After my many years of cycling, I’ve developed my own proven cycling training method – the details of which are available on my pro cycling coaching and training website – but I will break it down here for this audience.
My training plan is simple and consists of Trainer Training Blocks® – TTBs. I have developed and tested this system over years of repeated Cycles, constantly tweaking and adjusting and achieving substantial marginal gains to prove its effectiveness. It is the system by which I train – or don’t train – to this very day. By following the TTBs in the proper sequential order with due diligence, you too could see the marginal gains experienced by some of the top World Tour riders who’ve benefitted from my plan, but due to contract and endorsement issues cannot be named – though you may know some of them – their last names rhyme with words like ‘car’, ‘guard’, and ‘air-t’. By utilizing these simple TTBs you can easily focus on your weaknesses, gain incrementally, and identify when it is time to move on to the next Block. As with any elite-level training plan of this sort, nutrition is key and I will highlight fuel and hydration tips associated with each Block.
Trainer Training Block 1
This is your base block, the foundation on which all your training will develop, and as you will see, the base you will return to time and time again to establish and boost your fitness levels.
The steps for this block are as follows:
- You will need to procure a bicycle trainer – the make and model of which are not important. You can – and I have often – utilized second hand trainers for reasons of finances, laziness, and/or availability. What’s important is that you get some type of trainer that will hold your bike’s rear wheel and allow you to pedal while staying stationary in one spot. Don’t fall for gimmicks like ‘resistance settings’, incline wizardry to simulate hills, or Bluetooth connectivity as these won’t be necessary for reasons that will soon become clear.
- The second step, and perhaps the hardest, is you’ll have to decide which of your bicycles you are going to forfeit the use of outside as once you put the rear trainer tire on the bike and mount it in the trainer you are committed to that bike, and that trainer, for the duration of the TTB. It’s helpful to ask yourself questions like, ‘which bike of mine is the ugliest’, ‘which bike is the least-fun to ride outside’ (as-if) or ‘which bike doesn’t really fit me’. Choose wisely as you and this bike will be spending a lot of time together – probably.
- There is no ‘best time’ to get started riding the trainer – except maybe tomorrow – so as soon as you’ve picked your bike and set it up, get on and start spinning. Don’t be discouraged if at first it sucks, because it will improve with time.
- With regards to how often your training sessions are and how long they should be we live and die by the great Eddy Merckx’s axiom: “Ride as much or as little, or as long or as short as you feel. But ride.” Intersperse your trainer rides with regular ‘normal’ bike rides outside as well so you can see the immediate benefits of your trainer sessions – sore muscles, etc. These brief respites from the drudgery that is the trainer will provide you some motivation to stick to your trainer program – for a little while at least. Continue with your sessions as your schedule, weather, and motivation allow, with increasing levels of effort each time. It’s often helpful to get actually angry at the trainer, talk to yourself, and question your sanity or level of commitment as the workouts intensify. This purging of all joy related to riding a bicycle that you undergo is part of the ‘breaking you down to build you up’ process that is at the core of the first building Block of the TTB System.
- Depending on your level of commitment and masochism – the moment will eventually come when you are sensing it may be time to move on to the next Block. Hints will come in the form of thoughts you may be having, or saying out loud to yourself during sessions such as ‘this sucks’, ‘holy shit this sucks’ or ‘why the fuck am I doing this, it sucks’. You will realize that when you told yourself ‘it would improve with time’ back in Step 3 you were full of shit and you will frequently be finding schedule conflicts or phantom ailments that prohibit you from getting trainer sessions in. The bike will sit unused on the trainer for long periods of time.
- At one point you will try again and often, mid-session, the thought will occur to you that you hate the fucking trainer, bikes weren’t meant to be ridden inside and you will abandon. You will post the trainer online for sale, put the regular tire back on your bike, and tell everyone ‘fuck that shit, bikes were meant to be ridden outside’ and once you find a
suckerbuyer for your trainer, resolve never to own one again, because you are now a born-again bicycle purist. Congratulations, you have completed Trainer Training Block 1.
