About the Sportive Training Plan

The Sportive Training plans have been put together by British Cycling Talent Team Manager, Gary Coltman, and Wattbike’s resident Sport Scientist Eddie Fletcher.

The Plans

The plans in this Guide are designed to prepare a cyclist for a Sportive event (or equivalent) and for Triathletes there is a specially designed Winter Training Plan.

There are 5 different plans - which plan you adopt depends not only on your ability and fitness level but also on the amount of cycling you have previously done. However for Plans 4 and 5 you do need to be a capable cyclist - within each Fitness level there is a recommended ability level in terms of maximum minute power (MMP) and power to weight ratio (PKg - the power to weight ratios are based on, male 70Kg and Female 55Kg).

The simplest way to start is to match up your fitness level with the training plans so that if you assess your fitness level as 1 you should start on training plan 1 and so on up to fitness level 5 and training plan 5 (subject to the maximum minute power restrictions). Each plan starts 16 weeks from your race day and is intended to be a menu of sessions that could be followed. The plans are general and not individual plans but they do have a structure that would be useful to follow at each level. As you progress it is possible to switch to a higher or lower level plan as appropriate. Be flexible in your approach to ensure you select the plan and sessions which match your fitness level and time availability.

• Plan 1 starts with 2 sessions in week 1 progressing to 3 sessions in week 2 and then to 4 sessions per week from week 7 onwards.
• Plan 2 starts with 3 sessions per week in weeks 1 to 3 progressing to 4 sessions per week from week 4 onwards.
• Plan 3 starts with 3 sessions per week in weeks 1 and 2 progressing to 4 sessions per week in weeks 3 to 5 and has an optional session 5 from week 6 onwards.
• Plan 4 starts with 4 sessions per week in weeks 1 to 3 progressing to an optional session 5 from week 6 onwards.
• Plan 5 is based on 5 sessions per week in weeks 1 to 7 progressing to 6 sessions a week from week 8 onwards.

Within each plan there are recommended minimum road and Wattbike sessions (shown in bold) with an alternative Wattbike session to substitute for the road sessions if you are unable to get out on the road (weather or time constraints) - however try not to miss the recommended road sessions if at all possible.

Plans 4 and 5 are more flexible - there is no suggested route through the mix of road and Wattbike sessions - experienced riders can mix and match - we suggest that a good mix would be a ratio of 3:1 / 4:1 road rides to Wattbike rides. For all plans do not miss the weekly long ride sessions (session 1). Each Plan has recovery weeks built into the Plan - recovery weeks should be treated as compulsory. Do not hesitate to take extra recovery days throughout the duration of any of the Plans if necessary.

Do not overreach, take a sensible approach to which plan you start on to avoid over training, fatigue, illness and injury. It is far better to start slowly and build your fitness at a lower level and then switch to a higher level plan as your fitness improves. It is acceptable to mix and match the Training Plans to suit your requirements although we do recommend that you try to adopt one of the plans in its entirety matching the plan to the fitness description level that best reflects your current training status.