For athletes targeting rides and races on rolling roads, the final phase of training is designed to form a well-rounded competitor—one with strong endurance and sustained power, as well as the ability to surge across gaps, up short climbs, and through the final sprint.The low-volume version of the 8-week Rolling Road Race specialty plan is built around 3 rides per week, each ranging from 60 to 90 minutes in length. 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.

Rolling Road Race - Low Volume

Your first workout is likely to be your final&nbsp;FTP reassessment, at least for this training cycle. We'll need to account for improvement acquired during your Build training, but the steady weekly training load ahead won't merit further FTP monitoring since the focus is now more&nbsp;on refining your fitness and less on raising more basic work capacities. You’re free to use any assessment workout you prefer, but it’s recommended that you use the same one you’ve used up to this point.Up next is few rounds of 40/20's that will simultaneously target your anaerobic capabilities while gradually increasing the stress on your aerobic system as each round progresses, all in an on/off&nbsp;format common to mass start racing.Then, your first week closes with the first of many combination workouts aimed at melding your varied performance capabilities into a single workout thereby simulating many of the demands you'll face during competition. In this case, you'll face a pair of VO2max repeats with somewhat more challenging recovery valleys in between, several times over, similar to a&nbsp;repeated circuit.

Week 1

This week begins with the first in a series of Anaerobic interval workouts aimed at growing your peak power outputs over several short but varied durations. Being able to dole out big watts isn't truly&nbsp;useful unless you can&nbsp;do it repeatedly without falling apart.
Up next, last week's workout demands grow by way of shorter, slightly less intense repeats in greater quantity. You'll repeat large chunks of 30/20's and do your best to cope with your waning anaerobic resources as your well-developed aerobic system takes up the slack. This multi-faceted assault maintains the theme of stressing multiple energy systems in manners similar to those encountered within a field of aggressive riders.
Your week closes with another combination workout that's a little more evenly divided between sustained power and high-end aerobic &amp; anaerobic repeats. The idea here is to emulate the demands faced near the end of a race when the general fatigue is high and the race outcome&nbsp;hinges on your ability to repeatedly surge and recover.

Week 2

This week compares closely to last week, both in format and total training stress, starting with another round of Anaerobic repeats that step down in intensity, up in duration, then reverse the pattern. But this time, the durations are twice as long and the watts are nearly as sky-high as last week's anaerobic power workout.
This week's high-volume/low rest Anaerobic repeats are basically microbursts on steroids. Instead of 15 seconds on/15 seconds off, you'll have to repeat efforts twice that long with recoveries similarly twice as long as usual, several times over. Again, big power don't mean a thang if you can't repeat it, a lot.
Your end-of-week race simulation is easily one of the cruelest formats in the entire TR catalog, but it's also on the short list of workouts that tell you that you're not just ready to race, you're ready to crush it. The early paceline repeats are far and away the bulk of the workout, so reserve your focus for them and then just hang in there as best you can during the comparatively invisible VO2max repeats.&nbsp;

Week 3

Recovery weeks are an opportunity to dial back the intensity, maintain your ride schedule, and heal from the previous weeks of training. Accordingly, the intensity is low for each of your rides this week with the exception of a small handful of very short sprint efforts that will keep your muscles firing on all cylinders without accumulating high amounts of counterproductive, performance-degrading stress.&nbsp;
If you feel as though you're truly rested and ready to resume your upward-performance trajectory by the weekend, feel free to do a bit of work on Saturday as long as it doesn't send you into next week carrying too much fatigue for your final round of&nbsp;high-intensity workouts.

Week 4

As you work your way toward your taper and&nbsp;race weeks, the workouts grow increasingly specific to the often brutal demands of mass-start racing on punchy, rolling&nbsp;courses.
You're welcome to use today to reassess changes in your FTP, but due to the shift from a focus on&nbsp;building fitness to one on&nbsp;honing fitness, you may not see substantial changes in your FTP during this specialized phase of training. Alternatively, you can simply add 1-3% to your FTP if you suspect a slight bump in your Functional Threshold Power.&nbsp;
If you choose to skip the FTP reassessment, your first workout is the last one aimed solely at improving your anaerobic capacity while subsequent workouts will make use of the gains that follow this last assortment of short-duration, very high-power intervals. Do your best to complete each interval, even if that means minor reductions in the Target power.
Up next is a workout that splits its aim between challenging your ability to sustain power slightly above your FTP as well as your ability to&nbsp;wind up huge watts for a short but relentless&nbsp;series of sprints all packed into some brutally challenging 2-minute efforts. Think of the closing minutes of any hotly contested race where you find yourself still in the hunt and you'll understand what we're trying to replicate here.
Then this week definitely saved the best for last. Broken Finger mashes together a pair of&nbsp;Coach Chad favorites that will demonstrate your ability to recover quickly, repeat high watts over and over, and then combine raw power with deep, foundational muscle endurance, all inside of 90 minutes.

