All riders - irrespective of ability, goals or whether training for racing or sportives - should be base training now. And it should be structured; not aimless miles.
Top Irish rider turned leading coach, Anthony Walsh has used the experience he has gained racing at home and abroad to launch his A1 Coaching business for racers and leisure cyclists in recent years.
Walsh is now rolling out a series of coaching videos and written guides aimed at tutoring riders to improve through this winter.
And to mark the launch of the new project, he will publish a separate series of shorter training pieces here on stickybottle over the next weeks, with this piece the fourth installment.
The separate and more comprehensive videos and winter coaching programme being launched by A1 Coaching can be accessed by following this link.
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By Anthony Walsh
Over the past few pieces I’ve been talking a lot about what not to do and mistakes people make.
I’ve been addressing the problem of disinformation but until now I’ve only alluded to a solution.
Your racing or sportive season should be broken into phases. The phase associated with this time of the year is called the base phase.
This base phase should typically last 12 weeks.
You can think of the base phase as the foundation of a pyramid; the better the quality of the work carried out now the higher the peak later in the season.
In this piece and video I’m going to take you through an ideal training week during the base phase.
It doesn’t matter if your target for the upcoming season is the National Criterium Championships, Marathon MTB or the Ring of Kerry sportive – the same principles apply.
One of the core principles of a periodised training calendar is that our training should move from the general to the specific.
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So, in the base phase, although we all have diverse targets, our preparation this far out from our chosen event is similar for everyone.
The week outlined in this video - follow this link for the video - is taken from week four of a 12-week training plan which we have designed.
The level of detail and changes in intensity we outline in this video are typical of how your training should look at this time of year.
A common thread, which you’ll notice through all our plans, is the utilization of intensity as a substitute for duration.
There are some hard sessions scheduled in this plan – sessions that will tax you physically and mentally.
These sessions are necessary to provide adequate weekly training stress given our time constraints.
If you were to ride around for eight hours a week without any structure you’d make very little gain – except maybe getting a nice bit of fresh air.
But, adopting these training principles and plans, and sticking to them, will yield huge gains in fitness for no additional time commitment. It’s a win-win situation.
We have received a lot of questions, from riders of varying ability, wondering if the plan is suitable for their level.
The answer is ‘Yes’ because we have prescribed each week’s training using a ‘zonal training method’, and we show you how to set the zones unique to you.
Therefore, it doesn’t matter what level you are at because when you establish your unique zones the plan will work perfectly for you.
Embrace the intensity revolution.
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