Working hard will only get you so far. There comes a point when you need to strategically plan how to best use your hard work to maximize fitness gains — that’s what training smarter is all about.
By exploring our training plan process, we aim to clarify the purpose of each training block you’ll work through when you’re on a TrainerRoad training plan. Like a puzzle, there are three training phases that fit together to illustrate an image of your fitness over the entire training season. Whether you have a goal event in mind, or you’d just like to become a faster cyclist, your training plan will apply the right type of training stress at the right time to make sure you can achieve both.
Traditional Periodization
Head Coach Chad Timmerman has carefully designed every TrainerRoad training plan around what’s known as traditional periodization. Traditional periodization divides your season into distinct phases with the purpose of dedicating each phase to specific goals. By following a logical pattern, each phase ultimately leads to a specific set of adaptations upon which achieving peak fitness is hinged.
Base Phase
Proper strength and endurance building begins with a foundation. Just like you wouldn’t build a house without a foundation, you wouldn’t build your higher-level endurance and power without establishing a foundation of strength and aerobic endurance first. Your first step in the training plan process is to establish that foundation in what’s known as the Base Phase.
Build Phase
The Build Phase of TrainerRoad’s training plans cranks the volume up a notch. Based on the demands of your specific performance goals, we focus on your short power, sustained power or varying mixes of the two. By focusing on your muscular endurance and/or maximal aerobic power, our aim is to develop and improve those higher-level forms of fitness mentioned earlier.
Specialty Phase
The Specialty Phase strives to be as specific to your target event and performance goals as possible. Whether you’re a road racer, triathlete, off-road rider or enthusiast, the Specialty Phase serves to refine the fitness you’ve developed over the previous weeks of training. By fine-tuning your fitness and mechanics, this phase of training will have you peaked, ultimately fresh and specifically prepared for race day.
FAQ
“What If I’ve chosen a plan but I have less than the prescribed number of weeks until my goal event?”
Fit as much of the Base/Build/Specialty cycle in as possible. Newer athletes should prioritize Base training, while more experienced riders can use their judgement on whether to cut it a bit short. The entire duration of the Build Phase will benefit nearly all athletes, and the Specialty Phase can be truncated by riding through as much of it as possible. Make sure to schedule week 8 as your last week before your event or season.
“What if I’ve chosen a plan but I have more than the prescribed number of weeks until my goal event?”
You have more flexibility here. If you’re still early in the season, you can extend your Base conditioning. Or, after a couple weeks of low-intensity work following the Specialty phase, do a partial repeat of the Build and Specialty Phases. If you go with the latter, choose either the first or second half of the Build (first-half if fatigued, second-half if fresh) to set the stage for further increases in fitness. Just schedule a taper week before your event if your event doesn’t align with the end of the plan.
Note: Your season may be spread out long enough to not require any accommodations to the plans.
“What if I have more than one goal event?
The answer here depends on the duration between your events. If your events are close enough in proximity, effectively maintain your peak fitness by repeating one of the last 2 weeks (taper weeks) in your Specialty Phase. Coach Chad often limits this to about 5 weeks before you want to schedule a downturn.
If the duration between your events is any longer, we recommend scheduling a downturn revolving around consistent, low-intensity riding then moving into a partial repeat of the Build Phase. You can then follow this with as much of a Specialty Phase as time will allow.
“Can I skip base training?”
Everyone needs Base training. It’s just a question of how much and how frequently to revisit it. About the only time we recommend leaving out a training phase dedicated to Base conditioning is mid-season to re-build for a second peak in one season.
To Wrap Up
The TrainerRoad training plan process has specific phases aimed at specific goals. By understanding these goals and the structure of the process, you can be confident planning out your season in accordance with your own fitness goals.
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Following your training plan, i noticed that many of your workouts are 60 min long. Over the years I’ve become accustomed to 90 min sessions. Similarly, the available TR workout variances increase intensity, but not duration. Do you have any recommendations on how i can add time to those 60 min sessions? Is it a good idea to simply re-load and repeat the last 20-30 min segment from the same workout? I am currently following Sweet Spot Base Phase: High Volume I. High Volume II also doesn’t offer that option. Regardless, 5 days training plan is the optimal choice for my work-life-training schedule. Thanks!
Alex, if its any help, in this situation and considering its base, I add on endurance/aerobic work at the end, more so if it has been one of the harder interval sessions. The aerobic only sessions tend to be 90 mins + as it is. I’m doing sweet spot base high volume too
Great question! Our head coach recommends users utilize the Workout Creator to accomplish this. There you can decide if you want to add substantial TSS in the form of more intervals with similar formats and recovery. Or only moderately more, low-intensity TSS in the form of longer cool-downs and/or warm-ups, but typically not longer recoveries between intervals.
If you haven’t already, you can download the Workout Creator here: https://www.trainerroad.com/download
Hope this helps!
