Adapted from Bicycling by Peter Oliver

If you are aiming to condition yourself for a specific event—a long tour, a race, a 100-mile"century" ride—a precise training program might make sense. It works because you have a clearly defined goal to work toward. But as often as not, such a schedule is a setup for failure. You push yourself too hard one day to attain your target mileage, and riding turns from fun into pain. Or you fail to attain your target, start doubting your commitment to keeping on schedule, grow lax, and ultimately stop riding altogether.

This should not necessarily discourage you from devising a specific schedule. If you respond to that kind of orderliness—in fact, you may require it for motivation, as many people do—sit down and create for yourself a day-by-day, week-by-week training chart. But in terms of getting fit, what you write down on paper means nothing: What matters is the effort you end up putting in on the road or trail.

Any ride, no matter how brief or nonaggressive, is a good ride, but any ride shorter than 30 minutes, especially at low (nonaerobic) intensity levels, does little to improve your overall fitness. If you want to get into good shape—for living life as well as riding your bike—you'll want to increase your cardiorespiratory efficiency. The only way to do that is to engagae in rides that push your cardiorespiratory system into the aerobic zone and sustain that level for at least 30 minutes.

Move on to Variety, the Spice of Riding

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