With a focus on repeatable bursts of power and sustained high-watt efforts, the Cross Country Olympic specialty plan prepares you for the varied, high-intensity nature of XC racing. Whether your goal event features wide open fire roads, rocky singletrack, or a mix of both and more, you’ll develop wide-ranging fitness and arrive at race day in peak form.The low-volume version of this 8-week plan includes 3 workouts per week, each ranging from 60 to 90 minutes in length. An easier 4th week offers the chance for some mid-plan recovery, and the last 2 weeks of the plan serve as a taper, reducing volume but maintaining intensity in the final leadup to your goal event.

Cross-Country Olympic - Low Volume

This week gets you rolling with an ever-present FTP assessment to account for any recent improvements in your sustainable power via our Ramp Test. You're welcome to use either the 20 Minute FTP Test or the 8 Minute FTP Test if that's your preference. In any case, try to have a day or two of recovery in your legs and feel ready to fairly demonstrate your current level of fitness. If not, consider riding easy today and postponing your assessment until tomorrow.
The second workout of the week aims to keep its format as close to that of an aggressive XC race as possible. With short, punchy VO2max efforts spaced across several rounds of Sweet Spot intervals, this type of work targets numerous race-day demands as it grows your aerobic and anaerobic fitness simultaneously.
Finally, a round of hard-start Threshold efforts will accomplish three goals. First, you'll target your ability to generate real big watts. Second, you'll tackle some muscle endurance work up at the high end of your current sustainable capabilities. Third, you'll have the opportunity to confirm your FTP assessment results many times over.&nbsp;

Week 1

Riding above FTP is tremendously productive, and it's also tremendously taxing. But by trimming down the interval durations and inserting short but adequate recovery valleys, you can accumulate quite a lot of time at this tough but productive output level without exhausting your muscles excessively.
Up next is a workout very similar to last week's. This affords an opportunity to improve on something you may have struggled with, or it allows you to dress things up a bit. Maybe you'll spend some of the VO2max surges out of the saddle. Maybe you'll vary your cadence during a short burst or two every round. Or maybe you'll simply try to make each acceleration as smooth as possible thereby conserving as much energy as you can.&nbsp;
Lastly, last week's already long muscle endurance repeats grow even longer. If you find yourself in a bad spot, consider an occasional backpedal (no more than 30 seconds, and no more than 2 per interval) in order to keep your productivity and your cadence lifted. Think "smooth power", even if that means an infrequent and short impromptu recovery.&nbsp;

Week 2

What can be said about this week except that everything gets just a little bit longer?&nbsp;This theme commences with one extra round of slightly-supra-threshold work where you'll continue to challenge your current sustainable power limits as you manage the accumulating fatigue without easing up.
Then your race-simulating VO2max + Sweet Spot intervals grow ever so slightly in duration but retain every bit of their relentless on/barely off/on pattern of muscle and lung abuse. &nbsp;
This pre-recovery-week round of workouts then bestows upon thee an&nbsp;opportunity to make good use of that ever-reliable backpedal tactic, should you need it. By drawing each post-sprint Threshold effort out to a full half hour, you're sure to occasionally question your ability to endure the discomfort as you reinforce your rising ability to withstand high, but not too-high, watts.

Week 3

Time to let the last few weeks of training soak in over the course of an easy week of riding. During this week, try not to lose sight of the fact that&nbsp;adaptation happens during recovery, not during the often muscle-damaging doses of high-intensity training that comprised much of the last few weeks.&nbsp;
Until you firmly grasp the benefit of proper and adequate&nbsp;recovery, only hard lessons await you out on the trail. If, however, you've recognized the benefit of recovery done correctly, you'll happily abide the low-intensity, same-training-schedule nature of this easy week.

Week 4

With rested legs and a reinvigorated mind, it&rsquo;s time for some new workout formats to further broaden your base of capabilities and to start to put a point on your high-level forms of fitness. Up first, a round of short but densely packed anaerobic repeats that grow increasingly aerobic as each set progresses thereby affording you the best of a couple worlds.
Up next, you'll couple your hard-start prowess with your ability to accelerate, relent only slightly, then hit it hard again...and again, and again. Each set will cover a lot of different bases as several types of physical stress overlap one another in a very race-like manner.
Then, this week closes with some extended and varied Sweet Spot work preceded by a short flurry of all-out sprint efforts. Use these to simulate the early demands of any XC race where positioning for pivotal course segments can come down to a single explosive burst of power.&nbsp;
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Week 5

