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Cycling training plans: 10 week plans for beginners, intermediates and racers

Cycling training plans: 10 week plans for beginners, intermediates and racers

Are you looking to get fit through cycling, as a total beginner? Or, perhaps you’d like to build on your existing fitness levels to train for an event, or even a race? We’ve got you covered, with three ten week training plan, whatever your current level of fitness.

Ten week training plans

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Perceived exertion Effort level
0 Nothing at all
0.5 Extremely easy
1 Very easy
2 Easy
3 Moderate
4 Somewhat hard
5 Hard
6 Getting harder…
7 Very hard
8 Starting to hurt
9 Arrgggh…
10 Extremely hard
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Zone Name Average power (% FTP) Average HR(% FTP HR) Perceived exertion Description
1 Active Recovery <55% <68% <2 “Easy spinning” or “light pedal pressure”, i.e. very low level exercise, too low to induce significant physiological adaptations. Minimal sensation of leg effort. Relaxed breathing.
2 Endurance 56-75% 69-83% 3-4 “All day” pace, or classic long slow distance (LSD) training. Sensation of leg effort/fatigue generally low. Breathing is a little heavier than in Zone 1.
3 Tempo 76-90% 84-94% 5-6 More frequent/greater sensation of leg effort/fatigue than at Zone 2. Requires concentration to maintain. Breathing deeper and more rhythmic than in Zone 2. Breathing too hard to chat.
Sweet-spot Sweetspot 84-97% 88-100% 6-7 Between high Zone 3 and low Zone 4. For riders who aren’t using a power meter, I’d call sweetspot “medium hard”. It’s just below your 25-mile TT race pace, but harder than a traditional tempo workout.
4 Lactate Threshold 91-105% 95-105%(may not be achieved in first few efforts) 7-8 Similar to TT race effort. Relentless feeling of leg effort/fatigue. Breathing too hard to say more than the odd word or two. Mentally very taxing to maintain.
5 VO2 Max 106-120% >106%(may not be achieved in first few efforts) 8-9 The maximum effort you can sustain for three to eight minutes. Intended to increase VO2max. Severe leg effort/fatigue. ‘Ragged’ breathing; unable to speak.NB: Average heart rate less useful as a metric, as HR will be rising throughout the interval.
6 Anaerobic Capacity N/A N/A 10 Ultra-high-intensity intervals of 10-30 seconds, designed to increase anaerobic capacity. Flat-out; no holding back. Heart rate of limited use.


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