Bike 1: 45-60-minute continuous ride - practise changing gear every time your legs start feeling heavy or your pedal rate (rpm) feels slow. You should aim to keep the rpm fairly fast, around 90rpm. Increase the time of the ride each week by 20 per cent.
Bike 2: 60-80 minutes, including some hills if possible. On the hills, alternate standing and sitting, up to 1 minute at a time.
Bike 3: 60-80 minutes with some fast intervals of 5 minutes, concentrating on maintaining low body position, 1 minute recovery. Run for 10 minutes, building by 3 minutes each week as soon as you finish the bike to become used to running off the bike.
Bike 4: 45 minutes steady pace. Keep the gearing low and the rpm fast.
Bike 5: 60 minutes - after an easy 10-minute warm-up, sprint for 20 seconds and go easy for 40 seconds. Continue for 40 minutes. Cycle easy for the remainder of the session.
Bike 6: 60 minutes with 5 x fast intervals of 5 minutes, 1 minute recoveries. Increase the number of intervals each week by 2. Run for 10 minutes, slow for the first 4 and fast for the last 6. Build the run by 3 minutes each week as soon as you finish the bike to increase familiarity with running off the bike.
Bike taper: Try a brick session to further practise running off the bike, but keep the distances short; you're tapering, after all. Try 10 minutes easy on the bike, then 5 minutes easy run, then 5 minutes on the bike at a moderate pace, then 5 mins fast run. Try to do the run as soon as you get off your bike.
