This short 6-week plan is designed to assess you as an athlete in a number of different ways. We have sought to make sure the plan is as balanced as possible but the focus is on testing and assessing you rather than on any particular conditioning objective. Having said that, each of the 'Key Sessions', which are the sessions you should prioritise in order to collate the requisite data, are challenging in themselves and you will certainly benefit from a significant training effect as a result.

Completion of this plan is premised on you already having a relatively decent base level of fitness. We would NOT recommend trying to follow this plan if you are not already relatively fit. Firstly, because the 'Key Sessions' will be pure hell if you're not at a half-decent level, and secondly, the data won't be reliable because it will simply suggest you need to improve on everything because you're not yet fit enough.

Please ensure you take time to read the session instructions carefully as some of the sessions are a touch more complicated than might appear on first glance. This is especially the case for the 'Key Sessions' where it is important you come away with reliable data.

For any road rides, please take care and do not take any unnecessary risks for a good result. Your safety is paramount and there will always be other opportunities to challenge yourself.

In order to follow this plan, you will need a smart trainer/bike or a basic trainer with power meter on your bike and you will need to have a good idea of your FTP. If unsure of your FTP, you would be very welcome to sign up to one of our online Standard FTP tests, which is much less physiologically demanding than the Full Spectrum Performance Testing session you will be doing at the end of the plan.

At RIAK Fitness, our plans do not work to a traditional 6-day training week with one rest day and a mesocycle of 3 weeks loading to 1 week unloading (rest week). This is because your body does not work in this way. Your body needs recovery when it needs recovery and therefore, all our plans have recovery at their centre as this is ultimately when your body supercompensates (gets stronger). Therefore, we recommend a recovery day, which is either pure recovery or active recovery every 3-4 days. Otherwise, in our opinion, going beyond 4 days without proper recovery can make the training week a big slog and have a knock on effect into subsequent weeks. So, prioritise the recovery and avoid back-loading the week if you are unable to fit sessions in. If you can't do a session, skip it and move. There's always more training to come! Prioritise the 'Key Sessions' and skip the others if you struggle to fit them in. Avoid skipping recovery days however.

We would recommend purchasing a Training Peaks premium subscription for the duration of this plan to enable you to move your sessions around to suit (within the recommendations above) and so that you can more easily interpret and collate your data in-line with the instructions in this plan.

As part of this plan, you are entitled to join one of RIAK's online Full Spectrum Performance Testing sessions for free. In the plan we have put in a placeholder as a reminder to sign up for this session. The placement of the placeholder is unlikely to equate to when a testing session actually is. Testing sessions are run once a month and you can find the dates on the RIAK Fitness website.

We do also offer a consultation service for an additional fee, so if you would like advice beyond that in this plan on how to interpret your data and make conclusions as to your characteristics as an athlete, please do get in touch.

To book onto your free testing session or to arrange a consultation, please drop us an email at Info@RIAK.Fitness.

Otherwise, best of luck with the plan and please ensure you look after yourself and don't take any unnecessary risks with your safety, health or mental well-being.