The Criterium specialty plans are designed to complete your preparation for these dynamic events. Placing a heavy emphasis on repeatable high power, they also maintain your ability to sustain high power for the duration of a tough race. Whether your strategy is to repeatedly attack, get in the breakaway, or wait for the final sprint, these plans will leave you be ready for criterium success.The low-volume version of the 8-week Criterium specialty plan includes 3 workouts per week, each ranging from 60 to 120 minutes. 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;To practice racecraft and pack handling skills, you can occasionally substitute practice races or tough group rides for scheduled interval workouts, but try to make sure these rides are similar in structure to (at least as challenging as) the workout you’re replacing.

Criterium - Low Volume

Putting first things first, this week begins with an all-important reassessment of your FTP via the&nbsp;Ramp Test. You're welcome to follow another assessment format if you prefer,&nbsp;as long as it's a reliable and consistent protocol.
Your second workout of this week is a small handful of efforts at a realistically high percentage of your newly estimated FTP. The primary intention here is to make good use of your intermediate muscle fibers--the ones you'll call on frequently over the course of a highly demanding criterium.
This week of specialized training then closes with a highly race-specific workout format: microbursts. Nothing simulates the on/off demands of crit racing quite like sets of short, super-high-intensity efforts coupled with extremely low-effort but equally short periods of active recovery. This marks the plan's first&nbsp;foray into expanding your anaerobic power capabilities&nbsp;while simultaneously elevating your aerobic capacity in a realistic and increasingly&nbsp;painful way.

Week 1

This week introduces a form of training that's far more intent on raising your anaerobic power than other workouts that split their focus between multiple training impacts. This workout is one of only a couple workouts devoted solely to anaerobic power improvement as later workouts are reasonably bent on making your anaerobic power translate to increasingly race-like scenarios.
Your next workout grows last week's overall demands by a single minute and increases&nbsp;the duration of each interval by a single minute as well, all&nbsp;in order to keep things manageable but progressively more challenging. This is the very&nbsp;nature of&nbsp;chasing training adaptation&nbsp;and one you're probably quite familiar with by now.&nbsp;
This week closes with a highly specialized interval format that you've likely faced as part of the Short Power Build plan. Emulating the nature of criterium racing where you're either fully pinned or working just hard enough to stay with the pack/just easy enough to keep from passing out, the recoveries between these very short, very intense intervals only fall to Sweet Spot watts as opposed to the usual recovery effort level.&nbsp;

Week 2

The second of your two Anaerobic workouts trims the recoveries down a bit, but make no mistake, this workout still emphasizes force over conditioning. These descending intervals (time descends, power rises) offer equal-time recovery keeping the anaerobic vs aerobic balance a little heavier on the anaerobic side. The nearly as important&nbsp;secondary aim is to&nbsp;bring you closer to the demands of&nbsp;races where the&nbsp;importance of high-power repetition far outweighs the possibility of a 30-second power PR.
Your varied VO2max-ish repeats actually decline in overall workload this time around,&nbsp;but the addition of yet another minute per interval will prevent them from feeling&nbsp;accommodating,&nbsp;nowhere near easy. But the difference in hitting it hard for 6 minutes compared to a hard 4 or even 5-minutes is often the difference between winning and falling out of&nbsp;the top 20. Possible results aside, the shock to your aerobically driven system&nbsp;can't help but yield greater race capabilities; again, given adequate and proper recovery.
Finally, you'll close this week of specialized loading and refinement with a mildly harsher set of high-amplitude VO2max repeats where recovery comes after a&nbsp;series&nbsp;of VO2max efforts rather than between each of them.&nbsp;

Week 3

Time to let some of your event-specific training (not to mention any yet-to-materialize&nbsp;Build training adaptation)&nbsp;soak in over the course of an easy week’s training. Over the span of this week, remind yourself frequently and loudly&nbsp;that&nbsp;adaptation happens during recovery, not during the sometimes undeniably damaging doses of training that comprise much of your loading weeks.&nbsp;If you haven't yet learned the benefit of proper and adequate&nbsp;recovery, some hard lessons await you on the racecourse. If, however, you recognize the benefit of recovery done correctly, continue to&nbsp;treat your downtime with due respect as you work toward the peak fitness that lies just ahead.

Week 4

Time to get back to work and hone each of your&nbsp;vital race capabilities to near-perfection while realizing some final, subtle improvements in overall fitness beginning with a series of VO2max intervals disguised as short but sweet race scenarios. The intensity here is high, but also very much in line with&nbsp;what you're likely to face in your next crit race.
As if these short/short repeats weren't race-specific or difficult enough already, the next evolution incorporates a hard-start effort that will exploit the high-power&nbsp;capabilities you've refined over the first half of this Specialty training plan. Master this format and accelerating off the line, into a prime sprint, or across a gap will now pave the way for a hard round of efforts instead of a cop-out recovery.&nbsp;
This week closes out with the first of two rigorous race simulations that are sure to be at least as demanding, if not more so, than your peak event(s). With a lap format based on a local-ish and highly esteemed NCNCA crit course, these repeats will challenge even the toughest, most race-ready crit racers and make you tougher and faster in the process.

