Fast Fitness6 weeks of short indoor cycling workouts for busy riders
Fast Fitness
6 weeks · 3 rides a week · 30–45 min
No time? No problem. Three short, focused rides a week build real fitness in six weeks. Every minute counts.
Three rides a week on your smart trainer, 30 to 45 minutes each. Short, hard intervals make every minute count, and six weeks later you feel it.
6
Weeks
3
Rides a week
30–45
Minutes
10 h
In all
01Who it is for
Little time, real fitness.
Fast Fitness is for you if your week is full. A job, a family, a long commute: you have half an hour, three times a week, and you want every minute to count. It also suits riders who simply like short rides.
The plan fits all levels. Every target is a percentage of your FTP, so a beginner and a fit rider ride the same plan at their own watts. Each week has one VO2 max session, one sweet spot or threshold session, and one easier ride.
Have more time, and want long rides? Look at Step Up or Gran Fondo Ready. Completely new to riding? Start with Back to Fitness.
Three half hours a week
30 to 45 minutes, warm-up and cool-down included.
Ready to work hard
Two of the three rides have hard intervals.
Six weeks
Two blocks of three weeks, each ending lighter.
02The science
Why short and hard works.
Long, easy rides build fitness slowly and need hours. When you don't have the hours, intensity does the work. (What FTP and the zones are: see the Fit in Four page.)
1. High-intensity intervals
HIIT means short efforts above your FTP, with easy spinning between them. In each effort your heart and lungs work near their limit. Repeat it, and the body answers: a stronger heart, more blood, more oxygen to the muscles. Your VO2 max rises, and every pace below it gets easier.
2. Work and rest
The rest between efforts shapes the session. MINUTE MAKER gives a minute of rest for a minute of work. BLITZ gives 15 seconds for 30, so the effort keeps building. Try both on the right, and feel the difference in your head before you feel it in your legs.
3. Not only intervals
Hard sessions alone burn you out. So each week also has a sweet spot or threshold ride, which builds pressure you can hold, and one easier ride. 70 % of the plan is still in zones 1 and 2.
4. Lighter weeks
Weeks 3 and 6 ask less. Week 3 lets the first block sink in. Week 6 is the taper, so you finish fresh and ride FINAL FIVES, five minutes at your FTP three times, at your best.
Pick a set from the plan
On
1:00
1 of 6 · 115 % FTP
The whole set: 12:00 · 6 min of hard work.
03Week by week
Two blocks, 18 rides.
Every week has the same shape: a VO2 max session, a sweet spot or threshold session, and an easier ride. Below is every ride as the app draws it: every block as long as it lasts, as tall as its power, in the color of its zone.
Weeks 1–3 · 9 rides · 4 h 55
Learn to go hard
One-minute efforts at 115 % of FTP, sweet spot in blocks of five and six minutes, and a little tempo. Week 2 adds two efforts and a block. Week 3 is lighter, with short spins and two easy rides.
Week 1
Week 1 · Ride 1
MINUTE MAKER30 min
Six 1-minute efforts to start. Hard, but each one is over before you know it.
Week 1 · Ride 2
EASY THIRTY30 min
Thirty minutes in zone 2 with three short lifts. Your engine grows on easy days too.
Week 1 · Ride 3
SWEET FIVES35 min
Three 5-minute blocks in sweet spot: hard enough to count, easy enough to hold.
Week 2
Week 2 · Ride 1
EIGHT MINUTES30 min
Eight 1-minute efforts, a little harder than last week. Breathe out hard, then go again.
Week 2 · Ride 2
TEMPO TWINS35 min
Two 8-minute tempo blocks. Find a rhythm and hold it: strong, but in control.
Week 2 · Ride 3
THREE SIXES40 min
Three 6-minute sweet spot blocks. A bit longer, a bit stronger than last week.
Week 3
Week 3 · Ride 1
QUICK SPIN30 min
A lighter week. Easy riding with four short, quick bursts to stay sharp.
Week 3 · Ride 2
FLUSH & FLOW30 min
Twenty easy minutes in the middle. Let the legs recover and the mind switch off.
Week 3 · Ride 3
DOUBLE EIGHT35 min
Still a lighter week: two 8-minute sweet spot blocks keep the engine ticking over.
Weeks 4–6 · 9 rides · 5 h 40
Harder, then fresh
Now the efforts grow: two- and three-minute blocks, 30-second bursts with short rests, and threshold for two times twelve minutes. Week 5 is the hardest of the plan. Week 6 tapers, and ends with FINAL FIVES.
Week 4
Week 4 · Ride 1
TWO-MINUTE DRILL35 min
Five 2-minute efforts at VO2 max. Longer efforts, bigger engine.
Week 4 · Ride 2
HALF & HALF40 min
Thirty seconds hard, thirty seconds easy, eight times. Two sets, and the easy half gets shorter every time.
