Getting Started with Indoor Cycling

First Signs of Progress

For the past two years, my endurance training has consisted almost entirely of running.

Over the past year, I’ve averaged about 6.0 hours of endurance activity per week, with running making up the majority. In recent weeks, I’ve begun introducing more cross-training into my routine.

But recently I’ve started experimenting with other training modalities—mainly indoor cycling, rowing, and swimming.

Running has been less especially since the marathon. My legs have needed some time to recover. And I think that learning cross-training will be good for my long term development.

For cycling, I’m using a Zwift indoor trainer.

I connect to Zwift via my laptop, which sits on the stand in front of the bike. I usually watch YouTube videos or All Blacks rugby games while cycling.

Over the last 90 days, I’ve averaged about 12 minutes a day on the trainer (around 1.5 hours per week). This is gradually increasing as I get more comfortable spending longer periods on the bike.

Daily time on the bike over the last 90-days. Gradually becoming more consistent!

A few things have helped with comfort so far:

• I’ve set the bike up in a very upright position, which feels more tolerable.

• Watching YouTube videos helps distract from the mild discomfort.

• I always keep a water bottle filled and within reach.

Testing and Performance

In recent weeks, I’ve begun testing my performance on the bike. In my first test, I established that around 140W sits at the top of my “green zone.”

You can read about that testing here.

Results of my first aerobic lactate test on the bike.

A week later, I retested and saw signs of improvement—my lactate profile shifted down (a positive result), meaning I can now generate more power at the same lactate cost. That’s a great indicator that the training is working. 😁

The lactate tests themselves have been great training. They’ve been my longest sessions on the bike. I got in another few hours of cycling between the first and second test too.

Lactate was lower in the second test. This is the kind of move you want to see.

Using those lactate results, I’ve set some rough heart rate zones for training:

• <125 bpm: easy (roughly LT1)

• 125–155 bpm: steady (roughly LT1–LT2)

• >155 bpm: hard (roughly LT2 and above)

Results of both of the tests. I haven’t tested LT2 directly yet, so I’m mostly guessing with a heart rate for that. But it doesn’t matter much for now, as I’m largely focusing on training at or below LT1.

Current Training Approach

Right now, my training is very simple. I just get on the bike and pedal easily, focusing on time rather than specific metrics. I rarely watch the power numbers in real time—every few minutes I’ll glance at the screen to check my heart rate. My main goal is to keep it below 125 bpm (easy) for almost all of the session.

Looking at my rides from the past 90 days, I’ve done well to keep most sessions in the “green” zone. The power chart shows a bit more “red,” but I’m not too concerned—heart rate and perceived effort are my main guides for now.

Most training has been “green” especially in recent weeks. In early weeks I experiment with some Zwift racing and ftp tests. These were fun, but quite costly energetically.

Progress and Motivation
My key metric at the moment is weekly hours on the bike. Last week, I reached 4 hours.

Interestingly, the “lactate testing” session ended up being my longest ride yet—70 minutes. Nothing motivates me more than the curiosity of collecting data!

Goal will be to slowly increase the time on bike in the coming weeks. I’ll keep on testing regularly so we can see the progress!

Last week was the biggest week yet!

Read More

• Here’s the lactate test I used to establish my cycling green zone.

• My running this year culminated in a sub-3 hour marathon in Sydney. You can read about this here.

• Bek Olimjon is on a very similar journey at the moment. He’s working with Gordo Byrn as his coach. You can read about Bek’s initial lactate testing here.