How should I plan my training for next year?
To get fitter and faster in 2020, you need to plan ahead
Firstly, why do we need training plans? Quite simply, they’re vital to any cyclist who wants to improve their three Fs: fitter, faster and further. If you don’t have a plan, you’ll simply become good at whatever riding you currently do. So if you always do endurance rides, you’ll be good at endurance rides. If you always do twohour tempo rides… you get the idea. This sounds obvious, but it’s a big reason why cyclists plateau and get frustrated that their performance isn’t improving.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t intend to race. Training isn’t just for elite athletes and you don’t have to be a ‘good’ cyclist to ‘deserve’ a coach. It’s perfectly valid to be coached even if you’re a novice or simply trying to be healthier. Achieving your first 30km ride, if you’ve been sedentary, is just as valid a reason to train as trying to get a ‘gold’ time in the Dragon Ride. It might even be a better reason.
A structured, goal-based training plan, if set properly, will blend endurance, threshold, baseline and high-end speed/intervals sessions so that your body is forced to adapt and become stronger and more efficient. It’s the adaptation process, which occurs during recovery periods, that actually improves your fitness, rather than the exercise itself.
That said, I’m not going to knock you up a training plan here and now – not until we’ve had a chat. No good coach would. Training plans are, or at least should be, goal-oriented and specific to you. A coach will use his or her knowledge, experience and brain to listen to your objectives, goals and limitations, then translate those into an action plan. If you take a training plan off the internet, your goals are irrelevant and the action plan has already been decided for you.
The training plan should also reflect that riders are a system, based on the triumvirate needs of nutrition, training, and strength and conditioning. Think of yourself as a car, with a need for fuel, a tuned engine and preventative maintenance.
All riders, irrespective of their preferred discipline, need a sensible mix of low, functional threshold power (FTP) and highintensity sessions. Prescribed activities also allow you to work on form, technique and cadence, but remember you’re an individual, not the result of an algorithm or a statistical survey, so your mix of sessions is going to depend on your objectives.
For example, racers may want to increase the number and frequency of intervals to build speed and power for race scenarios. Time-trialists will benefit most from sessions close to FTP outputs, with intervals of 10 to 20 minutes to increase their ability to ride at their maximum sustainable speed. Sportive entrants typically need a mix of mediumintensity sessions to improve fatigue resistance, while extending long rides by 30 minutes every other week builds endurance.
The possibilities are endless, but making sure you rest and that the programme is built on a cyclical structure are two fundamentals. I’d suggest four days on, three days off every week, increasing the total hours per week over four to six weeks. Intervals every 10 to 14 days is a good starting point – you don’t want to overdo harder sessions at the outset.
Finally, keep a training diary to assess your progress. Maybe your plan is too hard or too easy, or you’re not happy with the results. If you bought it off the internet, you could buy another – or you could talk to a coach.
Training goals should always be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time-based. And so should you be.