This plan is best for early season base building. Beginner to intermediate cyclists will find this plan challenging, but definitely within reason. It is not recommended for a brand new cyclist to start this plan, but rather someone who has been riding for some time, and is interested in bringing some structure to their training. The weekly demand starts off lower and slowly builds up mainly with extending a longer weekend ride as you progress. If you don't have the time to manage a longer ride it is fine to cut these endurance rides down, but your results may diminish without a longer ride.
This plan is general base building for any type of cycling. It is an 8 week program, so you will want to plan time for some Build and Specificity blocks of training before your main event or the bulk of your season.
This plan is ideal to do on a trainer as there are some pedaling drills much more easily completed on the trainer. However, it is fine to do outside, just make sure you read the workout descriptions beforehand so you are not stopping to look at your phone to remember the next interval. Also if any of the pedaling drills are too difficult to do outside then just skip them and ride at endurance pace for those intervals.
It is recommended to do a light week following the completion of this plan with an FTP test towards the end or the following week to reset training zones for the next phase of your training. You could jump into a Build plan after this or repeat it if you have a long time before your "A" race or event. If you repeat it then try to continue extending your endurance ride past where you finished with this plan.
If you liked this plan please leave a review and check out the other plans listed on the site. Also reach out with any questions or consultation and/or coaching needs.
Grady is a multi-disciplined rider and coach. He has been mountain biking since childhood, and picked up cyclocross, gravel, and road along the way (and in that order!). Grady prefers a goal oriented approach, with a training program building the foundation and working towards those goals. This includes periodizing training and using the individual workouts in each phase to build towards these goals. Power meters are not required, but encouraged.