Indoor training does not require a subscription. You do not need a virtual world rendered on a 55-inch screen. You do not need to race somebody's avatar up a fictional Alpe. What you need is a timer, your FTP number, and a handful of sessions that target the right physiological systems in the right order.
I have had hundreds of coaches and sports scientists on the podcast over the years. The ones producing real results — the ones whose athletes actually get faster — are not prescribing exotic protocols. They are running the same ten or twelve sessions, adjusting intensity and volume to the individual. That is it. The sessions themselves are nothing exotic. The results come from execution and consistency.
I'm going to give you the exact sessions. Ten of them. They cover every training stimulus a cyclist needs, from recovery through to neuromuscular power. You can go and do them this week. All power targets are expressed as a percentage of your FTP, so they scale to any rider at any level. If you do not know your FTP, use our FTP Zone Calculator to establish your zones before you start.
No app required. No monthly fee. Just you, the bike, and the work.
Before You Start: The Indoor-Specific Stuff
Indoor riding is not outdoor riding with different scenery. The physics change. You are stationary, which means no airflow, no coasting, no variation in gradient. Your body has to dump heat through sweat alone, and without wind evaporating that sweat, your core temperature climbs faster than it would on the road.
The practical consequences:
Fan. Not optional. A decent floor fan pointed directly at your torso is the single biggest performance improvement you can make to your indoor setup. Without it, your indoor power will be 5 to 15 per cent lower than outdoor equivalents. That is not a guess — it has been measured repeatedly in lab settings. If you only buy one piece of indoor equipment beyond the trainer itself, make it a fan.
Hydration. You will sweat more indoors than outdoors at the same intensity. A bottle every 15 to 20 minutes is the minimum. A second bottle with electrolytes is sensible for anything over 45 minutes. If you finish a session and your towel is dry, you were not working hard enough or you are dangerously under-hydrated.
Duration. Longer is not better indoors. The monotony, the heat accumulation, and the sustained saddle pressure without any out-of-saddle coasting — all of it degrades session quality past about 90 minutes for most riders. The good news: you do not need long sessions indoors. Structured work is more time-efficient than outdoor riding precisely because there is no coasting, no traffic lights, no waiting at junctions. A 60-minute indoor session with proper intervals delivers more training stimulus than a 90-minute outdoor ride where you spent 20 minutes soft-pedalling through town.
Warm-up protocol. Every session below starts with a standard warm-up unless otherwise stated: 10 minutes of progressive riding from zone 1 up to zone 3, followed by 2 or 3 accelerations of 10 to 15 seconds at high cadence. This opens capillaries, raises core temperature, and primes the neuromuscular system. Do not skip it. Jumping straight into threshold intervals cold is how you produce bad numbers and worse sessions.
Session 1: Recovery Spin
Duration: 45-60 minutes | Intensity: 50-55% FTP | RPE: 2/10
This is the most important session on the list, and it is the one most riders skip or do wrong. A recovery spin is not a steady endurance ride at slightly lower power. It is properly easy. Embarrassingly easy. Easy enough that you would be mortified if anyone saw your power file.
50 to 55 per cent of FTP in an easy gear, cadence of 90 to 100 rpm, and that is it. No intervals. No surges. No sneaking the power up because you feel good. The point is to increase blood flow to fatigued muscles, clear metabolic waste, and promote recovery without adding training stress.
If you cannot hold yourself to this intensity, your hard days are suffering. The polarised training model — the one that Professor Stephen Seiler has demonstrated across decades of data from elite endurance athletes — only works when easy days are actually easy. Most amateurs ride their recovery days at 65 to 70 per cent of FTP. That is not recovery. That is junk mileage that fatigues you just enough to compromise tomorrow's threshold session.
Structure: Flat. No variation. 45 to 60 minutes of steady spinning at 50 to 55 per cent of FTP. Put on a podcast. Watch a film. Let your legs turn over.
Session 2: Endurance Steady-State
Duration: 60-90 minutes | Intensity: 56-75% FTP | RPE: 3-4/10
The bread and butter of zone 2 training. This is the session that builds your aerobic engine — mitochondrial density, capillary development, fat oxidation capacity. The physiological returns compound with time, which is why outdoor zone 2 rides are ideally 2 to 4 hours. Indoors, 60 to 90 minutes is the practical ceiling before heat and monotony erode quality.
Hold 56 to 75 per cent of FTP. Steady cadence, steady effort, steady breathing. You should be able to hold a full conversation. If you are gasping between sentences, you are too hard. Drop 10 watts and stay there.
