Author: Gaelle Abecassis

The perfect cycling training plan has been sliced and diced into countless specialties. Training fundamentals for a triathlon will differ from those for a road cyclist, which differs from the ones used by an endurance mountain biker or gravel rider. That said, they’ll all mix in a variation of longer, less intense mileage with shorter, high-intensity intervals and some steady-state blocks thrown in. Within this mix, the 5-minute, high-intensity interval doesn’t appear much. That’s a shame because it gets the body ready to climb hills with more power and hold a higher speed for longer.

The 5-minute interval, also known as a VO2 max interval, draws on both aerobic and anaerobic energy systems. It’s too long to be purely anaerobic. That’s what 30-60-second all-out sprints are for. It’s also too short to be purely aerobic, that pace you can ride all day. They’re hard by design because you want to teach yourself to be comfortably uncomfortable at these max intensities. That way, you train the body (and mind) to respond. On a cellular level, you also train your body to recover from these efforts more efficiently, which allows you to prep for the next hill climb, breakaway attempt, or acceleration on your next group ride or race.

Implementing the 5-minute VO2 interval workout

These all-out intervals require a solid foundation of cycling before you attempt them. It will take several weeks of low-intensity mileage with a day or two of short sprints (30-60 seconds) each week before you see the benefits of these efforts. Generally, you want to start incorporating the 5-minute intervals into your training program 4-6 weeks before a goal event or peak season. You can also work them into your training during your peak cycling season to continue developing more speed and climbing power. 

Ideally, you want to know your power and heart rate targets for these intervals. If your bike or indoor cycling trainer has a power meter, you should be able to figure out your threshold power and heart rate number. Need to determine your targets for the first time — or the first time in a while? Humango’s coaching app will guide you through a threshold power test on a cycle trainer or via your bike’s power meter and your heart rate monitor. 

Once you know your numbers, Humango will prescribe your target numbers for these 5-minute interval sessions and the number of intervals to complete. Depending on your fitness level, the app could start you off with three intervals with five minutes of rest between each effort or five intervals with only two minutes between each. In practice, these sessions should be done above 105% of your threshold power, which will seem relatively easy during the first one. Remember, threshold power is the maximum effort you should be able to sustain for an hour. The real work — and growth — kicks in during the last interval or two. 

As you start your stretch of 5-minute VO2 max intervals, know that your week-to-week training progression will involve more intervals and shorter recovery periods as you get stronger. This second attribute, your recovery rate, could be considered the secret sauce to all this hard work. That’s because the faster your body can process the anaerobic waste from these efforts both during the interval and after it, the longer you can sustain that pace. 

Let Humango do the work

The 5-minute interval demands an out-sized amount of physical and mental effort. What you can manage in terms of your threshold power will change from week to week. The results may show a positive increase in your threshold power or they may not depending on your previous workouts and the challenges and stresses of your daily life. A poor day on the road or indoor cycling trainer may be due to a poor night’s sleep, not a sudden collapse in fitness. Or you may have joined a fast group for a ride over the weekend, which turned into a much longer and more intense day on the bike than planned.

This is where Humango’s coaching app steps in. It will monitor your evolving threshold power and heart rate numbers and prescribe a workout that will be very hard, but very doable. And if, for some reason, you don’t hit your targets, the app can adjust the next workout (or your threshold number) to meet you where your fitness is that week. This dynamic planning gives you time to recover, grow stronger, and hit those targets next time.

Want to know a legal fitness hack that few people take advantage of? Sleep. That’s right, some good old-fashioned slumber. In fact, Matthew Walker, a neuroscience professor who specializes in sleep research, says, “Sleep may be the greatest legal performance-enhancing drug that too few athletes are abusing enough in this modern day and age.” As such, sleep is as important a component of your endurance sport’s training plan as the workouts themselves.

When you get enough sleep, your body has time to devote energy to repairing damaged and inflamed muscles and tissues from that day’s workout. Sleep is also when your immune system recharges. Or, if you’re dealing with an illness, sleep allows your body to go to work fighting off that cold or flu. And when you sleep, your brain has a chance to clean out any metabolic waste, leaving you in a better cognitive state by morning. And if that wasn’t enough, a good night’s sleep also boosts your metabolism, which makes it easier to eat better the following day.

With all these free and readily available benefits, why is sleep so hard to come by in our modern world? Truth is, we sabotage our best intentions when it comes to shutting ourselves down. We work late. We go out with friends for a night on the town. We catch the last flight home. We even work against our best interests when it comes to recovery. For instance, lying on the couch or in bed, binge-watching a show deep into the night, doesn’t count as sleep recovery. The body needs REM sleep for all the health goodness to happen. This is the deep, dreamless state that lasts for a few uninterrupted hours. You won’t get there while streaming Netflix in bed.

