30 minute training ideas

If you have a spare 30 minutes, try one of these cross-training options:

1. Swimming

   A few lengths give your heart and lungs a workout, and you’ll also be boosting your upper body strength.

   Do it like this: Don’t fancy swimming up and down in lanes for half an hour? Try alternating blocks of 100m of normal swimming using fins, hand paddles, legs only (with a float) and closed fists.

2. Tabata training

   Tabata training is named after Dr Izumi Tabata, the primary researcher looking into the impact of high intensity training on aerobic/anaerobic performance. His study, using elite speed skaters, has shown that while doing moderate intensity/ longer duration exercise will improve your aerobic capacity, by doing seven or eight short bursts of high intensity with short recovery in between, you can increase both your aerobic and anaerobic capacity.

   Do it like this: You need to warm up well, so find a quiet stretch of road or trail and pedal on a bike for at least 10 minutes. If you can, find a moderate (5 per cent) hill – this helps to keep the intensity high. Once warmed up, perform seven to eight 20-second sprints with 10-second recoveries in between. If you’re new to this type of exercise, start with just three to five repeats and build up. Warm down for 10 minutes.

3. Running

   For a lot of people, running is a dirty word. However, for maximum returns per minute of exercise and for straight-out-of-your-door ease, it’s hard to beat. For more variety, greater strength and fitness gains, and less impact on your joints, try to run off-road.

   The more hills and mud you can find the better. “The general fitness I gain from hill running also really benefits my cycling,” says Rob Jebb, former World Sky Running Champion and seven times winner of the Three Peaks Cyclocross race. “I really notice it at the top of steep bike climbs. I don’t necessarily pull away on the hill itself, but at the top I’m able to continue at a good pace while my competitors are still trying to recover from the effort of the hill.”

   Do it like this: Vary your pace and effort using a style of informal interval training known as Fartlek (a Swedish term meaning ‘speed-play’). When you feel good, or the road kicks up, push hard and then recover on the flat.

   You’ll find that this type of training translates well to cycling and improves your ability to recover from intense efforts, such as climbing or attacks in a race, while you’re still working.

4. Yoga

   If you struggle to touch your toes, get a sore back or neck when cycling or just don’t feel as limber as you once did, incorporating some yoga into your training could be the answer.

   Do it like this: Either enrol in a class or buy an instructional DVD.

   This feature is brought to you by Get Into Cycling from Future Publishing, the publishers of www.bikeradar.com
   
   If you’re looking for new ways to keep fit, look no further than our fitness glossary for everything you need to know.