How To

Working 9-5: how to adapt your training to working life

Pro cyclist turned coach Dean Downing on how to make use of limited time on the bike

Turbo is your friend

Work and family life often impact on the time you have to train (Pic: Cycliscous/Richard Masoner, via Flickr Creative Commons)
Downing, centre, raced for NFTO Pro Cycling in 2014 and found his training was increasingly time-constrained as he entered the twilight years of his career (Pic: Simon Wilkinson/SWpix.com)
Structure is key to a successful training plan, says Downing, pictured right (Pic: Welcome to Yorkshire)
Downing says the turbo trainer is a valuable tool for a time-pressed rider
Increase the intensity of your training as the season goes on (Pic: Media24)
Downing also recommends using a WattBike for indoor sessions
Shift patterns can also be incorporated into your training schedule (Pic: Media 24)
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day (Pic: Media 24)

Turbo is your friend

While there is nothing better than the open road, when time is limited – particularly until the clocks go forwards and the days get longer again – the turbo trainer is your friend, Downing says.

Downing will prescribe turbo sessions during the week for his clients, often mixing zones two and three in intensity, with short recovery rides and the club run ensuring a broad mix of training.

“On the club run you are going through quite a lot of zones. Be it keeping up or having a play around with your friends, you will easily be going into zone three and beyond.

“Club rides are really good training – it’s what I used to do when I was younger, and still do. You don’t ride around at an easy level all day, you go up and down all of your training zones. It’s similar to what a race is really – cruising in the bunch and then having to follow the moves on the climb.”

On the turbo, however, things get more specific, with Downing sharing some of the most common sessions his clients use.

“The turbo session I prescribe for most of my clients is to warm up for 15 minutes and then they do anything from 20-30 minutes at zone two (65-75% maximum heart rate) and then straight into 15-20 minutes at zone three (75-82% of your maximum heart rate) before warming down for ten minutes.

“After twenty of minutes of zone two you will start to feel it in your legs but it’s doable and then you crack into zone three which will be a lot harder with a lot more pressure through the pedals, and your legs will start stinging.

“I also do a progressive turbo session, which is the same sort of length but will be 20 minutes riding at low zone two intensity and then 15 minutes high zone two and then the last five minutes creeping into zone three.

“It gets harder and harder but it’s not ‘eyeballs out’ and you can sustain that sort of effort for 45 minutes before warming down for ten minutes. It’s not super-complicated but it gets people fit in a good way.”

Those sessions, Downing explains, will then often be followed the next day by a rest day or short recovery ride, according to how much time is available. Once you have built the base blocks of your fitness, it’s time to increasing your training load as the season progresses.