TRAINING BLOCK FUNDAMENTALS
Your Annual Training Plan
TYPICAL RACE BLOCK SEQUENCE
base
8-16 WEEKS
~ October – December
- Foundation building sets you on a path to a safe and healthy season
- Just getting into or back into the saddle?
- Taking a Health First approach improves consistency.
- START YOUR SEASON HERE
build
8-16 WEEKS
~ January – March
- This block creates your biggest gains. It comes with the most risk
- A well designed build block can set the stage for a high performance spring/summer.
- Build blocks need monthly recovery built in. Three hard weeks followed by one easy week is the most common.
peak
4-8 WEEKS
~ April
- The icing on the cake. This is where you get that last 5% performance boost towards your specific races that you are preparing for.
- Find a training block that is very specific to the types of events you want to compete/complete
- Remember consistency produces the best performance
race
8-16 WEEKS
~ May – June
- Whether you are racing or just have a long distance ride you want to do your best on a race block can help you perform your best with more rest and a nice even taper.
- During this period, you try to just hold on to your fitness or enjoy your fitness spending time on the bike with your friends
Featured Authors and Cycling Training Plans
THE Spartan BLOCKS
Time Crunched – Health Focused
What if your indoor rig is outdoors? What can you do in 45-minutes a week? Even 25 for that matter? These blocks are made for the ultra-busy and/or those that don’t like winter training. Consistency is generally more important than volume. With these plans many riders can hold on to a “reasonable” amount of summer cycling fitness and stay healthy. These training blocks are also great for beginners. If you don’t ride year round, even low volume consistency will make a big impact on your next season.
- Length: 12 weeks per block
- Up to 1-hour per week
This is prefect for just getting back into the saddle or holding on to some fall fitness. It’s also a health focused plan
This will take you from a minimalist winter rider to a ready to travel spring rider. It still is very light in general. (coming soon)
After you have completed your build, if you want to kick off your performance with some harder focused rides in a minimal nature this might be the block for you. (coming soon)
Newcastle Upon Tyne, England
I have been working as a coach now for 15-years following a 10-year career as a professional Triathlete.
Throughout my career indoor training played a pivotal role in enhancing performance. Both the time efficiency and specificity with indoor cycling just can’t be matched on the road.
I have been lucky enough to coach all levels of athletes, total beginners all the way through to professional ironman champions. Read more on my website.
If you have some specific training goals contact me, I would be happy to help you achieve them. I am glad to be a part of open-source training plans from TrainerDay.
MORE COACHES WELCOME
Let’s create some plans
Requested by TrainerDay
We have more coaches working on plans now but any coaches that create a few plans are welcome to get a free profile here with links to your site. We need to continue to foster a sharing community and try to keep riders safe and healthy. Ok and help them get a little faster. There is no substitute for a great coach but good, free training plans and a little knowledge can go a long ways.
Once you have created a few public plans just let us know and we will help design your profile.