Hi,
Just a question about this, I’ve done a full program now ie Base(sweet spot) Build(General), Specialty(Cyclocross) then I had a week off still riding though just was on holidays then I went back to a different build(sustained power) and I’ve just finished that now!
What do I do next? another specialty block (I’m still in competition mode) or go back to base(sweetspot)? I still have approx 2 months of cx/mtb races left, do I just see if my body can just get through another round of Specialty and then maybe drop back into Base? I’m just not sure, as its my first year with Trainer Road program.
I know it’s a bit of trial and error, but just need some advice on this. (I’m a Masters rider if that helps)
Best Regards
Ecca
Hi!
Nice job completing the full Base, Build, Specialty cycle as well as diving back into another Build plan! Not an easy task to be that consistent. 🙂
There are a couple different things you can do here. Since you’re still targeting a race series, you should feel free to hop back into a Specialty plan of your choosing, and weave your races into your training. So if you had intervals scheduled on the same night as a race, ditch the workout and hit the race!
Another thing to consider is the fatigue you’re carrying out of this season’s training. If you think you can get by on a bit of a reduced workload, listen to your body and maybe do an endurance or tempo ride instead of one of your interval days. It takes comparatively little to maintain the fitness you’ve built compared to what it took to build it. So err on the side of recovery with this.
If you are feeling a bit beat down from the previous months of training, you can also just use weeks 7 and 8 of the Specialty plan and repeat that throughout the remainder of the race season. That should keep things pretty light, but still enough to dose your system with some intensity.
Hope this helps! And hope you have an awesome remainder to your season.
Cheers,
New to trainer road,currently 3 weeks into the sweet spot base low volume. Already seeing a general fitness improvement and very enthusiastic to carry on with the sessions. Due to work/ life commitments I am unable to complete the three sessions per week opting to finish the first two hour weekly session and then longish 2-3 hr ride with friends on the weekend. The weekend ride generally consists of some hill climbs followed by 40km of flattish work totalling roughly 60-70km. My question is should I miss the weekend ride for the period of base build and concentrate on completing all the sessions included in the base build for the 12 week period before venturing back outdoors.
Neil,
Welcome aboard! I don’t think you necessarily have to ditch your weekend ride to maintain progression in your training season. Though that’s not to say you won’t see even better results and get even faster if you adhere closer to what the plan prescribes. 🙂
The structure of the low-volume plans include all three days of high-intensity workouts. By taking one of those and making it more unstructured, you’ll be targeting different energy systems that either will/won’t prompt further physiological adaptation. Who knows though! The way you ride on those weekend rides could work well for you! But if you do take it outside, we’d recommend sprinkling some sprints or intervals out there to get a little more bang for your buck.
Hope this helps…Happy training!
Kind of a canned
Hi, I just finish base / build and specialty phase (sweet spot, general build, entusiast) with greater results in FTP improvement.
Im not training for competition, only want to be a better climber, I always replace the sunday workouts with external rides with my local club.
What would be the better choice to keep improving my FTP? go to base/build/specialty , or go to build/specialty (this time Im going to choose sustained power build and Climbing Road Race)
thanks for your help!
Carlos,
Great work progressing through the entire Base, Build, & Specialty cycle of training! Glad to hear you’ve gotten faster. 🙂
Since you already have a nice aerobic base established through the previous months of training, we’d recommend jumping right into the Build and Specialty training plans you mentioned (Sustained Power + Climbing Road Race). That is an excellent training progression to focus on enhancing your muscular endurance through the Build training, and then tailoring that increased strength and endurance specifically to apply to the demands of long brutal climbing efforts.
Hope this helps out!
Cheers
I’m one week into SSBase2 (Medium Volume) & my power numbers are recovering quickly (174 to 205 in 7 weeks). Stoked out of my mind!!! I plan to to follow SSBase with the Sustained Power Build.
I’ve ridden centuries and even a double century in 2016 and am not a stranger to endurance. My starting power number was low due being off the bike for most all of 2017.
I would finish the Power Build Plan just four weeks before a planned Everesting attempt. It’s a one-mile, 395’ climb with a 12% grade near the summit. This will require about 74 hill repeats. I’ll have my gearing, weight & nutrition dialed in by then.
What will I be missing out on? Is there a different format that I should follow? Some different workouts to substitute into the plan? I’ll need to get my body prepared for 74×10-minute intervals. It’s gonna suck for about 18 hours. I just need to survive…
Thank you for any input you can give!
After completing the Sustained Power Build, the best option for you will be the Century Plan. This plan with further your ability to ride at a sustained, sub-threshold power output for a long duration. The fact that you are breaking the sustained effort into 10-minute blocks does not change the style of output you will be generating, so you will train much the same as someone who was climbing 29,000 feet all in one go 🙂
Good luck with your attempt, you have certainly put in the necessary work!