The importance of sleep can’t be overstated. Without it, you cannot perform your best. Dr. Walker points out that a lack of sleep can reduce your peak performance by up to 30%. Workouts that were possible after a solid night of shuteye will be almost impossible without it (And even if you have the physical reserves to pull them off, they will definitely feel impossible.).

Endurance Training with Sleep

Think of sleep as the first part of your next workout and schedule it into your endurance training. If you know you’ll be up late one night in the coming week, plan an easy workout day to follow. Humango’s coaching app makes it easy to plan for these sleep hiccups. Just inform Hugo, Humango’s digital coach, and Hugo will switch workouts around in the app, and it’ll keep your fitness progression on track by adjusting your successive workouts to compensate for the change. 

Conversely, if you have interval training lined up for the next day, follow our tips below to get the sleep you need the night before to crush those efforts and set yourself up for a deep slumber the night after to speed your recovery.

6 Tips to a Good Night’s Sleep

1. Go to bed at the same time each night, early enough to give yourself 7-9 hours of sleep. If you feel tired from the day, go to sleep early. If not, stay up an extra 30 minutes if you want. Half an hour either way won’t ruin your sleep cycle.
2. Get up at the same time each morning. Doing so sets your circadian rhythm for the day. You’ll feel primed to jump into your day when it becomes routine.
3. Remove any light sources from your bedroom. Close the curtains and shades, unplug the nightlight, turn your clock away from your face, and turn your phone face down.
4. Complete your workout 4-5 hours before bedtime. You want to give your body enough time to reduce muscle inflammation and calm down. If you don’t, it could keep you awake, even when you’re exhausted. (Marathoners trying to sleep after a race will know what we mean.)
5. Say no to caffeine after lunch. Skip alcohol altogether if you can. Or, limit yourself to one alcoholic drink with dinner.
6. Speaking of dinner, eat it at least three hours before you turn in for bed. You want to give your stomach time to digest the meal before lying down.

In short, when building out your training schedule with Humango or any endurance coach, schedule your workouts around your sleep patterns. If you need to work nights a few days a week, your training plan should reflect the need for adequate rest to accommodate this reality. Instead of scheduling intervals or long, steady-state sessions, you should do recovery workouts or technique-focused training on those days.

However you make sleep a priority, just do it. Nothing beats a good night of sleep in the hierarchy of health and fitness benefits. 

Participating in different endurance sports can play a crucial role in your overall health. Outside of sufficient sleep each night, exercise may be the most beneficial habit you can practice. And one way to stay active for decades is to mix things up. Doing so will reduce the risk of an overuse injury, maximize your all-around fitness, and, perhaps most importantly, keep you from getting bored and skipping exercise altogether. Staying actively involved in your athletic journey is the key goal, as consistent physical exertion will keep you fit well into your retirement years.

Now, we’re not suggesting that everyone take up triathlon with its mix of running, cycling, and swimming training. Not everyone has access to a pool. Not everyone likes running or feels comfortable riding a bike on busy streets. And that’s just fine. You can enjoy the benefits of multisport life by engaging in just two sports. You can practice each simultaneously, treating one as your prime focus and the other as a cross-training activity. Or, you can cycle through seasons of each sport, focusing on one for four to six months, then switching to the other. 

Below is a quick breakdown of how each multisport approach works and how Humango’s AI coach can help you thrive in all your athletic pursuits.

The Cross Trainer

Triathletes certainly fall in the cross-trainer category. A triathlon training plan balances multiple sports, focusing on getting progressively stronger and faster in each. But in practice, cross-training elevates one sport above another. For example, say your goal is to run a half marathon in the fall. Your half marathon plan has you running three days a week. On at least two other days, you can use cycling to recover from your runs and maintain your aerobic capacity. Cyclists can flip this scenario to a cycling-specific plan, as well. If you’re logging long hours on your indoor cycling trainer over the winter in preparation for a spring century ride, you can go for short runs on your off days to get outside, breathe some fresh air, and shore up your bone density while you’re at it. 

The Seasonal Athlete

This person bases their sport on the season. They may cross-country ski or swim indoors all winter, cycle during the spring and early summer, and then train for a marathon during the fall. It’d be easy for this athlete to drop any thought of the other sports and focus solely on the sport in season, but doing so means they start each season’s sport from zero every time. Sure, they have the conditioning and fitness for the transition. But it takes the muscles specific to that sport a few weeks or more to catch up. This lag time is prime injury time. Take a transition from swimming to running as an example. The necessary adaptations needed for the muscles, tendons, and bones to handle the pounding and stresses of running will take weeks to come around.

Why You Want a Coach: When you work with a coach who knows what you want to accomplish, they can develop a training plan that allows you to reach your goals for a particular season while simultaneously preparing you to transition to the next sport. If you’re training for a spring distance running race — a half-marathon or marathon — a coach can prescribe recovery days on your cycle trainer, which will prime your body to switch to mountain biking season in the summer. Using advanced AI technology, Hugo, Humango’s digital coach, automatically adds those recovery days into your schedule based on your goals and training performance.