Structure: 10-minute warm-up, then 50 to 80 minutes at 56 to 75 per cent of FTP. Constant effort. No surges.
Session 3: Tempo Blocks
Duration: 60 minutes total | Intensity: 76-88% FTP | RPE: 5-6/10
Tempo sits between endurance and threshold — hard enough that you notice it, easy enough that you can sustain it for extended blocks. Two 20-minute efforts at 76 to 88 per cent of FTP with 5 minutes of easy spinning between them. This session builds muscular endurance and teaches your body to process lactate at moderate intensities.
What most people do: ride tempo every single indoor session because it feels productive. What actually works: use tempo deliberately, 1 to 2 times per week, as a moderate-intensity stimulus between your easy days and your properly hard days.
Structure:
- 10-minute warm-up
- 20 minutes at 76-88% FTP
- 5 minutes easy spinning
- 20 minutes at 76-88% FTP
- 5-minute cool-down
Session 4: Sweet Spot Intervals
Duration: 60-75 minutes total | Intensity: 88-93% FTP | RPE: 7/10
Sweet spot — and I mean the actual training zone, not the buzzword — sits at 88 to 93 per cent of FTP. It is the narrow band just below threshold where you accumulate significant training stress without the full recovery cost of threshold work. Three 15-minute blocks with 5 minutes of recovery between each.
This is the session that time-crunched riders should build their week around. It produces a disproportionate return on investment for the fatigue it generates. Dr Andrew Coggan, who defined the training levels most power-based systems now use, described this zone as the most efficient intensity for building functional threshold — you get roughly 90 per cent of the threshold stimulus with roughly 50 per cent of the recovery cost.
Structure:
- 10-minute warm-up
- 15 minutes at 88-93% FTP
- 5 minutes easy spinning
- 15 minutes at 88-93% FTP
- 5 minutes easy spinning
- 15 minutes at 88-93% FTP
- 5-minute cool-down
Session 5: Threshold Repeats
Duration: 60 minutes total | Intensity: 95-105% FTP | RPE: 8/10
This is the session that moves your FTP. Three 10-minute efforts at 95 to 105 per cent of FTP, each followed by 5 minutes of easy spinning. The goal is to spend time at and slightly above your current threshold, forcing your body to adapt by raising it.
Your FTP is, roughly, the highest power you can sustain for about an hour. Riding at that intensity for 10 minutes is hard but manageable. The recovery between efforts allows you to repeat it. Over weeks of consistent threshold work, your body adapts: you clear lactate more efficiently, your threshold creeps up, and what used to be race pace starts to feel like tempo.
The common mistake is going too hard on the first interval. Start at 95 per cent for the first rep. If you feel controlled, push toward 100 to 105 per cent on the second and third. If you blow up on rep three because you opened at 108 per cent, the session has failed. Controlled intensity across all three efforts is the goal.
Structure:
- 10-minute warm-up
- 10 minutes at 95-105% FTP
- 5 minutes easy spinning
- 10 minutes at 95-105% FTP
- 5 minutes easy spinning
- 10 minutes at 95-105% FTP
- 5-minute cool-down
Session 6: Over-Unders
Duration: 60 minutes total | Intensity: Alternating 95% and 105% FTP | RPE: 8-9/10
This is the session that separates structured training from just riding hard. Over-unders alternate between just below threshold and just above it, forcing your body to clear lactate while still producing power. Three 8-minute blocks, each alternating between 2 minutes at 95 per cent and 2 minutes at 105 per cent of FTP — so four intervals within each block, back and forth, no rest between the switches. Five minutes of easy spinning between blocks.
Here is where it gets really interesting. When you ride at 105 per cent of FTP, you accumulate lactate faster than you can clear it. When you drop to 95 per cent, you are still working but your clearance rate catches up. This oscillation trains your body to recover at intensity — which is precisely what racing demands. In a road race, you do not get to stop pedalling when you cross threshold. You get dragged over a short climb, slot back into the group, and have to recover while still holding 90 per cent of your max. Over-unders simulate that.
The first set will feel manageable. The second set will be uncomfortable. The third set will be a genuine test of will. If the third set feels easy, your FTP is set too low.
