Coach Jack Training Phases
Periodization 101 — Standard Training Phases
When you select “Specific Event Date” — Coach Jack builds your plan from up to five phases. Foundation, Build, Sharpen, Race and Racing.
Through out your year following quality periodization principals, will make a huge difference in the how you feel, reduce your risks of injury and help you reach peak performance at the right time of the year. Many people try to keep peak performance all year long and this is a great way to stop your forward progress and burn out.
There are different methods of periodization that can work. It could be cycles of 3 months, 6 months or a full year.
Each phase has a purpose
Foundation — Aerobic increase or at least maintenance and rest preparation for the harder phases. This might be CJ recommended workouts or HR Zone 2 focus for example.
Build — Start off easy from foundation, and slowly build to more duration and intensity. You don’t need to kill yourself, starting easy with small increases will cause adaption. This period prepares you for the sharpen phase.
Sharpen — This is typically a shorter period but by the end should be hard. We don’t believe you need to kill yourself in training but this will put the icing on the cake, especially if you mix in some fast group rides, full effort sprints outside or a b-race as a tune up to prepare you for your first a-race or primary event.
Race — The final week or two: you taper into the event so you arrive fresh, then race day itself.
Racing — After your first A-race or primary first event, you might have other events. During this time, it’s more about maintaining fitness and not burning out. If you have been cycling a while don’t expect big seasonal improvements during this time as you should have been close to your peak at your first A-level event.
Inside each phase you will also see recovery weeks (and in longer plans an easy intro week). Those are week types within a phase, not separate phases.
This is very standard linear periodization. Joe Friel’s Cycling Training Bible goes into a lot of detail on this.
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