Cycling is a terrific way to gain endurance. Unlike running, it's a low-impact activity that's easy on the knee joints. While it's easy to work on long endurance training during the warm summer months, it can be difficult for many cyclists to train outside in the winter. Rollers are a good alternative as they can be set up just about anywhere and allow you to use your own bike to maintain and build endurance when you're unable to ride outside.
Effectiveness
Many bike trainers attach to a bike's rear wheel, providing resistance. They doesn't require any balance from the cyclist, however, which is a crucial skill and mimics the actual experience of riding a bike outside. Rollers help develop balance. Rollers consist of three heavy drums. The cyclist must balance the front wheel on one drum and the rear wheel between two drums. As you pedal, the rollers provide resistance, and you must keep a smooth, round pedal stroke to stay upright.
Training
Endurance training often requires hours of steady work on the bike because you are developing your aerobic system and conditioning it to withstand long efforts. Fortunately, you can also build endurance by performing intervals and by including hard efforts into a shorter workout. An interval combines a hard effort with easy recovery so your body can withstand more work. This produces greater results, such as endurance, average speed and strength, in less time.
Threshold Work
Your lactate threshold is the point at which your body cannot clear lactate, a byproduct of exercising, faster than it is produced. When you hit this threshold, you will often feel a burning sensation in your muscles and you'll start to feel fatigued. To increase your endurance, you should work a few beats under your lactic threshold by performing steady-state intervals. Use a heart-rate monitor and perform three 10-minute intervals followed by five minutes of rest.
Over-under Intervals
To work on smoothing out your pedal stroke while increasing endurance, try over-under intervals. Begin just below your lactate threshold and pedal there for two minutes. Then increase your effort and pedal hard for one minute before returning to the steady-state interval. Perform these for nine minutes total. Perform three sets of nine minutes, and take six minutes of recovery between the three nine-minute intervals.
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