Why You Need Structured Training

If you’re reading this then you like to ride your bike. I’ll further guess that you want to accomplish something special on your bike. Maybe you want to ride your first century, enter your first race, or podium at a specific race. Maybe you want to keep up with your cycling group or do a multi-day bike tour. Whatever achievement you have in mind, a training plan with structured cycling workouts will help you get there. Here is how.

Training Diversity

Our bodies use different energy systems and different muscle fibers to drive our activity. Long, slow rides are fueled differently from hard intervals and sprints; all of those are fueled differently from a quick, hard pedal stroke to get over a rock or log. You need to train all of these energy systems to be a well-rounded cyclist. All Reddiyo plans prescribe structured workouts that are targeted to a specific energy system, ensuring that over the duration of your plan nothing is neglected.

Training Specificity

Training diversity makes a well-rounded cyclist but you need training specificity to excel at a specific event. The demands of a century are different from the demands of a time trial or a criterium. Your training plan must reflect the demands of your chosen event. Are you a seasoned cycling veteran with many years under your belt or were you a child the last time you rode a bike? The right plan meets you where you are and addresses your specific needs. Reddiyo plans are custom designed to your needs so you’ll be well trained, rested and ready come the day of your big event.

Focused Workouts

Focused workouts are key to meeting training specificity requirements. Reddiyo workouts start with a warm up, followed by a main work set, and end with a cool down. The main work set typically consists of intervals of hard work followed by rest periods. The intervals vary in time and intensity based on the workout's focus. For instance, tempo workouts might have intervals of 5-20 minutes where as VO2 max workouts will have shorter more intense sets of intervals.

The specifics of your goals and events determine which workouts are best for you and when. A criterium, for example, may last an hour. Within that hour are frequent, short, high-intensity bursts, with a sprint to the finish. A criterium racer needs the aerobic ability to ride the entire race plus the ability to repeatedly accelerate then finish with a short, all-out effort. These needs of the criterium dictate the details of your overall plan and the type of structured workouts scheduled for you.

Accountability

We tend to gravitate to the work we like to do. Some people like long, steady-state rides. Others prefer shorter, punchier group rides or MTB rides. If you only do what you like then you stagnate and you leave a lot of fitness on the table. A Reddiyo plan keeps you accountable and ensures that you do the work that needs to be done.

Work/Recovery Balance

You gain fitness and make progress by doing the right amount of work. If the work is too easy then you won’t make progress. If you work too hard then you may burn out or become injured. The Reddiyo training method relies on gradual, steady progression of workload and intensity to get you fit efficiently and safely.

Rest/recovery is the flip side of the exercise coin. Hard work must be balanced with appropriate rest. Easy rides and time off the bike are when your muscles, joints, heart, lungs, and nervous system get stronger. This is all part of a well-designed training plan.

Time-Efficient

You probably have more going on in your life besides the bike. Family, hobbies, and work are important too. An organized and structured training plan enables you to get the most from your time on the bike while still maintaining balance in your life.

All Cyclists Benefit from a Plan

Maybe you’re strictly a recreational cyclist with no plans to race. You may think it’s only serious racers who need a training plan. The truth is any cyclist can benefit from a structured plan. If you’re a fitter, stronger cyclist then you’ll have more fun with every pedal stroke.

An Analogy to Higher Learning

If you want to pursue a college degree, how do you do it? Take classes at random and hope that somehow, someday, you end up with the degree? H**l no! You follow a degree plan! Why? A degree plan guides you in taking the right classes in the right order so that you learn what you need to learn in the order you need to learn it so you earn your degree in a timely fashion.

Taking random college classes isn’t the worst idea in the world. You’ll learn some interesting things and probably enjoy yourself. There’s nothing wrong with that! But if you want a degree then you need a plan. And if you want to accomplish something special on your bike, if you want to hit a big goal and feel proud of all your hard work, then a structured Reddiyo training plan is right up your alley.