Week 5

Your final pre-taper week of training begins with another round of intervals that are half composed of&nbsp;Threshold repeats and half made of&nbsp;VO2max efforts, mashed together with no downtime in between. These escalating demands will draw on every form of fitness you've developed up to this point and very likely shine a light on just how capable and versatile&nbsp;a rider you've become. Then, your second workout of the week is nearly a repeat of last week's hard-start, short/short intervals with a mild bump in the intensity of that&nbsp;initial jump. If you can open a good gap with 30 seconds at 150%, what might you do with a 165% pounce? Only one way to find out. Then, to wrap up your final full-volume week, the grisly but reasonably true to reality Tour de Nez race simulation awaits. While the meat of this&nbsp;workout is slightly lower than that of last week's, the minor but somehow not inconsequential increase in intensity will even things out, and then some.&nbsp;

Week 6

Week 7 is the first of 2 taper weeks where a&nbsp;sharp drop in training volume is just as obvious as the lack of&nbsp;intensity reduction. This lower-load/same-high-intensity format also works really well on its own as a taper leading into a B-priority event should you want to reuse this week's workout selection for&nbsp;a string of more important&nbsp;races on the horizon.If not, just use the shortened workouts to keep you sharp without wiping you out, and&nbsp;know that&nbsp;even more&nbsp;race freshness will rise to the surface over the course of&nbsp;next week's even lighter training load.

Week 7

By week's end, you'll find yourself high on&nbsp;freshness,&nbsp;low on doubts and&nbsp;ready&nbsp;to exploit your peaked fitness. Heck, you might even be able to enjoy your races considering the capabilities you'll be bringing to the start line.&nbsp;
This week sees&nbsp;another round of training volume reductions, and if you feel like this isn't enough work to sustain your fitness, don't worry,&nbsp;it is. Your aim&nbsp;over these final two weeks&nbsp;was not to try to&nbsp;elevate your fitness but to uncover it by removing any last bit of&nbsp;fatigue that could limit&nbsp;your race performance, and this final week should do just that.
Saturday is an&nbsp;openers&nbsp;workout based on a Sunday crit, 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 Truuli -2 or find something similar in format and TSS.
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 criterium simulations&nbsp;in place of an outdoor race.
Beyond that, consider the work&nbsp;done. Draw confidence from the fact that you&rsquo;ve put forth all that&rsquo;s necessary to have some great races, and&nbsp;recognize that&nbsp;there&rsquo;s absolutely no need&nbsp;to cram any last-minute sessions into your schedule - they'll only work against you. Get out there, have a great day, and good luck!

Week 8

Criteriums are notoriously challenging. These relatively short races favor riders who can surge above threshold dozens of times in a row—all before unleashing an all-out sprint for the finish line. This requires serious aerobic endurance, a high anaerobic capacity, an effective ability to recover, and the neuromuscular coordination to sprint powerfully when tired.The Criterium Specialty Plans are designed for the needs of criterium racers, as well as any other cyclist whose rides incorporate lots of repeated all-out efforts. Ideally completed following a Short Power Build phase, this plan further sharpens your ability to attack and drop your competitors, over and over again.

Criterium

The Criterium specialty plans are designed to complete your preparation for these dynamic events. Placing a heavy emphasis on repeatable high power, they also maintain your ability to sustain high power for the duration of a tough race. Whether your strategy is to repeatedly attack, get in the breakaway, or wait for the final sprint, these plans will leave you be ready for criterium success.The mid-volume version of the 8-week Criterium specialty plan includes 5 workouts per week, each ranging from 60 to 90 minutes. 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;To practice racecraft and pack handling skills, you can occasionally substitute practice races or tough group rides for scheduled interval workouts, but try to make sure these rides are similar in structure to (at least as challenging as) the workout you’re replacing.

Criterium - Mid Volume

The Criterium specialty plans are designed to complete your preparation for these dynamic events. Placing a heavy emphasis on repeatable high power, they also maintain your ability to sustain high power for the duration of a tough race. Whether your strategy is to repeatedly attack, get in the breakaway, or wait for the final sprint, these plans will leave you be ready for criterium success.The high-volume version of the 8-week Criterium specialty plan includes 6 workouts per week, each ranging from 60 to 120 minutes. 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;To practice racecraft and pack handling skills, you can occasionally substitute practice races or tough group rides for scheduled interval workouts, but try to make sure these rides are similar in structure to (at least as challenging as) the workout you’re replacing.As with all our high-volume plans, this plan is intended for experienced athletes who have plateaued at lower volumes.

Criterium

Criterium (8 Weeks Per Block)

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Focused Training for Your Event

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Criterium

Criterium (8 Weeks Per Block)

Training Plans for Your Needs

Focused Training for Your Event

More Plans for Road Racers

Ready to Get Faster?

Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast

Training and Racing Videos

TrainerRoad Community Forum