INTRODUCTION

When you can't ride outdoors, there is no better way to train for cycling than with CompuTrainer. In fact, many athletes train indoors on CompuTrainer even when the weather is perfect for riding since they know what can be accomplished - great workouts unaffected by traffic, stoplights, and flats.

Yet, if you are not familiar with all of the possibilities CompuTrainer offers, you can't derive optimal benefits from this versatile trainer. Doing the wrong things even on the best equipment won't improve performance.

Some cyclists who have become my clients were doing the same workouts on the same courses every day on their CompuTrainers. When I changed the way they used their trainers, their fitness improved and they learned that they could do more with CompuTrainer than they had ever imagined.

This manual started as a set of workouts I designed for myself and my clients. Their feedback helped to refine the workouts and made a major contribution to the final product.

The workouts detailed in the manual are intended for a wide variety of bicycle riders including road racers, triathletes, duathletes, mountain bike racers, century riders, and fitness enthusiasts. The lines separating these types are often blurred as, for example, many road racers also race off-road, and some triathletes compete in road races. The many faceted cyclist can pick and choose the training regime he or she follows based on strengths, weaknesses, and goals.

The Training programs described here are intended for use with CompuTrainer, but realistically, some workouts are better accomplished on the road. For example, some road racers need to do workouts longer than three hours. This is a long time to ride indoors and may be better done outside. Mountain bike racers need outdoor time working on handling skills such as fast descents on single track and obstacles. Time trial racers must learn through actual experience how best to cheat the wind with aerodynamic positioning.