The Long-Term, Short-Term Commitment

One could make the case that most endurance athletes fall into this category. They’ve pursued their sport for years and shaped their athletic identity around it. Maybe their goal was to complete three Ironman triathlons in five years or ride a century in every state over 10 years. Whatever the case, injuries happen. Burnout happens. As a result, these athletes switch sports to try something new — or find an activity they can do without pain.

Why You Want a Coach: The transition from one sport to another can be difficult, especially when you don’t see the immediate results you expect. Armed with your data, a coach can lay out a realistic plan to meet your body where it is. This way, you can grow into your new sport as efficiently and safely as possible. If you’ve been training for years and years, you may not need to follow a “Zero to Hero” beginner’s training program. A coach will know whether you can leapfrog in the intermediate-level plans or not. When these transitions are done well, they can launch your new athletic endeavor with more satisfying results. Humango uses your current fitness and real-time training data to make your transition as seamless as possible. 

Whether you practice your multisport lifestyle on a day-by-day basis — or decade-by-decade basis — you’re doing right by yourself in the long term. Changing up your sports keeps your muscles and brain stimulated, which is a surefire way to keep yourself in the fitness game for life.

Recovery from a workout, especially a hard one, is when you grow stronger and faster and develop more stamina. In essence, recovery — not your cool-down — is the true final step in your workout. Treat it as such, and you should be able to accelerate your progress and make your next training session more productive. 

How seriously should you take workout recovery? Consider Tour de France veteran cyclist George Hincapie. During the long racing season, he was famous for never taking the stairs when an elevator was available, never walking anywhere when he could drive, always looking for a place to sit if he was standing, and if he was sitting, he’d look for a place to lie down. That’s how seriously he took recovery.

While Hincapie’s approach was extreme, his mindset was correct, and it’s one you can easily adopt and tweak to work for you and your life. Try the tips below, starting with your next training session, and see what works for you. With Humango’s coaching help, you’ll figure out what works best. Who knows, you may find that an evening walk accelerates your post-workout muscle recovery better than doing nothing. Or, you may find that a nap is vital to setting you up for tomorrow.

Within 1-2 Hours of Your Workout

• Hydrate. You lose water in any workout, but especially during high-intensity cardio workouts. Refill your tank as soon as you finish exercising. You need to replace whatever fluids you lost and supply your body with enough extra fluids to help flush toxins out of your body. Aim to drink at least 16-20 ounces of fluids, or roughly a cycling water bottle’s worth. This is on top of whatever water you drank before and during your workout.
• Eat. Reload your energy stores quickly so your body can get prepared for the next round of exercise. You want to consume simple carbs from bread, rice, and fruits. Don’t worry too much about protein immediately after training, but be sure to eat 20-40 grams of protein at your next meal. Delaying your protein consumption until mealtime will allow your gut to focus on replenishing spent glycogen stores first. 
• Skip the long shower. Ice baths, cold showers, massage, stretching, and foam rolling are all viable options for speeding recovery. But the long shower (or whirlpool, hot tub session) will leave you feeling more tired than before and can wreak havoc on the rest of your day’s recovery cycle. Get in, clean up, and get out as quickly as possible.

Rest of the Day

• Take it easy. You don’t have to copy Hincapie’s approach, but be aware of your body’s need to recover. By this, we mean don’t ref your child’s soccer game hours after you ran 15 miles as part of your marathon training plan. Or, if you’re going to install a backyard fence, don’t do it on the same day you completed an intense brick workout as part of your triathlon training.
• Do some active recovery. The note above doesn’t mean you should lie on the couch, though. Research suggests that a brisk walk or easy bike ride later in the day or the day after a tough workout serves as a recovery hack, lubricating the joints, preventing stiffness, and flushing toxins out of your muscles. You want to exercise hard enough to feel your heart rate rise but not enough for the active recovery workout to feel “hard.” Humango’s coaching app does this automatically, building a workout schedule that accommodates necessary recovery time based on your current fitness level.

Prepare for Sleep

• Watch what you drink. Setting yourself up for a good night’s sleep starts hours before you crawl under the sheets. Try not to drink coffee, tea, or caffeinated beverages after lunch. The same goes for alcohol (if you can, cut alcohol from your life completely). But do drink a glass of water an hour or so before going to bed. This will top off your fluid intake for the night and help you wake up less dehydrated than usual, which will prime your body for that day’s exercise.
• Avoid late-night snacks. Stop eating two, ideally three, hours before you go to bed. This break will give your stomach enough time to digest your meal and shut down for the night. It’s hard to fall asleep when your stomach is hard at work digesting a meal.
• Skip the screens. Put your phone, tablet, or laptop away, and turn off the TV when you get in bed. You’re there to sleep, not stimulate your brain.
• Follow a routine. Go to bed at the same time each night. This consistency will train your body’s circadian rhythm to go into sleep mode more easily. Humango’s app can track your sleep cycles, which can help you figure out the optimum time to hit the sack and how long you need to sleep to maximize your recovery.