TTB 1 Nutrition
Fueling and hydration during this TTB will consist primarily of gels, bars, powdered drink mixes, trail mix – the kind with copious dried fruit and no M&M’s, grilled chicken breasts, and noodles with little or no sauce. Hydration as mentioned will include drink mixes and copious amounts of water. Also coffee. You may become fanatical about tracking every microgram of substance you put in your body and deploy an arsenal of water bottles to make sure that you always have fluids within reach. A switch will be made to San Pellegrino (because Euro) sparkling water or some other in an effort to curb your addiction to sodas. You will eschew most of the foods you enjoy in favour of ‘fuel for the machine’ and tell yourself that when it comes to diet, asceticism is the path to success and that enjoying food is for the weak – that we as human animals were meant only to consume what we need to keep going most efficiently. You will politely turn down all sweets and desserts at social gatherings from your stance on the ‘High Road’.
Trainer Training Block 2
In a surprise to most people, TTB 2 doesn’t require a trainer. During this period you will be focused on traditional ‘outdoor training’, riding your bicycle you tell yourself – as God intended – outside. Having broken from the shackle of the trainer holding you to the ground, ‘Riding Bikes’ will take on a whole new spiritual and magical level. You will do long rides and short rides and revel in the camaraderie of others and the freedom of actually moving through space on the bike. What’s that? Oh, my God, I can actually feel the wind! You’ll notice birds, trees, things, and use these experiences as confirmation that you made the right choice to come out of the Pain Cave into the Light. Sure, you’ll still do some ‘work,’ some ‘efforts’ here and there – you’ll use fancy terms like Fartleks, intervals, and ‘pulls on the front’ – but these will be so much more fun and satisfying because you’ll actually be going somewhere. You’ll tell people that you can feel marked improvement in things like balance and bike handling skills and use words like ‘zone’ and ‘zen’ far more often than you really need to.
You may have friends and riding partners who will still utilize the trainer – perhaps they are in the midst of a different TTB than you – and though you will earnestly commend and encourage them in their pursuit of marginal gains, in your mind you’re thinking, “that guy is fucking whack. But, to each his own.” This portion of TTB 2 can last several months or even a year (years).
At some point in TTB 2 you’ll notice a shift – you’ll start struggling on longer rides, be unable to keep a target pace that you’d like to for as long as you’d like to, or in the most embarrassing cases, have to get off and walk sections of a climb. Savvy riders to this point will have eschewed group rides with tons of elevation so this Walk of Shame can happen solo, but at some point, reality – and an excuse – will come to you: “Fuck, I can’t hang.” This is a crucial point in TTB 2 as it is the stepping stone to the next realization, namely, “…but wait, those guys – those guys are on point. They’ve got it!”
Then the solution will slowly creep in. “I should probably do a little work here and there so I can do these long rides I enjoy doing without coming home and completely passing out for the rest of the day. It would also nice to be able to go up and down stairs without my legs feeling like they’re going to fall off. I think I could do a trainer ride here and there – that would help. Just bust one out once in awhile as time permits – I mean, it’s easier to fit into the schedule, and a good alternative when the weather’s bad…”
And just like that, you’ve completed Trainer Training Block 2.
TTB 2 Nutriton
Nutrition in this Block will consist predominantly in the foods you enjoy and reward yourself with. Products found in gas stations and convenience stores mid-way through long rides will feature prominently. You’ll say things to yourself like “I crushed that 50k (in Zone 2 and maybe Zone 3 for like 2 or 3 k) out to this mid-ride break, surely I burned enough for this Coke, Gatorade (for the electrolytes, right?), samosas, chips, AND some marshmallow bananas for the ride back.” Pro tip: you didn’t. And you know it, but you tell yourself “I’ll go hard tomorrow to make it up.” M&M’s – plain, peanut and possibly even the peanut butter or caramel ones will creep back into your trail mix. You’ll dive back in to the soda fountain, and even include milkshakes and Slushies as ‘mid- and post-ride hydration.’ The coffee remains, but it’s often sweetened with pastry. Your inner mantra becomes “It’s all good baby! I’m riding bikes like, almost every day – sorta – outside and burning all this shit off! I’m a carb burning machine!” Social gatherings will feature tales of your exploits on the bike along with, “no one is going to eat that last piece of cake? Well, if no one else will….” You will always be hungry and always be eating, because “MONSTAH miles, right?”
