Fitness Cycling

by Shannon Sovndal, Tyler Farrar (Foreword)

From customized workouts to authoritative advice, Fitness Cycling provides the most effective workouts for achieving peak physical conditioning. As a cyclist and physician for one of the sport’s leading teams, author Shannon Sovndal provides a detailed approach to cycling that will help you increase strength, speed, stamina, and overall fitness. Fitness Cycling features 56 workouts based on specific aspects of riding, such as base building, interval training, sprint and hill climbing, and time trialing. Each workout is color coded for intensity level, so you can create a targeted program based on your goal, current fitness level, and cycling experience. With recommendations, advice, and professional insights on riding techniques, goal setting, training concepts, recovery, and preventing common cycling injuries, Fitness Cycling is the one training guide you’ll turn to again and again for a lifetime of cycling workouts.

Genres: Sports, Fitness

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Christel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads. Thanks for allowing me the opportunity to review this. This is an updated version of a book previously published with two other authors. I haven't seen any reviews by people comparing the two versions. There is info info on choosing bikes and clothing, off-season cross training, charts to use to track performance and progress and in-depth exercise physiology is explained. This version deals with stationary bikes which means you can do it at home off-season or in bad weather or at most hotels if traveling but not with your bike. For people with disabilities or asthma and allergies, indoor workouts are a plus. Since I am disabled, I'm interested in seeing how far I can go with this on my NuStep which is bike-like and handles my physical limitations. I think that across the next year or two from what I see here, it will be fairly useful. For those of you can ride outdoors, with the author's medical education and biking experience, he has put together something riders at all levels and beginning racers can use. It isn't an "easy" read as it's pretty technical, and that can be daunting to more casual riders.

[Pete Wung · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book on developing your own cycling workouts. The intro chapters are concise and to the point, no minced words and no nonsense. The workouts are well described and answers most of the questions of a serious rider. It isn't extremely in depth, i.e. the hard core fanatic might find it lacking but it is great for someone who needs to have some kind of clue as to how to structure their workouts for a number of training goals and scenarios. I see it as a natural extension and a parallel book to Ride Your Way Lean: The Ultimate Plan for Burning Fat and Getting Fit on a Bike by Selene Yeager. Both does a good job of educating the curious cyclist who wants help in building a workout and answers all the usual questions.

[Megan Burnette Burnette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read. Good information on cycling.

[Thomas]

From customized workouts to authoritative advice, Fitness Cycling provides the most effective workouts for achieving peak physical conditioning. As a cyclist and physician for one of the sport's leading teams, author Shannon Sovndal provides a detailed approach to cycling that will help you increase strength, speed, stamina, and overall fitness. Fitness Cycling features 56 workouts based on specific aspects of riding, such as base building, interval training, sprint and hill climbing, and time trialing. Each workout is color coded for intensity level, so you can create a targeted program based on your goal, current fitness level, and cycling experience. With recommendations, advice, and professional insights on riding techniques, goal setting, training concepts, recovery, and preventing common cycling injuries, Fitness Cycling is the one training guide you'll turn to again and again for a lifetime of cycling workouts.

[Laurie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book tried to be a bit too much all things for all people. There are some more complex information for various ways of measuring your fitness levels which make non-scientific minds like mine glaze over and then there are chapters with very basic rudimentary information regarding equipment ie why you should wear bike shorts. What I loved though are all the different types of workouts in the middle of the book which will be great for when I'm just starting my season or struggling to get my mojo back on track. I wish he'd put more emphasis on how to build a training program of your own using all his different workout.

[zunggg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great companion for those who want to ride their bikes faster. The workouts are practical and include off-the-bike work. The various pieces of the jigsaw are explained individually to allow you to build a training plan that's right for you.

Sovndal's worked for the Garmin pro team so you can't fault her credentials, even if her plugging of DZ Nuts chamois cream is slightly predictable!