FOUNDATION: Road Preseason (8 weeks)

This plan is designed for the road bike racer who focusing primarily on the Road Season: March - September (can be adjusted for southern hemisphere or other season timing).

This a plan to transition you from the off-season to the early competition period. Ideally you would begin this plan in early January and complete it by early March. Many locales in the U.S. start racing in March and important events will begin to appear on the calendar.

You can adjust the order of the workouts to fit your schedule, but I don't recommend changing the order of workouts too much. I have placed them with purpose and certain workouts may be harder to complete if done in a different order.

Many of us are forced indoors for early season training. Not all these workouts translate well to the trainer, e.g., sprints. It is usually necessary to adjust the workout for the trainer, while still achieving the basic goal of the workout. For example, the SPRINT workouts, could be done as a seated maximal effort of similar duration. This will avoid most of the limitations of an indoor trainer: insufficient resistance, wheel slippage, etc.

If you have weekend group rides during this period, feel free to substitute. "Spirited" group rides are good substitutes for the Saturday workouts. Riding with a group on Sunday long rides can make the time go by too. The 2 major concerns are: 1) group rides are too HARD compared to the planned workout OR 2) group rides are too EASY.

You will not be peaking at the end of this block, but you will be ready to race. After this block you should employ an "in-season" block that balances volume and intensity with your weekend racing schedule.