The British Cycling 8-week Cyclo-Cross Training Plan is ideal if you’re looking to convert your summer sportive or road racing fitness and develop the skills to compete in this fun and accessible form of cycle sport.
The plan and the workouts within it are most suited to power users but can be adapted for heart rate. All of the cycling workouts are fully built within the plan and so, it’s compatible with smart trainers and many head units. The midweek workouts are scripted for use on Zwift.
To start the plan, you should ideally be riding three or four times a week, be familiar with structured training and be capable of riding for 3 hours.
The volume of training is between 5.5-7 hours per week. If you’re already familiar with TrainingPeaks and its metrics, weekly TSS is between 224-373.
The training is typically broken down into four rides; two mid-week and two at the weekend. The mid-week rides are more suited to an indoor trainer but can easily be completed on the road. The first weekend rides focus on cyclo-cross skills and race simulation and the second is more endurance focussed.
There is also an optional session that gives you the opportunity to do some cross training. Cross training, although optional, should be part of your training. Don’t worry if you can’t manage dedicated sessions, even doing regular mobility work at home will benefit your riding. Cross training helps to prevent boredom, provides options if you are unable to ride and builds all-round injury preventing robustness. Be aware though, with two fairly hard sessions at the weekend, you might need to make your cross training more restorative or even take an extra rest day.
You should ideally aim to coincide the final week of the plan with the week before your first cyclo-cross race of the season. If you’re then intending to go on and race a full season, probably competing every weekend, you can rotate back through the plan, making a few key changes.
Although a cyclo-cross race will feel hard at the time, the actual “training load” it delivers is relatively low. This means, if you can fit it in, that Mondays can be good for fitting in an endurance style ride rather than taking a rest day. It doesn’t need to be epic, 2-3 hours is plenty, mostly at a solid Zone 2 intensity and can even be done on the turbo. If you can’t get out, use it for cross-training.
Perform the Tuesday workouts as described in the plan, this should include a Threshold Test every 8 weeks.
Wednesdays should stay as a rest day.
On Thursdays, you should complete the prescribed session.
Friday can be a rest day but, if you didn’t manage to fit an endurance ride in on Monday, you could do it today.
Saturday should just be a leg loosener such as a Leg Speed Session or Pre-Event Ride. You don’t want to do an endurance ride today.
Sunday will be your race.
It’s important to remember, this is very much just a guide and you need to listen to your body and see how you perform at races. If you find your legs feel heavy and slow, you might need to back down what you’re doing during the week but, conversely, if you feel fresh on a Sunday, you might be able to do a bit more training.
The plan is fully supported by content on the British Cycling Insight Zone, where you can find advice on skills, training, nutrition, equipment, clothing and maintenance.
www.britishcycling.org.uk/knowledge