As the days get shorter and temperatures cooler, you might be tempted to put away your bike for the season. But if you’re a serious cyclist, you may want to hold off on putting your gear into storage. Cycle Life offers individualized CompuTrainer sessions that will help you maintain and build your fitness during the winter months and get your ready to surpass personal bests next season.

But it’s not just for competitive cyclists who can benefit. With sprint triathlons and duathlons becoming popular, and out-of-practice riders too satisfied with cruising to the run, CompuTrainer workouts are the perfect way to build confidence and performance on a bike. And as the runners among us can attest, it’ll also help build strength and endurance.

Never tried indoor cycling? Here are few reasons to reconsider:

No weatherman necessary: In New England we love our seasons, but they don’t all cooperate with your desire to ride year-round. Outside of that April to October window, the days are too short and the weather too unpredictable to get in the necessary riding to maintain the gains you made during racing season, let alone build on them. But although you might only be able to comfortably ride outside for half the year, you can train inside anytime. While we believe that CompuTrainer sessions are an ideal year-round training tool, they are perfectly suited to inclement weather and plummeting temperatures.

Giving your best effort is easier: Cycling comes with variables that are part of being on a bike, but aren’t ideal for training. Cars, intersections, traffic lights and road conditions cause you to cruise when you’d like to be pedaling hard, slow down when you’d rather sprint, or stop entirely. During a CompuTrainer session you can simply pedal hard and focus on getting an intense non-stop workout without concerns of aggressive drivers, dangerous intersection or dicey stretches of road.

The right road for your training needs: The roads where you live may not have the terrain necssary to train for steep, repeating climbs. Or maybe there are too many hills, and you’re always climbing and cruising but never putting out the strong, steady effort required for racing on long stretches of flat road. CompuTrainer sessions allow you to dictate the landscape and work on the aspects of your ride that need the most attention.  

Training tailored to your ability: On your first visit, your baseline power threshold is established by setting your bike up on a CompuTrainer, which has an electronic load generator that lets us increase or decrease resistance while you pedal. Once your power threshold is established, it’s entered into our computer for all future rides. And we can modify your levels at any time.

Individualized workouts: Sessions are pre-programmed to focus on your specific fitness needs. For instance, to increase your anaerobic capacity, you need to train at intervals above your power threshold. Because it’s been established in the system, CompuTrainer automatically sets the appropriate tension. Our HD screen lets you track your in-ride progress, including elevation gains and target percentage of power thresholds. Because sessions are tailored to you, you’ll see noticeable improvement. In fact, regular training with a CompuTrainer can increase your power by 20 to 30% and your speed by 2 to 4 MPH.

Experienced coaches: Using CompuTrainers, our coaches implement proven training methods to increase your power, speed and overall performance. Some of the ways we use CompuTrainers include:

• Group training classes for every ability level.  Because CompuTrainers are tailored to your individual power threshold, you are guaranteed a workout that will challenge your current fitness level and increase your performance and efficiency on the bike
• Individualized workouts based on specific training goals
• Team training for upcoming events
• Race and event-specific workouts. Real Course™ videos allow you to pre-ride and train on the actual course you’ll encounter
• Seasonal training programs (like Winter Training Series) help you improve base power during the off-season
• Indoor time trials

For more information: http://www.cyclelifestudio.com/computrainer