Winter Training Plan
Description
This plan helps you prepare for your next season's challenges; focusing on maintaining this season's fitness, whilst building endurance and power progressively for the next.
We understand that winter months bring additional barriers and obstacles to cycle training due to poor seasonal weather. We therefore provide a high level of flexbility in terms of a greater emphasis on the use of the indoor trainer rather than long outdoor endurance rides, a process called "reverse linear periodisation".
We also enable you to incorporate other cycling discplines such as off road gravel and mountain biking which maybe better suited the the weather conditions and provide high impact traning sessions.
The plan features core base and build blocks, emphasizing on muscular strength, aerobic fitness, and fatigue resistance. This ensures a paced increase in your fitness levels, optimal to your recovery and adaptation ability, which leads to better performance and resilience.
Workouts involve weekday tempo and interval efforts, combined with extended endurance rides during weekends. Note: For safety, it's recommended to do interval training off roads, preferably on a smart turbo trainer.
Regardless of your fitness level or ability, this plan provides a robust fitness foundation. However, fatigue peaks between weeks 4 to 6, so if you feel overly sore or drained, adjust the session intensity and ensure ample recovery time.
By the end of the 12-week period, you'll experience enhanced fitness and minimized fatigue, prepping you for your next challenge with positive freshness.
How It Works:
The plan respects your work and family commitments, averaging just 6 hours weekly on the bike.
It uses your heart rate and power zones to adjust to your fitness level, catering to beginners, intermediates, and club level cyclists.
Each "training block" incrementally adds training load (both duration and intensity) and then allows time for rest and recovery. This fosters physiological adaptations like improved muscle blood supply, an increase in energy fibres, and neuromuscular pathways development. The result? Enhanced power, capacity, and fatigue resistance. In essence, your body rebuilds stronger after each training block, paving the way for peak performance.
