by 
Purists often preach that to properly prepare for the cycling season, you need to roll out six weeks ahead and do nothing but low-heart-rate, low-intensity rides before you throw the hammer down and go out and play—especially if your idea of fun is a frisky group ride. That’s no problem if you’re a pro rider with nothing but time and a salary to ride, but for the rest of us, it’s precious pedal time we simply don’t have. Thankfully, it’s also unnecessary.
“For pros who can ride 20 to 30 hours a week, a long base training period is appropriate,” says expert coach Jeb Stewart, C.S.C.S., owner of the online coaching company Endurofit. “But if you struggle to squeeze in half that amount, it’s almost counterproductive because you aren»t clocking enough saddle time to elicit a training stress.” Stress is key. If you don’t have hours to slowly tax your system, you need to do shorter rides with focused efforts to stimulate fitness adaptations, says Stewart. “You can get the same amount of training stress in a 90-minute tempo interval workout as you can in a three-hour endurance ride.”
You’ll still need to build in saddle time to condition your body to sit on a bike for longer rides, but Stewart’s focused four-week training plan will lay down a solid fitness foundation for the season ahead. To stave off early-season aches and pains, warm up and cool down before and after each workout, and recover for five minutes between intervals.
More From Bicycling
Join Bicycling All Access today for more killer workouts! 💪
How to use this plan: First, check out the workouts below and familiarize yourself with each type and zone. Then follow the four week plan to get fit fast.
The Workouts
Fast Pedaling: Spin quickly with proper form. Active and recovery periods are the same duration. This improves pedaling efficiency and increases workout intensity.
Big Gear Tempo: Ride a bigger gear at a specified cadence in the Tempo zone. (If knees begin to hurt, decrease the gear and increase the cadence to do regular tempo work instead.) This improves muscular endurance and increases training stress.
Tempo: Ride intervals at 90+ rpm in the Tempo zone. This increases aerobic fitness, muscular endurance, and training stress.
Endurance: Ride for two to five hours in the Endurance zone at a comfortably high cadence. This boosts muscular endurance, aerobic fitness, and fat-burning capacity.
Hills: Ride in the Endurance and Tempo zones on hilly terrain using gearing and cadence to control effort. This improves muscular endurance and overall strength.
HR Zones and T Power
Threshold Heart Rate (HR): Average HR or power for a 20-minute time trial or 1-hour hard group ride
Threshold Power: Average power for a 20-minute time trial minus 5% of this number
Threshold (T): 95 to 105% of T HR/91 to 105% of T power
Active Recovery: <68% of T HR/<55% of T power
Endurance: 69 to 83% of T HR/56 to 75% of T power
Tempo: 84 to 94% of T HR/76 to 90% of T power
Week 1
Monday: Off
Tuesday: 1 hour with 5 sets of 5 x 15-second Fast Pedaling intervals
Wednesday: 1 hour in the Active Recovery zone
Thursday: 1 hour with 3 x 10-minute Big Gear Tempo intervals at 50 to 70 rpm
Friday: 1 hour in the Active Recovery zone
Saturday: 2 to 3 hours in the Endurance zone
Sunday: 1 hour in the Active Recovery zone
Week 2
Monday: Off
Tuesday: 1.5 hours with 4 sets of 5 x 30-second Fast Pedaling intervals
Wednesday: 1 hour in the Active Recovery zone
Thursday: 1.5 hours with 3 x 15-minute Big Gear Tempo intervals at 60 to 80 rpm
Friday: 1 hour in the Active Recovery zone
Saturday: 3 to 4 hours of Hills
Sunday: 1.5 to 2 hours in the Active Recovery zone
Week 3
Monday: Off
Tuesday: 2 hours with 3 sets of 5 x 1-minute Fast Pedaling intervals
Wednesday: 1 hour in the Active Recovery zone
Thursday: 2 hours with 2 x 20-minute Tempo intervals
Friday: 1 hour in the Active Recovery zone
Saturday: 4.5 hours of Hills
Sunday: 1.5 to 2 hours in the Active Recovery zone
Week 4
Monday: Off
Tuesday: 1 hour of easy pedaling
Wednesday: 1.5 hours. with 5 x 30-secong Fast Pedaling intervals and 1 x 10-minute Tempo interval
Thursday: 1 hour in the Active Recovery zone
Friday: Off
Saturday: Group ride, century or hammerfest
Sunday: 1 hour in the Active Recovery zone