Structure:
- 10-minute warm-up
- 8 minutes alternating: 2 min at 95% / 2 min at 105% FTP (repeat twice per block)
- 5 minutes easy spinning
- 8 minutes alternating (same pattern)
- 5 minutes easy spinning
- 8 minutes alternating (same pattern)
- 5-minute cool-down
Session 7: VO2max Long Intervals
Duration: 60 minutes total | Intensity: 106-120% FTP | RPE: 9/10
VO2max work is where you push the ceiling of your aerobic system. If threshold training raises the floor, VO2max intervals raise the roof. Five 4-minute efforts at 106 to 120 per cent of FTP, each followed by 4 minutes of recovery spinning.
The science has finally caught up on this one. The target is not a specific power number — it is time spent at or near VO2max. The 4-minute interval length is deliberate: it takes roughly 90 to 120 seconds to ramp your oxygen consumption up to near-maximum, so a 4-minute effort gives you 2 to 3 minutes of genuine VO2max stimulus per rep. Shorter efforts do not provide enough time at the target. Longer efforts are harder to sustain at the required intensity.
Start at 106 per cent for the first rep. If you can hold good form and finish the interval without fading badly in the final minute, push toward 110 to 115 per cent on subsequent reps. Going out at 120 per cent and dying at 2 minutes is less effective than holding 110 per cent for the full 4 minutes. Sustainability across all five reps is what matters.
Structure:
- 10-minute warm-up
- 4 minutes at 106-120% FTP
- 4 minutes easy spinning
- Repeat 5 times total
- 5-minute cool-down
Session 8: Ronnestad Short-Short Intervals
Duration: ~55 minutes total | Intensity: 120-140% FTP on / recovery off | RPE: 9/10
This session comes from the research of Professor Bent Ronnestad at the Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences. The protocol: 30 seconds at 120 to 140 per cent of FTP, followed by 15 seconds of very easy spinning. Repeat 13 times per set. Three sets, with 3 minutes of recovery between sets.
The findings are striking. In well-trained cyclists, this short-short protocol produced greater VO2max improvements than traditional 4-minute intervals when total work was matched. The mechanism is simple — the short recovery periods keep oxygen consumption elevated throughout the set, so you accumulate more time at VO2max than you would with longer intervals and longer rest periods.
The practical challenge: this session demands precise pacing. You need to hit 120 to 140 per cent of FTP within 3 to 5 seconds and hold it for 30 seconds, then drop to near-zero power for 15 seconds, then ramp back up. A smart trainer in ERG mode makes this easier, but you can do it on any trainer with a timer visible. Set a repeating 30/15 interval timer on your phone and go.
Structure:
- 10-minute warm-up
- Set 1: 13 reps of 30 seconds at 120-140% FTP / 15 seconds easy (total: 9 minutes 45 seconds)
- 3 minutes easy spinning
- Set 2: 13 reps (same)
- 3 minutes easy spinning
- Set 3: 13 reps (same)
- 5-minute cool-down
Session 9: Neuromuscular Sprints
Duration: ~50 minutes total | Intensity: All-out | RPE: 10/10 for 15 seconds, then full recovery
Neuromuscular power is the ability to produce very high force for very short durations. Sprinting out of a corner. Closing a gap. Jumping away from a group on a short ramp. It lives in a completely different physiological drawer from threshold or VO2max — it is about neural recruitment and fast-twitch fibre activation, not aerobic capacity.
Eight 15-second all-out sprints, each followed by 3 to 5 minutes of full recovery. The recovery has to be genuine — spin easily until your heart rate is back below zone 2 and your legs feel ready. If you are still breathing hard when the next sprint starts, you have not recovered enough. The point is maximal intensity for every rep. If sprint 5 produces noticeably less peak power than sprint 1, either extend the recovery or call it a day.
A word of caution: all-out sprinting on a trainer puts enormous torque through the drivetrain. Make sure your bike is secure and your trainer can handle the forces. Standing sprints are fine if your setup allows it. If your trainer rocks or shifts, stay seated and use a big gear.
Structure:
- 10-minute warm-up with 2 to 3 progressive accelerations
- 15 seconds all-out sprint
- 3-5 minutes full recovery (easy spinning)
- Repeat 8 times total
- 5-minute cool-down
Session 10: The Kitchen Sink (Race Simulation)
Duration: 60-75 minutes total | Intensity: Mixed | RPE: Variable, up to 9/10
This session simulates the demands of a road race or a hard group ride. It moves through every energy system in a single workout — endurance, tempo, threshold, VO2max, and neuromuscular. The structure is deliberate: it mimics the irregular intensity pattern of actual racing, where you never know what is coming next.
