Beginner Training Plan

dazzTurning

Hi

A friend of mine is building himself a training plan. He asked me for advice but I'm not very well positioned to make many comments, so I thought id open it up to the bikeradar massive. He hasn't been riding very long (got the summer bug) and is keen to get quicker. Thanks in advance!

It goes as follows:

week 1:
Mon:
Tue: 50 mins endurance (turbo)
Wed: 35 mins endurance with 4 x 20s intervals
Thurs:
Fri:
Sat: 50 min endurance with 4 x 1 min all out efforts
Sun: A 20 minute threshold test

week 2:
Mon:
Tue:
Wed: 35 min endurance
Thurs: 35 mins endurance with 4 x 20s intervals
Fri:
Sat: 50 min endurance with 4 x 1 min all out efforts
Sun: A 70 min endurnace

week 3:
Mon:
Tue:
Wed: 40 min tempo
Thurs: 30 mins with 3 x 3 min v02 max intervals
Fri:
Sat: 1 hour tempo focus workout
Sun: 1 hour with around 40 min threshold intervlas

Week 4:
Reovery week - 3 1 hour endurance sessions

Week 5:
Mon:
Tue:
Wed: 30 mins with 3 x 3 min v02 max intervals
Thurs: 1 hour with 5 x 5 min v02 max intervals
Fri:
Sat: 1.25 sweetpot focused
Sun: 1.35 sweetpot focused

week 6:
Mon:
Tue:
Wed: 1 hour tempo
Thurs: 35 mins with 4 x 2 min all out intervals
Fri:
Sat: 1.25 sweetpot focused
Sun: 2 hr endurance

imposter2.0

If he's a beginner and is keen to get faster, just tell him to keep riding as often as he can. Structure is not necessary if he's only been riding a couple of months. Bike time is what is needed - joining a club will bring him on faster than any plan, right now..

danlikesbikes

Nothing wrong with your plan, however I would suggest a rather different approach that your friend just gets out and rides & for several reasons.

As a new rider any increase in exercise is going to see an massive improvement in fitness, speed & endurance. As we're coming into winter it's the ideal time to get some quality base miles and fitness in without over complicating it. After 12+ weeks or so your friend should have a good base of endurance and then if he wants to build in some specific training then add it in slowly.

The problem with starting a plan with little base training first is actually overtraining which can lead to illness, more time off the bike than on and demotivation.

Btw there is nothing wrong with your plan as outlined and not trying to slate your work just think your adding too much too soon.

bahzob

As a beginner I'd suggest he buys a good book on the subject and follow the plan there. This will yield more reliable results and the structured approach will mean that he is in a much better position to understand what is working and what isn't.

This doesn't mean that diy or asking here wont work. It just wont be as effective.

Time Crunched Cyclist would be my recommendation. It has a series of 12 week plans suited for different objectives and is geared towards short workouts like in the plan above.

Tom Dean

I would tend to say 'just ride more', Time Crunched Cyclist is excellent but tough for a beginner.

If you do want to create your own plan, try to make a steady and logical progression. It's good to cover a wide range of intensities all the time but think about periodisation in the longer term and plan more than 6 weeks ahead.

When planning back to back days, do the higher intensity intervals on the first day. You want to be as fresh as possible to achieve the quality in these sessions.

DeVlaeminck

I don't like beginners writing training plans like that - get out with a club or some training groups and enjoy it. Until he's ridden with some better riders he wont know what putting effort in is anyway. I accept there is a place for solo structured training but that place isn't every single ride when you are a beginner coming into Winter. However if he wants to do it like that I'd say there is too much high intensity in there and it lacks a long ride - if he's training 4 times a week then I'd have a 3 hour ride at the weekend.

Ideally decide where you want to be come Spring and work backwards. If he wants to race or ride on local fast training groups (and if he doesn't why is he bothering putting a training plan together) he needs some group riding, a longer ride and I think fewer short high intensity intervals which I think a novice would find very hard to complete in any meaningful way anyway.

ai_1

Yeah, keep it simple.
Get out and ride. Suggest a few short/medium distance rides of varying intensity during the week and at least one long easy one, probably at the weekend. Take at least one day off each week. Don't push hard on every ride. Do push hard on some of the shorter ones.

It doesn't have to be much more complex than that at first, or ever unless you're getting serious.

supermurph09

Your friend is probably in one of the best phase of cycling, if riding consistently 3x per week he'll see improvement pretty much every time he goes out the door. He'll be able to ride faster and further and if using something like Strava the times going uphill will come down massively. Ditch the plan for now, just ride!

mr_poll

As above - just get out and ride. Good friend of mine who is a PT always warns the new gym members who start in Jan, come in with good intentions and plans, over train get bored and drop out by Feb. Let them enjoy riding, formal plans can be set when they have a goal. Something I did as a novice was to find a loop that took an hour and do that at least once a week, over the course of a month I was completing it in shorter and shorter times, didn't take long before I was home in less than 50 minutes. The immediate feedback of knowing I was getting faster and fitter spurred me on.