urban obstacles. Speed intervals, low-cadence muscle tension, tempo and continuous riding workouts are easily transferable to the trainer. Hill workouts can be simulated by stacking something like an old phone book under the front wheel to raise the nose in order to work the muscles in the same way as on a hill. By integrating intensity into your cycling, your ability to ride faster for longer periods will quickly follow.