We love basic training. It develops your aerobic system, builds muscular endurance, and reinforces good movement patterns, preparing your body for the hard work later in the season. It also directly benefits your fitness, since cycling relies heavily on aerobic capacity.

All that said, base training is an important part of building speed, but it doesn’t require the old-fashioned long, easy workouts. This approach takes a lot of time, which most of us unfortunately lack. Even if you have the time, it takes a lot of discipline and self-control to do a workout like this. Fortunately, there’s a better way: Target your aerobic system with slightly higher-intensity, shorter workouts.

Sweet spot training is a great example of how basic training can be done in a time-efficient manner. This approach also allows for more flexibility to incorporate group rides and even early-season races, and more fun means more consistency. Combined with individual adjustments of adaptive training, modern base training is one of the most effective and important ways to improve cycling.