Week 5

Your final, full-volume week begins with your first of 3 weeks' worth of attack-and-recover brutality in the form of a workout named&nbsp;Huxley. Each set within is&nbsp;a mash-up of all things painful but also a great demonstration that you can, in fact,&nbsp;face almost anything. Make sure to get out of the saddle during the attacks as you take advantage of the high-end power you've built over the course of your Anaerobic interval workouts.
Then you'll experience what might be your first dance with Mr. Joe Devel but almost certainly won't be your last. This quartet of short/short intervals will see you repeating efforts&nbsp;anywhere from 120-150% of your FTP with never more than 15 blink-and-you'll-miss-them seconds of recovery&nbsp;between repeats. Chances are very strong that&nbsp;at least&nbsp;one of these sets will push your capabilities to their fullest extents buying you one final increase in your aerobic power capabilities.
Finally, you'll square off against another combination workout that first takes some of the wind out of your sails via some muscle-sapping anaerobic repeats &aacute; la Black Kaweah before capping things off with a couple of mercilessly long trips up to your VO2max. Survive this one and there's really nothing you'll face on race day that can possibly&nbsp;unhitch you.

Week 6

Time to dial things back and let any further fitness buried underneath your fatigue begin to rise to the surface. We&rsquo;ll keep the intensity, cut the volume way back, and start to gradually taper things down to a bare minimum that finds you as fresh as possible in about 2 weeks' time.
Both weekday workouts are trimmed down versions of what you saw last week aiming to keep your muscles and mind attuned to the intensity while reducing the overall training load in order to recover some freshness without sacrificing any fitness in the process.&nbsp;
Your weekend workout also sees a reduction in volume but retains its necessary intensity as you're guided through a race simulation littered with a variety of efforts and remains&nbsp;pretty&nbsp;lean on recovery between bouts of work, kinda like a bike race.
This week can serve as a taper for any week leading into a B-priority weekend, so feel free to repeat this week anytime you want a bit more stress than next week's race-week format. Consider including an openers workout the day prior to your race, something&nbsp;like Truuli or its shorter versions.

Week 7

Entering what&rsquo;s likely to be your first of many Race weeks to come (assuming you&rsquo;re not already racing), you&rsquo;ll need to decide&nbsp;which workouts will take place indoors and which will be skipped in lieu of training races or higher-priority events.
You&rsquo;ll also have to decide on the number of weeks that you&rsquo;re looking to maintain your peak fitness since it typically begins to decline after 4-5 weeks for most riders. Some riders can hold this fitness for longer periods, some for less. But in most cases, this race-week taper structure&nbsp;can be repeated quite often with only minor tweaking depending on your race schedule.
A weekday&nbsp;training race plus one of the scheduled workouts&nbsp;or simply the&nbsp;two reduced-volume workouts&nbsp;slated during before Friday&nbsp;will work well for most riders looking to shed a little more fatigue and stay sharp leading into the weekend. There's also the option of an openers workout scheduled the day prior to your event, and this can require a bit of rearrangement each week such that you don't carry any residual fatigue into your important events.
Whatever you decide, try to allow for a day of rest following each day of training -&nbsp;the single exception is an openers workout, since a race will always fall on the following day.
OK, you&rsquo;ve done the work, you have the fitness, now go out there with confidence knowing that you&rsquo;ve done everything necessary to get the job done. Good luck!

Week 8

Rolling roads make for highly variable races and rides, with repeated all-out attacks testing your fitness over punchy climbs. Sustained power and endurance are serious assets on this terrain, but the ability to respond to frequent surges and changes in pace is equally important. And in the end, success on rolling parcours demands a strong sprint, too. The Rolling Road Race specialty plans are designed to address this diverse skillset, fine-tuning your sprint and anaerobic power, improving power and time at VO2 max, and maintaining your aerobic endurance.

Rolling Road Race

For athletes targeting rides and races on rolling roads, the final phase of training is designed to form a well-rounded competitor—one with strong endurance and sustained power, as well as the ability to surge across gaps, up short climbs, and through the final sprint.The mid-volume version of the 8-week Rolling Road Race specialty plan is built around 5 rides per week, each ranging from 60 to 90 minutes in length. 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.

Rolling Road Race - Mid Volume

For athletes targeting rides and races on rolling roads, the final phase of training is designed to form a well-rounded competitor—one with strong endurance and sustained power, as well as the ability to surge across gaps, up short climbs, and through the final sprint.The high-volume version of the 8-week Rolling Road Race specialty plan is built around 6 rides per week, each ranging from 60 to 120 minutes in length. 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.

Rolling Road Race

Rolling Road Race (8 Weeks Per Block)

Training Plans for Your Needs

Focused Training for Your Event

More Plans for Road Racers

Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast

Training and Racing Videos

TrainerRoad Community Forum

Rolling Road Race

Rolling Road Race (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