Alright guys, I'm relatively new to road cycling and my first racing season will be the collegiate season this spring. I've logged about 1000 miles on my bike this fall and am working towards training for a good first season. I need help planning, however.

I've read through Friel's Cyclist Training Bible and feel like I have a good grasp of the concepts presented therein, though I definitely felt that he geared the book towards cyclists more experienced than me.

In any case, I agree with his concept of periodization and obviously the basics of training like good nutrition, adequate recovery, and good sleep etc.

Right now, I just have no idea how to work all of these things into an effective training plan for myself this winter. Based on his book, and what will work best for me, I know that any effective training program will require some cross training and weight lifting, as New Hampshire weather might keep me off the roads for part of the winter. I plan on transitioning to fully on-the-bike training once I near racing season, and at that point will have an aerobic base with which to build high intensity work off of.

So I've got a good overall plan of my goals and such, and an idea of exercises to do besides cycling outdoors when the weather's tough (running, indoor soccer/other sports, trainer/rollers).

My bind is that I have no idea how to plan my week for the best results. If I want to work in 2-3 days of lifting a week (obviously cycling specific muscle groups) and get the exercise needed to improve my base, what should a given week look like? How many recovery days should I have, and where can I effectively place them?

My time allotments for daylight exercise are about like this:

Monday: Limited, maybe 2 hours
Tuesday: 4+ hours
Wednesday: one two hour block, another 3 hour block
Thursday: 3 hours
Friday: scheduled team recovery ride, 3 hours of daylight available besides that.
Sat-Sun: Freebird. : )

With that in mind, I was planning something along these lines:

Monday: Recovery
Tuesday: Long ride, variable intensity, weights
Wednesday: average length ride, so some upper zone work
Thursday: Long ride, variable intensity, weights
Friday: Recovery
Saturday: long ride, high intensity
Sunday: medium ride, weights

Being that I'm a newer cyclist, will this give me quality training results and give me adequate recovery time? Any thoughts on what I should change? Do you think the plan is great/alright/terrible? I just want to make sure what I've got conceptually is actually worth pursuing. Thanks much!

P.S.

This would represent the next two months of time. When I describe the rides and intensities, you could also replace these with different cross training such as running that achieves the same function of exercise (because I know I might not get to ride with snow on the roads).

As the racing season nears (february) I'll begin to transition this hopefully to a fully on-the-bike plan that would eliminate/slim work with weights and move to high intensity bike work (hill/sprint intervals, threshold work, etc.).

Thoughts please! Thanks much.

Alright guys, I'm relatively new to road cycling and my first racing season will be the collegiate season this spring. I've logged about 1000 miles on my bike this fall and am working towards training for a good first season. I need help planning, however.

With only 1000 miles in your "career" you would benefit a LOT from building some serious base. You can do some the other stuff as well, but I'd suggest that your first priority would be to get a set of rollers, a couple of window fans, a reading stand, and learn how to read and listen to loud music for long periods in the saddle. Get outdoors whenever you can, but New England winters are not conducive. Look at your spring schedule to decide when to get serious about intervals (per Friel). Cycling, like most other sports, requires that most people put in some serious time before they really blossom.

Yeah I kind of figured that. I just don't know how long I should wait before doing higher intensity work...

And what is the ideal HR zone for base building? If I want to just spend 3+ hours at a constant effort to build base, where should I be effort wise at for the best results? What's the best route to effective base building?

Yeah I kind of figured that. I just don't know how long I should wait before doing higher intensity work...

And what is the ideal HR zone for base building? If I want to just spend 3+ hours at a constant effort to build base, where should I be effort wise at for the best results? What's the best route to effective base building?

Just ride your bike for now. Ride it for fun, and enjoyment, jump in some faster rides here and there if you want to, or do whatever you can handle for now. Just get in some longer base type rides, as Kerry said, you don't have much "experience" and or riding to fall back on. Don't worry about specific training right now I'd say. Since it's your first season riding on the road, and first race season, you're going to start out at the bottom, cat. 5 or whatever that is in collegiate (C level? - I don't know, since I didn't have a collegiate team where I went to school). In my experience, it doesn't take a ton o' fitness to be able to finish a cat. 5 race. It does take a little more to do well, but just ride your bike, you'll be alright.

Just don't noodle, and don't hammer so hard every day that you feel like crap the next day.

Get in as many miles as possible.

In the Friel's Training Bible that I have, he explicitly states that his advice is really intended for cyclists with two-three year's training, minimum.

You will love the massive changes -- recovery, glycogen storage, power, everything -- that happens after your first full year of solid riding. You will be able to do things you never thought possible.

DM.Aelis, with those kind of available hours, it's quite possible to overtrain yourself if you're doing too much athletic activity.

But... you could also get into fantastic shape. Assum you can ride maybe 2-3 days of that typical week, plus some other kind of physical stuff the other days. That's a pretty dang good base. More than I usually have by March, and I live in Texas.

As far as effort level, I forget if it's Friel or who has the descriptions of the training zones with markers like 1. "walking pace" and 2. "conversational" and 3. "you can have a conversation but have to pause for breath" and 4. "a few words here and there" and 5. "no talking, only hard breathing." Anyway, those are good enough. Most base work would be in 3, with some time in 4 now and then.

Also, use your precious bike time to work on form. Spin, cadence, posture, breathing, pack skills etc. You can break your legs off in the gym after dark while it's snowing, but bike-on-the-road-time is unique and valuable.

Creak.

Take everyones advice and realize that a 4hr ride in the winter will not happen. Try to be on the bike at least 5d/wk and just enjoy yourself.

Try not to let HR get over ~90% of max until at most 2 months before your first important race.

Eg, cat B racer here. I started training last week and this was my schedule:
Sunday........Recovery ride
Monday........15min WU, 1hr SST
Tuesday.......15min WU, 1hr SST
Wednesday..off
Thursday......Intervals w/Tony
...................Ride w/Tony
Friday..........off
Saturday......1hr fun/fast ride outdoors
Total............7hrs, 2 on the trainer

This week will be 7hrs w/6hrs on the trainer. Next week 7.5hrs; then climb by 30min until 10hrs/wk, which I will hold until I start planning for my collegiate peak in May. The only reason I can start with such high numbers (these will be trainer miles from here on out) is because I still have a solid base from last season. Consider your own training while determining time on bike.