Training tips

Foot pain while cycling is common but it shouldn’t be part of your ride. Discover the causes behind burning feet, numb toes and sore arches – plus simple fixes that actually help.

RPE, or rate of perceived exertion, is a simple way to measure how hard a ride feels by rating your effort on a scale, usually from 1 to 10. For cyclists, RPE helps you judge intensity using breathing, muscle fatigue, focus and overall effort, even when power, heart rate or speed don’t tell the full story.

If you want better results from your riding, heart-rate zones are a simple place to start. Discover how to calculate yours, train with purpose and balance intensity with recovery for steady progress.

Heart rate variability, or HRV, is the small variation in time between one heartbeat and the next, and for endurance athletes, it’s most useful as a trend that shows how well the body is handling training and life stress, not as a one-off score that tells you whether today is good or bad. Used well, HRV can help you decide when to push, when to hold steady, and when to back off, but it only becomes genuinely useful when you judge it against your own normal range and combine it with sleep, soreness, mood and the demands of your training.

Thinking about your first triathlon? Learn what to expect, how to train and how to choose the right race with simple, practical advice to help you get started with confidence.

Outdoor cycling is what happens when you take your indoor fitness back onto real asphalt or gravel, where wind, terrain and bike handling suddenly matter again. After months of riding indoors, the change isn’t just physical, it’s sensory, technical and a little humbling at first.

Gravel riding is a cycling-specific mix of endurance, sustained power, bike handling, fuelling, and equipment preparation designed to help you ride fast and efficiently on loose, high-resistance terrain for long periods.

Indoor vs outdoor cycling training comes down to the difference between riding in a controlled environment and riding in the real world, where terrain, weather, traffic, and bike handling all affect the session.

Struggling with stubborn belly fat? Cycling can help. Explore training strategies, fueling tips and workouts that help cyclists burn more fat, ride stronger and stay consistent year-round.