Trainer Training Block 3
TTB 3 is known amongst the veterans of the TTB System as the ‘get back on the horse’ Block.
Having decided once again to proceed with Trainer Training, the content of this Block will vary depending on how many times you’ve executed a full TTB System Cycle.
- Having finally resolved that you were on a ‘Training Break’ that was actually TTB 2, you will again need a trainer. If you have your original trainer from TTB 1 – perhaps in an attic/garage/shed or under a pile of laundry, you’re in luck and you can dig it out and get it back operational.
- Note: Often times this can require additional steps, if, say, you’ve misplaced the rear hub skewer that allowed your rear wheel to sit in the trainer, thrown away your trainer tire – or both. You may need to visit your LBS to procure parts. Be prepared for shop employees and/or friends to say things like “I thought you gave up the trainer?” or “Didn’t you get one of these a year or two ago?” Steel your resolve and have your responses ready – suggestions might be something like, “Yeah, I took a bit of a ‘break’, over-trained maybe…” or, “Just sell me the fucking part, man.”
- If you haven’t saved your old trainer – you’ll need one, again, see Step 1, TTB 1. You’ll also need to complete Step 2 again, deciding what bike to affix to the trainer for the duration of your next TTB. A word of caution here: Many veterans of this System have at one point latched on to the idea of obtaining a cheap or used road bike to use as a ‘trainer bike’ that is always on the trainer, and thus, more convenient – even going so far as to delude themselves into thinking “then I can just always have it ready to ride.” As many have discovered, without the proper level of resolve, you could easily find yourself on that supposed ‘trainer bike’ in the middle of a trainer session thinking “this bike feels pretty good….would be great to get it out on the road….” and before you know it, you’ve abandoned your TTB sooner than optimal and may even be on the way to becoming a Road Rider. Proceed carefully – in order to progress to the next Block it’s imperative that you become completely fed up with the trainer experience and having a new (or even just new-to-you) bike on the trainer can lead to this transitionary revelation before having obtained the full level of marginal gains you were hoping to achieve within the TTB. You’ve been warned.
- At this point, proceed with Steps 3 through 6 from TTB 1 as described above. You may be surprised with how quickly you re-settle into old, painful grooves. Once you have completed these 3 Blocks you have completed a Trainer Training Block Cycle. Continue to complete Blocks 1 through 3 for as many Cycles necessary for you to keep, uh, working toward whatever it is you’re working toward.
As many famous athletes and coaches have said in some way or another, in various quotes readily available on the internet, there’s no substitute for hard work. Or maybe that was actually one of the quotes – not sure. Either way, My Trainer Training Block System® is designed to make sure that you are always doing work of some kind, to a level that you fell is pretty much hard-ish, through easy to understand and easily executed Blocks that allow for a satisfying-if-somehwat-inconclusive-progression. The System is relatively low cost – depending on whether you save your trainer after each block or not (some veterans proudly claim to have gone through several trainers – completing Step 6 of TTB 1 each time with a more and more ferocious level of commitment than the last) and also depending on how expensive convenience store food is at any given time.
If you visit my coaching website in the next – I dunno – 48 hours or whatever – you can also – for a limited time – download my PDF ebook guide “How to Convince Others You Are Training When You Are Indeed, NOT Training” for free. Also sign up for our newsletter as we will be putting out a new roller-based training system – RTS – in the coming months. We’re Bringing Rollers Back® so go figure out where yours are or start checking Facebook Marketplace.
Remember, Ride Action is Right Action, Friends.