First off, your anaerobic-aerobic repeats grow in duration but stay at their same high intensity. Stands to reason that if you struggled with this wattage for a shorter duration, a slight drop in target power is in order for these longer jobbers. Remember, it's not about survival, it's about productivity. Performing 7 high-power minutes steadily and with proper pedaling mechanics is far superior training than 7 minutes of fighting the bike and repeatedly falling apart during the final 30 seconds. Then, this week's iteration of hard starts + VO2max race repeats simply ups the demand of the initial sprint while leaving the rest of each interval the same. While this could inspire slightly greater fatigue during the initial handful of surges, it's temporary fatigue that you can probably ride right through - as long as you tough it out long enough. Your week then closes with a workout very, very similar to last week's mixed bag of race-like efforts. Do your best to muster some solid sprint efforts early on, in excess of the target watts if you feel up to the challenge, and then make the various steady-state efforts as smooth and seemingly effortless as possible. Look relaxed, be relaxed.

Week 6

Your final full-strength week of Specialty training begins with a workout very similar to last week's but with one crucial change: less recovery between intervals. The intensity remains the same, the workload does too, but this will feel entirely different than last week's version. This recovery reduction increases the aerobic demand earlier in each set considering the limited replenishment of your anaerobic resources. Translation: your aerobic engine will be firing on all cylinders toward the end of each set while your anaerobic power wanes.Then it's onto another round of a now familiar combination workout. But this week the severity of the sprints declines a bit in the interest of allowing your fast-twitch fibers to rebound a little more quickly and rest up in anticipation of your peak event(s).This final, pre-taper week then closes out with another round of sprints + Sweet Spot work aimed once again at recreating the random yet somewhat predictable nature of bike racing on trails.

Week 7

With your peak fitness and events on the immediate horizon, it’s time to pull you up from the depths of your fatigue and sharpen your fitness. To this end, you’ll face reduced-load workouts very similar in format to recent corresponding workouts. The difference will be evident in the reduced volume, but that’s where the reductions end as all of the intensity is necessarily maintained.Saturday is an&nbsp;openers&nbsp;workout based on a Sunday race, but if your race falls on Saturday or perhaps both weekend days, perform the short priming workout on Friday instead. If you'd prefer a different openers workout, take a look at Scott Peak or the other versions of Truuli.If for some reason&nbsp;you aren't racing this weekend, it's a good idea to&nbsp;slot&nbsp;in a repeat of one of your harder, weekend workouts in place of an outdoor race. Or get out on the trail for something equally intense and of similar duration as your&nbsp;upcoming event(s).Otherwise, go toe the start line with a rested and primed body along with a confident and refreshed state of mind. You’ve done the work, now go out there and grab the glory.

Week 8

These mid-distance offroad plans combine anaerobic, VO2 max, and Sweet Spot intervals, preparing athletes for the unrelenting nature of cross-country MTB racing and riding. Whether you’re interested in reaching the podium or simply want to push your offroad performance, these 8-week blocks will fine-tune your fitness and make you faster.

Cross Country Olympic

With a focus on repeatable bursts of power and sustained high-watt efforts, the Cross Country Olympic specialty plan prepares you for the varied, high-intensity nature of XC racing. Whether your goal event features wide open fire roads, rocky singletrack, or a mix of both and more, you’ll develop wide-ranging fitness and arrive at race day in peak form.The mid-volume version of this 8-week plan includes 5 workouts per week, each ranging from 60 to 90 minutes in length. An easier 4th week offers the chance for some mid-plan recovery, and the last 2 weeks of the plan serve as a taper, reducing volume but maintaining intensity in the final leadup to your goal event.

Cross-Country Olympic - Mid Volume

With a focus on repeatable bursts of power and sustained high-watt efforts, the Cross Country Olympic specialty plan prepares you for the varied, high-intensity nature of XC racing. Whether your goal event features wide open fire roads, rocky singletrack, or a mix of both and more, you’ll develop wide-ranging fitness and arrive at race day in peak form.The high-volume version of this 8-week plan includes 6 workouts per week, each ranging from 60 to 120 minutes in length. An easier 4th week offers the chance for some mid-plan recovery, and the last 2 weeks of the plan serve as a taper, reducing volume but maintaining intensity in the final leadup to your goal event.&nbsp;As with all our high-volume plans, this plan is intended for experienced athletes who have plateaued at lower volumes.

Cross Country Olympic

Cross Country Olympic (8 Weeks Per Block)

Training Plans for Your Needs

Focused Training for Your Event

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Cross Country Olympic

Cross Country Olympic (8 Weeks Per Block)

Training Plans for Your Needs

Focused Training for Your Event

More Plans for Off-Road Racers

Ready to Get Faster?

Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast

Training and Racing Videos

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