Base Training - Advanced - 4 Weeks
Author
Alex Quirk
All plans by this CoachLength
4 Weeks
Typical Week
3 Strength, 6 Bike
Longest Workout
3:00 hrs
Plan Specs
cycling road cycling advanced masters power based base period
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Summary
Includes Structured Workouts
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Base training for experienced athletes wanting to start their season right. Ride slow to go faster!
This program is tailor made for athletes looking to do a proper base period. This program will put you through a proper base period with approx 11 - 13 hours a week of riding. The program places a heavy emphasis on sweet spot, tempo and endurance rides, to increase your fitness in the most efficient and sustainable way early in the season. This is ideally suited to experienced athletes who have trained with structured training previously and who are willing to be patient with not going too hard too early in the season.
- Introductory 20 minute power test
- Helpful guide for establishing training zones, calculating FTP, tips for using bike computers effectively and
general tips regarding using power meters and rate of perceived effort (RPE) properly
- No weekday sessions are longer than 2 hours
- Power Based: detailed guide of of wattage, heart rate and RPE zones for each session
- Clear sense of progression to keep you engaged
- Suitable for Cat 1 or A grade riders
Stats
Sample Day 1
Doing some core strength work will do your climbing. There are a wide array of resources out there on the interwebs. Yoga and pilates are also fantastic activities to pursue. I've included some useful links below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVeHIDTy6MA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ic0URFZrzw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_nzO_bm05s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mROpewU414
The one thing I will say is to not try and copy some of the advanced exercises you may see the pros doing. Start with the basics, do them well and go from there. My athletes normally get an assessment from a strength and conditioning coach and then work off an individualised program. If you feel like going down that path, ask around and find someone in your area.
Sample Day 2
First up on the program is a 20 minute power test. Before starting the test, you will need to do a brief warm up:
- Ride at your general riding pace for at least 10 minutes.
- Do a progressive effort where you start at a pace a bit harder than general riding pace and over 4 minutes to build up to your TT pace.
- 4 min easy
- 3 x 20 second sprints / 4 min easy
- 10 min easy
- 20 min TT effort (want to finish exhausted)
Head out to a relatively flat road that will allow you to do a 20 minute effort uninterrupted. Use the lap function to record the average power for the 20 minute test.
So what is all this for? We are going to try and APPROXIMATE your Functional Threshold Power (FTP). Functional Threshold Power is supposed to be the power at which you could hold for 1 hour. A colleague of mine commonly calls FTP the Failure To Perform and in a sense he is right. A lot of athletes think that successful riders have high FTP's. But successful athletes win races. Training with FTP is a tool and a guide, not the be all and end all.
You may not always be able to achieve the wattage that your FTP suggests. Mental stress creates physical stress. FTP's are not the be all and end all, sometimes it will feel like a struggle to hit your power targets while others it will feel a lot easier. Be prepared to listen to your body and adjust the intensity of future sessions based on how you feel.
Download the attached document, have a read, do the test and then go to the settings section on TrainingPeaks and set training zones for yourself.
If you feel like you paced this poorly, you could attempt it again on Sunday.
Sample Day 3
This is a touch easier than sweetspot or subTHR efforts, but noticeably harder than your general riding pace. Refer to your training zones document for a detailed guide.
2 x 25 min tempo session (on flat terrain or a mild gradient (less than 4%). Keep the cadence above 90rpm.
10 minutes active recovery between each effort.
Sample Day 3
Doing some core strength work will do your climbing. There are a wide array of resources out there on the interwebs. Yoga and pilates are also fantastic activities to pursue. I've included some useful links below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVeHIDTy6MA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ic0URFZrzw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_nzO_bm05s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mROpewU414
The one thing I will say is to not try and copy some of the advanced exercises you may see the pros doing. Start with the basics, do them well and go from there. My athletes normally get an assessment from a strength and conditioning coach and then work off an individualised program. If you feel like going down that path, ask around and find someone in your area.
Sample Day 4
SubTHR or Sweetspot sessions are the bread and butter of most endurance athletes.
The aim of this session is to tap into that aerobic system, not to exhaust yourself. While knowing your FTP is handy for this session, it is not necessary. If you follow the common sense guide below you will be fine. Once you've done a few of these sessions, you should be able to do the session by feel.
4 x 9min subT with 4 min recovery between each effort
Power: 85 - 90%FTP
HR: 80 - 90% THR HR
RPE: 6 out of 10
You should still be able to breath regularly. Recommended Cadence is 90 - 95 rpm. Go out to a flat road or track where you won't get stopped by traffic lights or intersections. Alternatively, use a home trainer.
Sample Day 5
Anywhere between 45 min to an hour is fine. Keep it social, have a coffee, ect. Avoid longer and faster group rides. The aim is to recover!
Sample Day 6
Feel free to do what bunch ride takes your fancy. At this stage in the season, try and stay in the "endurance" zone for as much as possible. The benefits of doing longer rides at this intensity are immense!
Having said that there's no harm in riding up a climb hard, or doing the local club race though. So be social and enjoy!
There is flexibility with this ride too. Feel free to do it on Sunday if you have more time then. Also if you'd like to ride on both days of the weekend then go for it. My advice would be to either repeat this session or repeat the subTHR session from earlier in the week.