Bike Pyramids

Now that I've really begun ramping up my bike training, I've had to get creative with the limitations on both my time availability and training environment.  One of my favourite cycling workouts when either stuck inside, its too late to safely ride outside and/or hard pressed for time between client appointments is a bike pyramid workout.

A bike pyramid is essentially interval training on the bike, where you alternate between fast and slow cadences allowing you to push your heart rate up into an effective training zone in an efficient amount of time.  A great cardiovascular workout can be done in as little as 30min - no time, no problem.  This workout can be done on your triathlon bike while on the trainer, or even on a spin bike at the gym.

This diagram illustrates the idea of a beginners bike pyramid:

Start climbing up the pyramid with 15sec sprinting, then recover for 15sec; sprint for 30sec, then recover for 30sec, sprint for 45sec, then recover for 45sec, sprint for 60sec (you're now at the top of the pyramid!), then recover for 60sec, (now come down the pyramid), sprint for 45sec, then recover for 45sec; sprint for 30sec, then recover for 30sec; sprint for 15sec, then recover for 15sec.  And there you go - that was an 8min pyramid workout. You may want to add in a 3.5min warm up and 3.5min cool down for this workout to make it a 15min bike session total.

Here is my favourite 30min bike pyramid workout when a half hour is all I have:

5min warm-up
30sec fast/30sec slow
1min fast/1min slow  
2min fast/2min slow
3min fast/3min slow
2min fast/2min slow
1min fast/1min slow
30sec fast/30sec slow
5min cool-down

For the fast/sprint portion I like to keep the cadence >100rpm, and for the slow/recovery I like to keep the cadence <85rpm.

Keep an eye on your heart rate and you'll be surprised to see just how effective these short sprints on the bike are.  Here's to making your workouts count!