Triathlon distances appeal to different types of participants. Some people love biking, running, and swimming equally. Some love the challenge of pushing themselves outside of their comfort zone. Others would get bored just training for one discipline, like running, all the time. Still others dream of conquering Ironman distance races. Then there are those who think a sprint distance is plenty. The point is that triathlon is a big umbrella that accommodates a wide field of endurance athletes.

But despite different goals and preferences, triathlon training is similar for each athlete. Everyone has to do swim sessions, bike rides, and distance runs each week. And that’s where Humango’s AI coaching guidance can play a vital role in your success, both in training and your life.

Sprint Distance: Better Time Management

This distance is perfect for newbies to give tri a try. It takes a small time commitment, and there are usually more sprint races than Olympic or Ironman-distance events each year, so the races are easy to slot into busy schedules. Still, the first key to a successful triathlon training schedule is to make the schedule fit your life instead of trying to reschedule your life around training. 

Scheduling is one of Humango’s superpowers. When you plug in the days and hours you can train, Humango will build a progressive plan that takes you right to race day. Miss a workout or two because of illness? Have an extra day or two to train next week? Tell Humango to rework your training plan, and it will.

Olympic Distance: Money Better Spent

The amount of specialized triathlon equipment available can be intimidating, especially those pricey tri-bikes and wetsuits. But here’s a reality check: Your race day performance depends more on how well you followed your Olympic triathlon training program (or any triathlon program) than whether or not you have a $7,000 tri bike. 

Focusing on your engine (your body) pays greater dividends than any amount of gear. Humango’s AI coaching for triathletes only costs $348 a year. With it, you get a bespoke training plan that maximizes your performance in each sport. After a couple Humango-coached training cycles under your belt, you’ll know if that tri bike is worth the investment.

Half-Ironman Distance: Look Beyond the Half

There are two types of half-Ironman triathletes: those who have finished one and are now thinking of trying the full Ironman, and those who completed an Ironman and want to use the shorter race to get stronger and faster. If you’re the latter, Humango will guide you through a half-Ironman triathlon training schedule that builds on the work you put in before. Humango’s AI will take you to a higher fitness level, creating a plan that pushes you to better performances instead of simply repeating what you did the last time. The key here is to see the half-Ironman as a step in the multi-year progression, not as a single, isolated goal.

Training Tip: Schedule your training runs to sync with the time of day you expect to be running during your half- or full-iron distance race. That means late morning for half-Ironman triathletes and mid-afternoon for full-Ironman competitors. This way, you get used to running in the heat. 

Ironman Distance: Master Planner Needed

There’s no way around it: It takes a full year to adequately prepare and train for an Ironman. Knowing this, you should choose which race to enter based on when you can manage the 3-5 weeks of extreme training leading into your taper for the event. During these weeks, you will swim, ride, run, and sleep more than you ever thought you could. If you’re a parent, you want those weeks to fall during a period when your kids are still in school and busy with homework and activities, not during the summer break. A late spring Ironman would work best. However, this wouldn’t be the case for a tax accountant. A late fall event works better. It’s also important to consider the climate you’ll train and race in. Residents in the desert or tropical south might train through winter for a spring race, while those in the frozen north might train through summer for a fall race. 

The point is that where you live geographically and where you are in life play a critical role in determining which Ironman you can enter. But regardless of your schedule, 12 months is a long time to follow a training plan. And unless you’re a pro triathlete, it’s almost impossible to prioritize your training over anything else in your life. (Even pros have trouble making this happen.) This is why all pros have coaches. Fortunately, you don’t have to be a pro triathlete to benefit from expert coaching. You’ve got Humango. A lot of life can happen in a year, and Humango can help ensure that any setbacks come with pathways forward to keep you on track. 

The perfect 5k training plan will vary from runner to runner. Some are natural sprinters for whom a 3.1-mile race will feel like a painfully long run. Others are born marathoners who treat a 5k race like an arduous all-out sprint. Unfortunately, many 5k race plans are designed with a one-size-fits-all methodology. They personalize them by using training paces based on a person’s race pace goal. Well, who truly knows their race pace goal?

Experienced runners will have a pretty good idea of a reasonable race pace based on their training runs, as many of their runs cover more than a 5k. But if they’re only using training run data, they’re still guessing. Only a race will tell them what their true race pace is. Fortunately, there are plenty of 5k’s throughout the year for them to enter and determine their actual training pace. Armed with this data point, they can then use it to guide them to their goal race several weeks down the road. Google “5k run near me,” and you can do the same. Or … you can skip the guesswork and use Humango’s advanced AI to know that your 5k running plan will be optimized for you and only you.

Let Humango show you how to train for a 5k.

