This 12 week plan is aimed at road cyclists aged 18 to 45 who typically have a minimum of 1 to 2 years experience of recreational riding (approximately 6 to 10 hours per week) and wish to follow a structured plan to help prepare for entry level road racing.

The plan is intended to take you into the first race of the season and consists of 3 blocks of training seperated by recovery weeks. A Hill climb fitness test is used to assess starting fitness and calculate heart rate training zones, and also repeated during week 9 to monitor progress.

Prior to commencing this plan you should have 1 to 2 months of endurance riding totaling at least 500 miles.Weekly training volumes vary from 6 to 11 hours over a range of 4 to 6 training days per week. A variety of structured sessions are provided and aim to improve sprint, endurance, and threshold performance necessary for road racing.

Training sessions are prescribed based on heart rate zones and therefore a heart rate monitor is essential when following this plan. A spreadsheet is attached for the calculation of heart rate zones.

Heart Rate Zones (based on % maximum heart rate)
Level 1 = 0 to 64%
Lower Level 2 = 65% to 78%
Upper Level 2 = 79% to 88%
Level 3 = 89% to 94%
Level 4 = 95% to 100%

This is plan provides an ideal stepping stone into the tough training sessions required for successful road racing. Enjoy!