Polarised training in cycling is an endurance training model where most riding is kept genuinely easy, a small amount is made properly hard, and the tiring middle ground is kept to a minimum.

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.

Carbs per hour cycling is simply the amount of carbohydrate you take in during a ride to keep blood glucose stable, protect glycogen, and stop your legs quietly filing for resignation in the final hour.

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.

A foam roller is a self-myofascial release tool that cyclists can use to temporarily improve range of motion and reduce how sore their legs feel, but it doesn’t fix overuse injuries, poor bike fit, or pain that needs proper assessment. In plain English, it can help you move and feel a bit better, which is useful, but it’s not a magic wand for recovery.

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.

Mesocycle training is one of those terms that sounds more complicated than it really is. In plain English, it simply means a focused block of training inside a bigger plan. Usually, that block lasts around 4 to 6 weeks and is built around one main goal, such as improving aerobic endurance, lifting FTP, sharpening VO2max, building race-specific power, or adding strength without wrecking everything else.

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.

At some point, every endurance athlete gets tempted by the same thought: what if I could get fitter without doing more hours, just by making the work feel harder? It’s a dangerously appealing idea because it sounds like training and life hacking in the same sentence.