PHASE TWO: ENDURANCE

No amount of gym work entirely replicates time in the saddle. Try to average one long (four- or five-hour) ride plus a shorter jaunt per week. No time for a half-day outing? Quick bouts of intense cycling can serve as a good substitute. A study presented at a conference for the International Journal of Exercise Science found that cycling intervals three times per week could improve riding speed by 18 percent among new cyclists in a month.

Here’s the structure used in the study: Ride for four minutes at what feels like 60 percent of your max effort. By the end, you should feel winded but not spent. Follow that with a one-minute recovery, pedaling slowly. Repeat eight times, adding up to 40 minutes.

You can do this on an indoor bike, too. After a short warm-up, go all-out for 30 seconds to find your max RPM or wattage that day. Figure out what 60 percent of that number is, and use it as a guideline for the workout. Do this a couple of times per week, and after a month, you should see those numbers steadily improving.