Training Plan

If you don’t have a plan for 2010 already then i suggest you nut one out today.

You want to start building a plan that builds to a part in the season. There might be a big road race you want to do well in or a series of crits you want to try and win. Winning them or doing well in them will reply on the correct training plan with regimented rest days. If you goal this year is just to beat your best TT time or to improve it by x% then train for that. You need to have a goal insight. Jumping on the bike every day or 2 and busting out 80+km’s will be fun and you will improve but you don’t have a goal to achieve. Its easy to sit back and say “i wanna be a better cyclist, that’s my goal for 2010″ Better cyclist how? faster TT time. Faster in the hills. 1400+ VAM? Faster sprinter? where do you want to be better? you need to train specifically, cause your improvements will be much better then if you just “go riding” every now and then.

Last year i wrote up a few articles that will enable to you build specific workouts that you can fit into your training plan. I also have a power workout series that is online in .zip format for Garmin devices that can be used and optimized for you.

If your a little bit serious and have a coach he/she  should have already given you a full plan that should see you through at least the next 6 months.

How?

Break the year into 37 weeks. If you have a race period/season record that. If your attending any training camps record that as well. If you know how many hours you can train a week, write that down. It will help create workouts that will best utilize that time

Use a wall calendar for this. one with nice big squares for each day. that will make it easy to see and read

The first 12 weeks should be used to build aerobic strength.
The next 3 or 4 weeks should be intensity training and your race period will follow that (about 7 weeks)
This “bank” should be followed by a week off

You main plan should run about 4 weeks. that 4th week should be a recovery week, that means riding at lower intensity and at least 1 day off the bike altogether. You can then insert that day to day month plan into the remaining months of your entire plan but extend the time and intensity with each  “paste”
Plan around races. You don’t need to race every weekend. some weekends can be spent doing some serious 150+km rides. You need rides of this sort in your plan. There could be times that you need to change your plan. days might be missed due to illness or injury. don’t try and make them up. leave them as lost days. If you more than a week off for some reason then scale back the intensity of the following weeks rides

Good luck and safe riding for 2010

This post is tagged coach, Racing, Training, training plan