Favorite BikeErg Workouts for Outdoor Cycling

The BikeErg serves as a useful indoor training tool for all types of outdoor riding: mountain biking, gravel grinders, road racing and triathlon. We’ve pulled together some of our favorite BikeErg workouts for bringing your outdoor cycling indoors for the off-season.

Cady, Customer Service, Social Media and “As the Flywheel Spins” Podcast Trainer

I am a rookie on the mountain bike scene. I just love the climbing. For as much as I feel in control and strong on the way up the trails, I find myself timid and hesitant on the descent. This season, my second, I am starting to understand how to roll through more obstacles and moving faster is definitely helpful to that process. I think what is notable is that learning to mountain bike takes time. As a 40-year-old, athletic person, I am both humbled and excited by the process of learning something new.

My favorite BikeErg workout is one that’s preprogrammed in the PM: 5 rounds of 1:40 work/:20 rest, increasing cadence each round 2:00 rest, then: 4 rounds of 1:40 work/:20 rest, increasing damper resistance each round. This workout gives me practice boosting my turnover rate under load to get up and over the rocks and roots through the first half of the workout. The second half then challenges my stamina as the resistance increases, just like the change in the pitch of our Vermont hills.

Jameson, Customer Service and Social Media

I’m into Gravel, Enduro, and XC mountain biking. Most recently, I did the Leadville Mountain Bike 100-miler: 100+ miles at 12k feet of elevation, starting at 10,000 feet of altitude. Here are three of my favorite BikeErg workouts:

• 30 minutes max effort, tried and true grind
• 10 rounds of 1000m hard, 1 minute easy
• Random time domain hill climb simulation (e.g. 3 min hard, 1 min off, 2 min hard, 2 min off, 4 min hard, 1 min off, 30 seconds hard). I try to emulate short(er) bursts/hills to mimic pitch changes in climbing.

The BikeErg is great for interval training or doing steady state tests. I like to use watts across the board as that translates the best for cycling.

Silvan, Concept2 Switzerland

I'm a road cyclist. in summer, I often cycle to work and back for a carbon neutral commute as well as a somewhat decent workout. The way to work is about one hour with a little climb of around 300 metres in altitude. (The way home is about 15 minutes faster!) We did a cycling tour when I was on the Swiss National Rowing team: 7 hours, 200k and 2500m metres of climbing. My back, legs, bottom, feet—everything was sore for several days. That was before I had a BikeErg to train on.

My favorite BikeErg session is a 60 minute session with 5 rounds of 9 minutes at steady state and 3 minutes at threshold level. (Threshold level is the watts that you are able to just hold for a flat out 20 minute session.) This workout keeps the steady state session more interesting and an hour goes by pretty quickly. With the threshold work in between, you get a real nice all-around workout—which keeps me fit and ready for Swiss roads. Switzerland's roads are hilly, so you often need to sprint up a little hill or so.

Meredith, Customer Service and Marketing

I train and compete for sprint triathlons. I find the roads too dangerous for my regular training, so I rely on the BikeErg for my fitness. I find it translates well to road cycling. Unfortunately, many events have been cancelled during COVID, including my favorite local sprint race here in Colchester, Vermont. In the past I’ve competed in all distances, including Ironman Canada.

My favorite workout is 3 rounds of 10’ intervals with 1’ of rest in between. I find this gives me a good focus and I can replicate my race strategy: settling in after the swim, keeping steady through the middle, and spinning out my legs before transitioning to the run. My favorite brick workout is a 20-30 minute hard cycle, followed by a transition out the door: I slip into my run shoes and finish the workout with a 2-mile run.

I have trouble getting out on my bike regularly; the BikeErg is always available for a short workout no matter what the weather. I can BikeErg alone, whereas I prefer to bike outdoors with others. When I prepared for the 2019 Colchester Triathlon, I relied on the BikeErg for all my fitness and only biked outdoors a handful of times before race day. I’m confident in my bike handling skills, so to transition the fitness over to outdoor riding was exciting. It was a really efficient way to prepare! I use the same bike shoes and clips on the BikeErg as my Cannondale road bike. In the past I used this bike on a trainer, but I’ve found the BikeErg much smoother, quieter, and more comfortable for indoor training.