Cycling Workout Generator

Power-based cycling training, without the spreadsheet

Cycling is the easiest of the three endurance sports to train with hard numbers because the bike isolates output cleanly: power meters and indoor trainers turn pedalling into a precise watts reading, and the relationship between watts and threshold capacity is the foundation of every modern training plan. Endurly's cycling generator works in this language. You set your functional threshold power (FTP) — the highest average watts you can hold for roughly an hour — and every session inside the block scales its targets from that single number. A sweet-spot interval comes out at 88-93% of FTP. A VO2 effort lands at 110-120%. Aerobic-base mileage stays well below 75%. The numbers are consistent across the block so you can see whether your threshold is rising over time, not just whether the workout felt hard.

Without an FTP, the generator falls back to heart-rate zones, which still produces a coherent plan — most cyclists who don't ride with power can still pin sessions to perceived exertion or to HR drift. Endurly also imports FTP from Intervals.icu when you connect that integration, so if you already track power elsewhere the value comes in automatically and stays current. The session card surfaces all three target types where they apply: the watts target, the HR zone, and the cadence range. On supported head units the FIT export carries the same targets so the device prompts you mid-interval. Indoor riders get the same structure with structured ERG-mode files. There is no spreadsheet to maintain because the generator owns the math.

FTP, sweet spot, and threshold work

Threshold training is where most cyclists live for the bulk of a serious block. The classic spread is sweet spot (88-93% FTP), threshold (93-105% FTP), and VO2 (105-120% FTP), each with its own interval shape and recovery profile. Sweet spot work delivers the highest training stimulus per minute of fatigue — you can do an hour of it on a Saturday and recover by Monday — which is why it dominates the build phase of most plans. Threshold work is where the actual lactate clearance system gets trained, but it costs more and limits how much volume you can sustain around it. VO2 work is for the ceiling: it's painful, it's short, and it shifts the top of the engine that everything else gets multiplied against. Endurly rotates the three across the block, weighted toward sweet spot in the build phase and shifting toward VO2 closer to a peaking event.

FTP itself drifts. After a block of focused threshold work, expect to see your FTP rise by 5-15 watts depending on your starting fitness — newer riders see bigger jumps, trained riders see smaller but still meaningful ones. Endurly prompts you to re-test every 6-8 weeks; the standard 20-minute test is fine, the ramp test is fine, the 8-minute pair test is fine. What matters is updating your profile so the next block scales against the new anchor. Without a re-test, sweet spot becomes too easy and threshold becomes only sweet spot — the stimulus drifts down even though the workouts look the same on paper. The re-test prompt is in the dashboard, takes one indoor session, and keeps the next block honest.

Building aerobic base — the part nobody wants to do

Below FTP work sits the unglamorous foundation of every serious training block: aerobic base mileage. These are the long Z2 rides where almost nothing eventful happens — your heart rate stays in the 65-75% range, the conversation flows, and the watts feel embarrassingly easy. They are also what most amateur cyclists skip because the immediate fatigue feels minimal and they confuse 'easy' with 'unproductive'. The reality is that aerobic base rides develop the slow-twitch muscle fibre, the mitochondrial density, and the fat-burning machinery that everything else gets built on. A rider with a deep aerobic base can absorb hard intervals because their recovery system is trained to clear lactate; a rider with a thin aerobic base bonks at hour two of any meaningful effort because the engine literally runs out of fuel.

Endurly programs aerobic base rides as steady Z1-Z2 efforts of varying duration depending on your time envelope. A weekday version might be 60 minutes of easy spinning; a Sunday long ride might be 2-3 hours of conversational pace. The generator does not let you skip them all — the session rotation reaches for endurance days deliberately because the block math depends on having that base in place. If you genuinely cannot fit a long ride in a given week, the system shifts the volume into the next interval session so the weekly load target still lands, but it also flags it so you know you're trading something. The discipline is in the consistency: aerobic base rides repeated for 8-12 weeks compound into a step-change in capacity, even when no individual ride felt like training.

Indoor versus outdoor: same plan, different surface

Most cyclists in northern climates split their year between outdoor riding and indoor trainer work, and the worst plans treat them as separate sports. Endurly treats them as one. You set the bike type — road, gravel, mountain bike, indoor trainer — and the session structure adapts: indoor sessions skew toward concentrated interval work because you're not navigating traffic, outdoor sessions skew toward longer steady efforts because they happen in the real world. The targets stay the same — same FTP percentages, same HR zones, same cadence guidance — but the rep duration and rest interval shift to match what's realistic on the surface. A 4x10 sweet spot indoors becomes 2x20 outdoors when you have a longer continuous stretch of road; a VO2 indoor session of 8x3 becomes 4x4 outdoors where the warmup and cool-down absorb more time.

Indoor trainers also unlock proper structured workouts in any weather. The FIT export from Endurly drops directly into Zwift, TrainerRoad, MyWhoosh, or Wahoo SYSTM as a structured workout file, with the targets pre-loaded into ERG mode so the trainer holds the watts for you. That removes the most common point of failure in interval work — drifting watts when you're tired — and lets the session do what it was designed to do. For outdoor rides the same FIT exports to Garmin, Wahoo, and Hammerhead head units with the targets shown on the screen turn-by-turn. The plan is the plan; the surface just changes what the screen looks like. Combined with the recovery rides and base mileage, this is what makes a 12-week cycling block feel like progressive training rather than just hours in the saddle.