Bike 1: 30-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: 45-60 minutes, including some hills if possible. On the hills alternate standing and sitting, up to 1 minute at a time.
Bike 3: 45-60 minutes with some fast intervals of 5 minutes, concentrating on maintaining a low body position on the bike, 1 minute recovery. Run for 5 minutes, building by 3 minutes each week. Do this as soon
as you finish the bike to become used to running off the bike.
Bike 4: 45 minutes at a steady pace; keep the gearing low and the rpm fast.
Bike 5: 45-60 minutes - after an easy 10-minute warm-up, sprint for 20 seconds and then easy for 40 seconds for a total of 20 minutes. Cycle easy for the remainder of the session.
Bike 6: 45-60 minutes with 5 x fast intervals of 5 minutes, with 1-minute recoveries. Increase the number of intervals each week by two. Run for 5 minutes, building by 3 minutes each week as soon as you finish the bike to become used to running off the bike.
Bike taper: Try a brick session to maintain your body's familiarity with running off the bike but keep the distances short. 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.
