I've had a lot of success with some of the books and resources that other BikeForums members have suggested for training on one's own. The book on fitness for (horse) riders, recommended by Carbonfiberboy was great. I've been working through the exercises 2-3x/week, increasing the reps over time and have have noticed a difference in my riding.


I'm also looking for a book or online resources for workouts on a stationary trainer. I'd like to do ~2 workouts per week on the trainer, preferably intervals of some sort. My main goal is to continue to lose some weight, but would also like to work on cardio a bit over the winter. When I lived in California, I just did long slow distance over the winter to keep the weight off, but where I live now it's not practical to ride outside this time of year. For now I've been doing endurance in the gym with interval training on the treadmill or elliptical 2x/week. I'd like to break it up by setting my bike up on a stationary trainer so I have a wider variety of workouts that I can do in order to keep things interesting.

What books or online resources would people recommend?

this weekend I tried one legged drills. 10' warm up, then 45" on, 15" easy alternating each leg for a total of 10 reps per leg. 5' cool down.
It was a fun workout that I felt I got a lot out of and a nice way to avoid the monotony of the treadmill at the gym.

Other ideas?

For that sort of thing, it's hard to beat Carmichael's Time Crunched Cyclist. It covers the how and why, etc. There are complete programs, which you may or may not want to take on. The greatest value is probably simply the discussion of what various types of trainer workouts look like and what they do.

Sufferfest

The weather in new Jersey is better than the weather here in Iowa. Get out, ride, and hammer the hills. The view from your handlebars will beat anything you can stare at on a stationary (wall or TV).

Sufferfest - videos

TrainerRoad - if you subscribe ($10/month) you get a huge library of workouts, a bunch of training plans that put the workouts together into something structured.

Zwift - competitive online racing

weightloss happens in the kitchen, fitness happens on the bike.

Well . . . sorta. The two are actually very interdependent. Weight loss relies on a caloric deficit which is augmented by exercise, which also enhances your metabolic rate, thus further increasing the caloric deficit. Fitness relies on a triad of positive stress (exercise), adequate nutrition, and rest/recovery. Fitness will not happen unless all three are present and in proper balance. Remember the adage, you can't out exercise bad nutrition.

For the OP I'd like to throw in a couple of free resources. GCN's YouTube channel has several different trainer workouts of different lengths and different focuses. Another YouTube freebie, TurboTripping, has six indoor trainer videos also of varying length and intensity/focus. They may not be everything a hardcore cyclist is looking for in a comprehensive training program, but between GCN and TurboTripping you get a good variety of well made videos and you can't beat the price.