Whether you consider a 5k a warm-up for your marathon training or a long run as part of a general fitness goal, Hugo, Humango’s AI-powered digital coach, can tailor a program that meets you where you are and builds a training plan based on how much time you have available to train (and recover), what types of cross-training options you have available (strength training, or cycling, for example) and when your race is scheduled. When you enter your training data into the app (mileage, pace, heart rate data, cadence, elevation changes, etc.), Humango can adjust your training progression to match your progressive improvements in running speed and stride efficiency.

Within a week, Humango will tell you whether you’re falling behind, staying on track, or moving ahead of schedule with your training regimen and adjust accordingly. For you, this could mean a different interval structure or workouts at varying intensity levels. It could also translate into an unexpected extra day off to allow your body to recuperate from a hard block of runs. What’s unique about Humango is that it utilizes vast data sets of past runners and the practical experience of Master Coaches to determine which training option or change will work best for you. The app taps into the science of endurance training to prescribe the precise workout you need that day to maximize your potential.

With your 5k training regimen set, focus on the details.

Since you don’t have to wonder how or if you can do your workouts from Humango, you can turn your attention to race day details and strategy, focusing on finer points like food choices and warm-up routines. 

What (and how) you eat and drink before the race is paramount to a personal best. You don’t necessarily need to down a sports gel or chug a sports drink before a 5k. Your body should have plenty of stored energy to see you across the finish line. If you overdo it on the pre-race diet, you can end up with an upset stomach during the run. So, use your weekend runs to test out and dial in your pre-race diet protocol. Figure out what foods to eat and how much to drink before the race. 

Eating a plain bagel with peanut butter (or butter) and drinking 16 ounces of water an hour before your run is a good start. This will give your body enough time to metabolize the bagel and top off your fluid levels. (Pro tip: Make a quick bathroom stop before you run). If the bagel/peanut butter suggestion isn’t appealing, experiment with foods and timing to find a pre-race snack that works best for you.

Warm-ups are not optional. 5k races start fast and stay fast for the duration. If you haven’t sufficiently warmed up your muscles and joints, you risk an injury, and a performance below your best is almost guaranteed. Spend 6-8 minutes jogging lightly, then work through a full-body range-of-motion warm-up. These aren’t static stretches where you pull your muscles. These moves — deep knee bends, leg kicks, hip rotations, and arm windmills — are all about getting blood into your joints and lubricating them for the work ahead. 

Millions of runners around the world complete half-marathons and marathons successfully each year. Many are gifted natural runners who’ve been running since elementary school. Others never ran until a year or two before their first marathon. But regardless of their backgrounds, they all benefit from years and years of evolving training guidelines for distance runners. You, too, can tap into that expertise with Humango’s AI-powered endurance coaching app. With the app’s connectivity with Garmin and Suunto GPS watches, you can put that expertise to practice and accelerate your long-distance running progress.

Tune Your Body to Run Far

Training for distance running events starts with developing a fine-tuned aerobic engine, the cardiovascular system that keeps your blood pumping efficiently to your running muscles mile after mile. And as your engine becomes more efficient, you can go farther while putting in the same effort. 

By tracking your runs with a GPS sports watch and heart rate monitor, you can avoid a common trap that trips up many new — and even experienced — runners: running slower or faster than they should. Those who run slow are certainly improving their cardiovascular fitness, but they’re also teaching their body how to run slow. Those who run too fast may feel like they’re doing the work. And they are, but they never really give their body a chance to recover. It sounds counter-intuitive, but by running too fast too often, they prevent themselves from running even faster.

A training app like Humango will set your running paces according to your current fitness level, prescribing workouts that are neither too easy nor too hard when the goal is aerobic efficiency. 

Run Fast the Right Way

To run faster, you need to, yes, run fast. But you need to run as fast as possible for 1-8 minute intervals as part of your training, even for marathon distances. Speed work forces you to run with good form and cadence. The American College for Sports Medicine recommends all runners shoot for a running cadence of more than 170 steps per minute. Today’s GPS watches can measure your cadence to tell you if you’re on pace. Taken together, this focus on top-end, all-out speed will improve your running economy, which saves energy and trains your body to run faster for longer. 

Speed work and long-distance running sound like oxymorons, but the combo works. The tricky part is finding the right time and place for it in a multi-week training plan. Humango’s coaching app will know where to insert these workouts. Once they’re downloaded, Humango’s AI will adjust your future workouts accordingly. Nailing every interval? Expect to see harder ones in the future. Struggling to finish the last workout? Humango will schedule easier workouts that meet you where you are on your running journey. 

Schedule Time for a Strong Foundation

Strong runners with legs built to last require a rock-solid core to give their legs a solid platform to drive them forward. A strong foundation is also a key to stamina and endurance; the more stable the core, the more energy your body can redirect to your legs. A basic core-strengthening routine that targets your stomach, back, chest, shoulders, hips, and legs is all you need, and you can get a quality core workout in as little as 20 minutes. But knowing when and where to schedule it in between your runs can be difficult. That’s where Humango steps in, scheduling strength-training sessions for times when they complement, not interrupt, your plan. 

