Workout Wednesday: A real Stress-Buster

Let’s face it; there are days that call for a ride that serves no purpose other than to relieve built-up stress.  Regardless of the workout you had planned for the day or what you’re your schedule says, the best ride for you that day is to simply ride yourself into the ground.  You may have had a bad day at the office with your boss or coworker, a stressful day at home or for some other reason. 

And there’s no better way to do this than to ride your bike – hard.  Lungs screaming for oxygen and legs that feel like lead is just the cleansing you need.  If you’ve ever had a day like this, take out your frustrations on your bike.

The criteria I look for in a great stress-busting workout include:

1. The intervals require 100% concentration.  You want to be forced to focus on the ride and not whatever has produced the stress.
2. They need to be all-out or nearly all-out efforts.  Riding at less than all-out defeats #1 above and won’t produce the desired physiological effects noted above.
3. The intervals should be short, but not too short.  I consider 30 seconds – 5 minutes the ideal duration.  Longer intervals tend to allow your mind to wander, and shorter than 30 seconds are simply too short to both fry the legs AND force you to gasp for air.
4. Recovery should be short between intervals.  The only thing on your mind should be recovering quickly for the next interval.

Using these criteria, there are an infinite number of possibilities for short, yet intense rides.  Here’s a fantastic example, and a ride that can be done in a small window of time:

WARMUP:  

• 5 minutes easy, including 30 second spin-up’s each minute. 
• 3 x 1 minute increased tempo intervals.  These are similar to the spin-ups, but are in a slightly bigger gear and are longer.
• This isn’t the ideal warmup, and you can extend it if you have more time.  However, this will prepare your legs well enough for the stress-busting intervals.

MAIN SET:

Ride these intervals AS HARD AS YOU CAN!  I’m not giving specific heart rate or power guidelines.  These are all-out efforts.  Period.

• 1 x 3 minutes “on”
• 1 minute recovery
• 1 x 2 minutes “on”
• 1 minute recovery
• 4 x 1 minute “on”
• 1 minute recovery between each
• 4 x 30 seconds “on”
• 30 second recovery between each

Perform 2 sets of the above — or more if you have more time or have more stress to relieve.  J

COOLDOWN:

10 minutes easy spinning

There you go.  Short, sweet and very, very hard.  You can get all this work done in about 1 hour.  You’ll feel wiped out, refreshed and cleansed at the same time.

Give this a try next time you need to blow off some steam, and tell me how it goes and whether it helped you accomplish your goal.    Add your comments below, and include other ideas that have worked for you.  Then GET OUT AND RIDE!!