Week 4 · Ride 3
THREE EIGHTS45 min
Three 8-minute blocks at the top of sweet spot. Steady breathing, steady legs.
Week 5
Week 5 · Ride 1
FOUR THREES35 min
Four 3-minute VO2 max efforts: the hardest ride of the program. Pace the first one, empty the last one.
Week 5 · Ride 2
BLITZ40 min
Thirty seconds hard, fifteen easy, ten times in a row. Two sets that go by in a blur.
Week 5 · Ride 3
TWO TWELVES45 min
Two 12-minute blocks near your FTP. Your longest hard efforts in the program.
Week 6
Week 6 · Ride 1
LOOSEN UP30 min
Easy riding with three quick spin-ups. Fresh legs for the finale.
Week 6 · Ride 2
CRUISE THIRTY30 min
Thirty calm minutes in zone 2. Nothing to prove today.
Week 6 · Ride 3
FINAL FIVES40 min
The finale: three 5-minute blocks right at your FTP. Six weeks ago this would have hurt a lot more.
04Then and now
A century of intervals.
“I already know how to run slow. I want to learn to run fast.”
The fastest runner of the 1950s trained in short, fast repeats, not long, slow miles. His sport was running, but the idea crossed to the bike long ago: when time is short, speed is the teacher.
1920s
The engine gets a number
A. V. Hill measures the most oxygen the body can use: what we now call VO2 max. It is the size of your engine, and short, hard intervals are one of the best ways to make it bigger.
1930s
Intervals from Freiburg
In Freiburg, coach Woldemar Gerschler and cardiologist Hans Reindell build training out of short, hard runs with planned rest between them. Interval training is born on the track.
1996
Twenty seconds on
Izumi Tabata tests eight all-out efforts of 20 seconds, with 10 seconds of rest, on a stationary bike. A few minutes of work lift both the aerobic and the anaerobic system.
2000s
Less time, same change
Martin Gibala's lab shows that a few minutes of hard intervals a week bring some of the same changes in the muscles as hours of steady riding.
Today
Short and sharp
Pros still ride long. But on busy days and before races, they ride short, sharp sessions too. Fast Fitness is built from the same idea.
05In the app
Your trainer does the counting.
You don't need a spreadsheet or a coach to ride this plan. Open AnyMap, pick Fast Fitness, and ride the next ride. Here is what happens on the way.
Connect in seconds
AnyMap finds your trainer, heart rate strap and Zwift Click over Bluetooth by itself, and connects again next time.
Devices
KICKR CORE
Trainer · Connected
Polar H9
Heart rate · Connected · 84 bpm
Zwift Click
Controller · Connected
SCAN FOR DEVICES
ERG mode holds the watts
In every block, the trainer sets the resistance for the target. Pedal faster or slower: the watts stay. Here is TWO-MINUTE DRILL, played fast, at an FTP of 150 W.
ERG · FTP 150 W
TWO-MINUTE DRILL
85Target watt
Your FTP stays true
After every ride, AnyMap checks your FTP. Ride a new best, and it goes up at once, with every zone. The next ride is already a little harder.
New FTP
156W
+6 W
Your zones moved up. Every workout now uses 156 W.
Watch the weeks add up
Every ride is saved, second by second. Your week shows time in each zone, and your month shows rides, kilometers and time against the month before.
3h 45min
This week
6
Week streak
1417%
Rides
41834%
Km
13h 5021%
Time
Make a ride your own
Copy any ride of the plan into the workout builder and change it. Try it here: tap a block, drag its top for more watts or its side for more time, or tap + for a new block.
New workout · FTP 150 W
My workout
33:3010 blocks
Tap a block to change it, or + to add one.
06FAQ
Before you go hard.
For fitness, yes. Short rides work when they are hard on purpose, and that is how this plan is built: two of the three rides each week have a clear, hard main set. You will not build the endurance for a five-hour ride, but you will get fitter, fast.
No. Hard intervals work because the body adapts in the days after. Ride them every day and you only collect fatigue. That is why each week has one easier ride, and why weeks 3 and 6 are lighter.
Yes. Every ride starts with an 8-minute warm-up, and it is part of the 30 minutes. Hard efforts on cold legs feel worse and go worse. The warm-up is the cheapest way to make the intervals count.
The targets are a percentage of your FTP, so a beginner rides lower watts than a fit rider, at the same effort. If you are new to sport, have a heart condition or high blood pressure, talk to your doctor first, and start with Back to Fitness.
Yes, with care. Count hard runs and heavy leg days as hard days too. Put them on the easy ride's day or a day off, never right before VO2 max intervals.
Yes. The first ride, MINUTE MAKER, is free, with no account. AnyMap Premium opens the other 17 rides, and every other plan and workout.
→More training plans