Know When To Take a Break

Recovery and rest. Everyone knows these are vital to improving any athletic endeavor. Yet, it’s so hard to deduce how much is too little or too much. (Oddly, the result is a fitness plateau followed by slowly eroding fitness in both cases.) Knowing how much rest you need to optimize your running progression is as easy as downloading your runs and strength workouts to Humango’s app. It’ll take your results and schedule an extra day off if needed. Or it could accelerate your schedule if it sees you crushing — not merely finishing — your workouts. Thanks to Humango, the guesswork that goes into figuring out how much work is too much is gone. Now, you can learn your limits without years of trial and error.

Strength training is an oft-overlooked super-supplement for cyclists. It develops the power used for sprints and muscling over hilly terrain. It fends off the muscle fatigue you feel at the end of a long ride. Strength training exercises with weights promote bone density, which can be a problem with the non-weight-bearing nature of riding a bike. And it helps neutralize muscle imbalances that can develop from the fixed position of cycling.

Before you get too concerned about bulking up or losing flexibility, the good news is that strength training for cycling is different from traditional weight lifting. The goal is to integrate this strength work into your bike training to make you a better, stronger rider, not a bodybuilder. As such, you can do most of the moves detailed below at home without weights in 30 minutes or so, 2-3 times a week. 

Don’t worry; you can still do your hard cycling intervals since resistance training focuses on muscles, not your cardiovascular system. For help adding a strength routine to your cycling program, you can enlist a coach such as Humango’s AI coaching app. It’ll integrate strength sessions into a weekly program, adjusting your cycling workouts to build off the strength work instead of leaving you to guess when you should do it.

Basic Stability Program

Cyclists need a powerful platform to push against as they drive the pedals through the pedal stroke. That platform is your core. So, the stronger your core, the harder you can ride. Fortunately, it doesn’t take squats and deadlifts with heavy weights to accomplish this. Bodyweight exercises will offer impressive gains, especially if you’re starting from zero. 

Back expert Stuart McGill, PhD, came up with three simple core exercises to shore up core stability in people with back pain, and they work for cyclists, as well. You can also complete one rep of each exercise as part of your daily warm-up.

Modified Curl-Up:

1. Lie on your back and bend one knee while extending the other.
2. With your hands underneath your lower back and your back in a neutral position, brace your abdomen, then lift your head, shoulders, and chest. Avoid tilting your head back or tucking in your chin.
3. Hold this position for 10 seconds, then lower your upper body back down slowly to the floor. Repeat with the opposite leg bent and the other leg extended. That completes one rep. Work up to completing 3-4.

Side Plank:

1. Lie on your left side, with your left elbow under your shoulder, forearm on the ground, and left hand on your hip.
2. Keep your legs straight with your feet stacked on top of each other.
3. Without twisting or leaning forward, lift your hips off the floor and hold your body straight for 10 seconds, then slowly drop to the floor. 
4. Repeat on your right side to complete one rep. Work up to complete 3-5 reps.

Bird Dog:

1. Position yourself on your hands and knees with hands under your shoulders and knees under your hips. 
2. Raise your right arm straight forward and your left leg straight back while keeping your spine neutral (no twisting).
3. Once the arm and leg are fully extended, hold for 10 seconds.
4. Lower the arm and leg and repeat with the opposite arm and leg. Work up to complete 3-5 reps.

Power Moves

The following exercises target the key cycling muscles — quads, glutes, and hamstrings — with help from your core to keep you stable (stability again!). Remember, you don’t need to win these strength sessions by busting out your personal best in reps or weights. You want to complete each exercise with enough left in the tank to complete no more than two more reps. Two caveats, though. First, do a warm-up set of each exercise with no weights. Second, if you feel your form is not perfect due to muscle fatigue, stop and try again the next workout. The last thing you want to do is injure yourself.

Lunges:

1. Take a step back. Brace your torso and lower your body with your torso upright, hands by your sides. Make sure your forward knee doesn’t lean over your toes. Slowly press yourself back upright when your forward leg reaches a 90-degree bend.  
2. Switch legs and repeat.
3. Start with 10-12 reps of each leg, working up to 3-4 sets.
4. Keep progressing by holding a light dumbbell or kettlebell in each hand.

Single-Leg Deadlifts

1. From a standing position, slowly bend forward from your waist, keeping your back straight, while you lift one of your legs straight behind you simultaneously.
2. Your planted leg should be slightly bent, and you should feel the tension in your glute and hamstring muscles, not your back.
3. Once your torso is level with the ground, slowly raise it back up, focusing on your glutes to do the work, not your back.
4. Repeat with the other leg to complete one rep. Repeat for 8-10 reps. Work up to 3-4 sets.
5. As you grow stronger, add light dumbbells or kettlebells to each hand.