Most structured training is predictable by design. You know what is coming, you pace yourself accordingly, and you complete the work. Racing is the opposite. Efforts come when the road or the group dictates, not when your training plan says so. This session trains you to produce hard efforts on top of accumulated fatigue — which is exactly what the last 30 kilometres of a race demand.
Structure:
- 10-minute warm-up
- 10 minutes at 75% FTP (simulated group riding pace)
- 3 minutes at 95% FTP (simulated tempo pull)
- 2 minutes at 105% FTP (simulated climb)
- 15 seconds all-out sprint (simulated attack)
- 3 minutes at 60% FTP (simulated recovery in the group)
- 5 minutes at 88% FTP (simulated chase)
- 4 minutes at 110% FTP (simulated VO2max effort)
- 3 minutes at 60% FTP (recovery)
- 2 minutes at 105% FTP (simulated climb)
- 15 seconds all-out sprint
- 3 minutes at 60% FTP
- 3 minutes at 95% FTP
- 15 seconds all-out sprint
- 5 minutes at 60% FTP
- 5-minute cool-down
The total adds up to roughly 60 minutes. If you are feeling strong, repeat the middle block. If you are wrecked after one pass, that is your answer — your race fitness needs work, and this session is the tool for building it.
How to Structure a Week Using These Sessions
You do not need all ten sessions every week. Nobody does. The art is in selecting the right three to five sessions for your current training phase and your available time.
Here is a template week for a time-crunched cyclist training four to five days:
- Monday: Rest day. Completely off the bike.
- Tuesday: Session 5 (Threshold Repeats) or Session 6 (Over-Unders) — this is your hard day
- Wednesday: Session 1 (Recovery Spin) or rest
- Thursday: Session 4 (Sweet Spot) or Session 3 (Tempo) — moderate intensity
- Friday: Rest day
- Saturday: Session 2 (Endurance Steady-State) or a longer outdoor ride
- Sunday: Session 7 (VO2max Long) or Session 10 (Kitchen Sink) — second hard day if recovered
Two hard days per week is the ceiling for most amateur cyclists. Not the floor. The ceiling. If you are doing three hard indoor sessions per week, the third one is almost certainly compromising the first two. You would get more from replacing it with a recovery spin or a rest day.
For a base-building phase (winter, early season), lean heavily on Sessions 1 through 4. Build volume at low and moderate intensity. Add the higher-intensity sessions — 5 through 9 — as your target events approach. Session 10 belongs in the final 6 to 8 weeks before a goal event, when you need to train race-specific fitness.
The rest days are not negotiable. Adaptation happens during recovery, not during the session itself. The session provides the stimulus. Sleep, nutrition, and rest provide the adaptation. Cut the rest and you cut the gains.
You Do Not Need Zwift
I want to be direct about this because the marketing around indoor cycling has convinced a lot of riders that they need a monthly subscription and a screen full of virtual riders to get a productive indoor session.
You do not.
What you need is a timer and your power zones. That is it. A phone with a basic interval timer app — most of which are free — handles the timing. Your power meter or smart trainer handles the intensity. The ten sessions above handle the programming.
Zwift is fun. It keeps some people consistent who would otherwise not ride indoors at all, and that matters — consistency is the most powerful training variable. If Zwift gets you on the bike, use it. But do not confuse entertainment with training. Racing in Zwift, chasing avatars up a virtual climb, and following random group rides does not target specific physiological systems the way structured intervals do. The person doing disciplined 3x10-minute threshold repeats with a timer on their phone is getting a better training stimulus than the person racing in Zwift three times a week and wondering why their FTP is not moving.
Use the app for your easy rides if you want. Do your structured work with a timer and intention.
The Takeaway
Ten sessions. Recovery to neuromuscular. Every physiological stimulus a cyclist needs, with exact power targets that scale to any rider at any fitness level. You can build an entire winter training programme — an entire year's worth of indoor sessions — from this list.
The difference between riders who get faster indoors and riders who just suffer on the turbo is not talent or genetics. It is structure. Knowing which session to do, at what intensity, for how long, and then having the discipline to execute it properly — including the discipline to ride easy when the plan says easy.
Print these sessions out. Stick them on the wall next to your trainer. Pick the right one for today, set your timer, and go to work.
If you want structured feedback on your training, weekly sessions plans, and a community of riders who actually follow through — join us in the Roadman Cycling community on Skool. It is where we put all of this into practice.