Front Squats

1. With your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, hold a dumbbell, kettlebell, medicine ball, or weight plate at chest height with both hands.
2. Slowly lower your body, keeping your torso as upright as possible. Stop when your legs reach a 90-degree angle.
3. Quickly raise yourself to standing.
4. Repeat for 10-12 reps and 3-4 sets.

Whether you’re a strength training rookie or a seasoned cyclist who’s rediscovering the benefits of basic resistance training, incorporating these simple but effective strength exercises into your training routine will help you build a stronger engine capable of powering your cycling performance to the next level.

We get it. It’s hard to motivate yourself to train through cold and dark days. You have to pull on all your winter running gear for even a short run. If you’re a cyclist, you need even more gear, especially if it’s raining. But when you brave the chilly temps, you get a fitness boost and a mood boost, as well. Instead of hiding from winter, own it. Consistency is the number one, most effective pathway to running, cycling, or doing anything faster year in and year out. Humango’s training app will help you maintain this consistency by designing and managing a winter training plan that builds you up for the spring. Below, we’ve shared our favorite tips for getting the most out of winter.

Winter Running & Winter Cycling

Traditional off-season endurance training for runners and cyclists usually features slow miles and long distances. It doesn’t have to be that way. Shorter, intense workouts can generate similar adaptations — and more body heat to keep you warm. These aren’t necessarily all-out sprint workouts. Instead, they involve several multi-minute race-pace intervals spread over an hour or so. With Humango, you can plug in the number of days and hours a week you have available to train and let Hugo, your AI-powered digital coach, do the rest.

Winter is the perfect time to address your weaknesses. If you regularly slow to a walk on hills, use this time to do hill repeats to build more power. Is running downhill problematic on your knees and back? Hit the weight room and shore up your stabilizer muscles and tendons to better handle the impact. Those weight-room workouts count toward your consistency. Plug in strength days into Humango, and let it adjust your cardio workouts to account for strength work. 

Your weakness can even come from running the same routes repeatedly, so much so that your body’s been trained to run them efficiently. This approach is great for training but not for race day, where the course is unfamiliar. So, use your winter training sessions to explore new routes. 

While we all adapt to and deal with chilly weather differently, air temperature and humidity require special attention. First, cold air is usually drier air, and as such, it sucks moisture out of our bodies with every breath. So work to consciously keep yourself hydrated, even if you don’t feel cold. Second, it takes practice to pull off max efforts in sub-freezing temperatures. Here’s a good rule of thumb to follow until you figure out what works for you:

• If above freezing (32°F), max efforts are okay on a winter run or ride. 
• Between 22°- 32° F, steady-state intervals are ideal. Steady-state translates to the pace you can sustain for an hour max.
• Below 22° F, stick to a conversational pace.

Cross Training for Runners & Cyclists

Cross-training is a fantastic way to maintain your fitness consistency. Plus, it gives you a mental break from your core sport, mixes up the environment, and speeds your development by providing something new to learn. Triathletes can substitute Nordic skiing for their long weekend rides. Live near a ski hill? See if they’ll let you climb the ski hill on alpine skis or snowshoes as a substitute for hill repeats. In a snow-free region? Cyclists can sub in mountain biking to keep their cycling legs in shape while honing their bike handling skills on the trails. Runners can try swimming or cycling to give their bones and tendons a break from the pounding.

Weight training will work to correct any muscle imbalances from all those months on the bike or running with no upper-body conditioning. Free weight lifts will help all athletes strengthen their core, which will translate into being able to apply more force to a stride or pedal stroke. For cyclists, weight training will improve bone density lost from all those days on the bike.

Winter 101:
Overdressing is a common mistake for many winter outdoor athletes. If you’re going on a run, it’s best to start moderately uncomfortable in terms of clothing so you don’t end up with a sweat-soaked top that turns freezing once you stop. You’ll heat up fast once you start moving. The same goes for cyclists, although you may want to wear a jacket to start a ride. You can stuff it in a jersey pocket once you warm up. You’ll also want that jacket if your route includes long, fast downhill stretches.

When regulating your body temperature, take care of your extremities first: bundle your feet in warm socks or cycling booties, pull on gloves, and then cover your head. Still cold? Pull on a warmer top or jacket. Still feeling the chill? Time for leggings. If you start to sweat, take your gloves off before your jacket. The hands feature a massive surface area of skin criss-crossed with blood vessels (aka heat) close to the skin’s surface. Exposing your hands will help you cool off faster than taking off your jacket. 

When To Take It Inside

Let’s face it, it can be downright dangerous to train outside in the winter. A blizzard, cold driving rain, or sub-zero temps are good reasons to play it safe and train indoors. When you do, use the opportunity to do a short, sub-one-hour set of max intervals on the treadmill or indoor bike trainer. With Humango’s AI app, changing your workout on the fly is easy. Log your indoor workout data in the app, and it’ll adjust your successive workouts accordingly, scheduling the appropriate recovery time and modifications to your workouts so you don’t burn out.

In the end, the goal is to keep moving and build fitness through the winter. And when the weather plays nice and makes it possible to enjoy winter outdoors, even better.

At its absolute most basic, triathlon training breaks down into a repeated cycle of swim, bike, and run workouts, in that order, twice a week. That’s it. This simple approach works for any of the triathlon distances. You can train as little as 45 minutes a day for six days and likely finish a sprint distance triathlon. For an Olympic distance triathlon, setting aside 7-8 hours a week can do the job. Sounds easy enough, right? It is — until life gets in the way, the weather turns foul, or a last-minute business trip ruins your plan. Fortunately, some workarounds and hacks can get you back on track. We listed our eight favorites below. Use them as needed to keep your triathlon training plan on track during a hectic period or to stay in tri shape between events.

Tip #1: Consistency matters more than long workouts.

Since triathlon requires you to train in three different sports, practicing all three will yield a bigger payoff on race day. Rather than skipping three days and trying to make it up on the weekend with a long bike ride followed by a run, it’s better to spend even 30 minutes a day on one sport twice a week. If you travel and have to use a treadmill or exercise bike in the hotel gym, do it. Your goal is to train six days a week, even if some of your sessions are short.

Tip #2: Prioritize high-intensity sessions over endurance ones.

High-intensity interval training builds speed, strength, and mental toughness. It also provides a bigger fitness payoff than long rides or runs for the amount of time invested. Because of this, you want to skip your longer endurance rides and runs if you skip anything. In short, the harder the workout looks on your plan, the more critical it is to your triathlon fitness. For shorter triathlons, that means make your high intensity workouts the priority. For longer Ironman distance races, those long-distance rides and runs take precedence.  Come race day, you’ll be glad you did them.

Tip #3: Prioritize hard days on the bike over hard runs.

Biking at full throttle throughout your training — or even at race pace — will be easier on your joints than on a run. The goal is to develop your cardiovascular capacity and strength, and cycling is a perfect low-impact way to do it. Plus, the bike makes up more than 50% of a triathlon. It makes sense to prioritize cycling time and work on the bike.

Tip #4: Proficient swimming is okay.

Triathletes can spend countless hours perfecting their swimming stroke and logging hours and hours in the pool or lake to become strong, efficient swimmers. But the swim leg is only 10% of a triathlon. To save time, work to become proficient at swimming, not trying to become Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledeky. Your bike and run legs will determine how well your race goes, not the swim. So, use your swim training to find efficiency in your swim stroke. Learning how to save energy in the swim will help you start the bike leg feeling as fresh as possible. This workout will also rest your joints from the impact of your runs and to help you recover from those high-intensity bike workouts above.

Tip #5: Strength train to accelerate power gains.

A 30-minute full-body strength circuit, 1-2 times a week, targeting your back, shoulders, arms, core, glutes, and legs, will help you in all sports because resistance training fatigues your muscles faster than the pool, bike, or run. Strength training will also strengthen your core, improving stability and creating a foundation for a powerful swimming stroke, pedal stroke, and foot strike. Strength training is especially helpful at the start of a training schedule to prepare your muscles and joints for the work ahead. As you get closer to race day, you can drop the strength training and devote those workouts to your long rides and runs.

Tip #6: Use brick days to organize and practice your T2 transition.

Brick workouts, where a run workout immediately follows a bike workout, are excellent opportunities to dial in your T2 transition. Start by setting up your running gear, fluids, sports gels, bars, and other foods in advance. After finishing your ride, pull on your running gear as quickly as possible and head back out. Use these practice transitions to figure out what process works best for you. Some athletes grab a bite and down some fluids before changing. Some swap that order. Some find it better to eat and drink something in the closing minutes of their ride to set themselves up for the run. Others may find it better to eat and drink at the start of their run, taking it slow until they find their running legs. You’ll never know what works for you without practice.

Tip #7: Recover, recover, recover.

There are three keys to recovering smartly: Get plenty of good sleep. Take one day off each week with no workouts. Don’t complete two high-intensity, hard workouts in a row. Strategic recovery periods give your body time to build muscle, strengthen joints, and prepare you to work harder and longer. And the more consistently you can train harder, the stronger and faster you get.

Tip #8: Get a coach.

The ultimate hack to triathlon training is a coach. Humango’s AI coaching app was created to coach triathletes to their best performances. Whether you have four hours a week to train or 20 hours, it can design and manage a plan that fits your schedule and triathlon racing goals. Even better, it’ll schedule workouts that maximize your progress without overloading your body with more work than it can handle. Have to miss a workout or two? No problem. Humango will adjust your workouts to accommodate your life and then adjust the rest of your program to account for that missed work. When no workout is wasted, saving time is automatic.