All Training Plans

General Base efficiently builds aerobic fitness with an engaging variety of workout intensities and interval styles. It's particularly useful for athletes with limited time to train, and since this describes most of us, it's the starting point we recommend for the majority of TrainerRoad cyclists.

General Base is divided into three consecutive four-week blocks, meant to be completed in order when time permits. All volumes include plenty of recovery, but if you're new to interval training, we recommend starting with Low- or Mid-Volume and assessing how your body responds before adding additional volume.

Traditional Base is a time-honored approach to base training, building resilient aerobic fitness with comparatively long and low-intensity workouts. Divided into three 4-week blocks meant to be completed in order, these plans gradually introduce intensity over time, slowly but steadily preparing athletes for a successful season. While this approach is usually associated with high training volumes, the low- and mid-volume versions have proven effective for time-crunched athletes.

The Polarized Base blocks are designed to establish your aerobic base fitness with an emphasis on shifting training intensity to the ends of the spectrum and feature all-new polarized, high-intensity workouts. Following the traditionally referenced three-zone model for Polarized Training, these plans reside within a polarized training intensity distribution between 80/20 and 95/5.

Sprint Triathlons are shorter and more intense than other multisport events, and Sprint Triathlon Base plans address these unique demands from the very beginning of the training season. These 8-week plans include a mix of moderate to high-intensity aerobic cycling workouts, as well as several swims and runs each week.

The Olympic Triathlon Base plans lay the foundation for success in international-distance events. These challenging races require a perfect balance of endurance and power, and the 8-week Olympic Triathlon Base plans are designed to nurture these skills from the start of the season.

Half-distance triathlons require a broad, resilient aerobic base, with the fitness to occasionally surge at higher intensities. Building endurance and laying the foundation for these skills are the primary goals of the 8 week Half-Distance Triathlon base plan, the perfect starting point for multisport triathletes of all experience levels.

Above all, full-distance triathlons are about endurance, and endurance requires a strong aerobic base. That's the goal of the Full-Distance Triathlon Base plans, which incorporate 4 to 5 days of training each week across all 3 disciplines. These plans utilize a variety of workouts and interval styles to develop aerobic fitness in an 8-week block.

Short Power Build plans are perfect if your goals demand repeated bursts of aerobic power: criterium races, cyclocross events, and almost all forms of mountain biking and track cycling, for instance. These plans use VO2 max and other above-threshold intervals to develop powerful and repeatable top-end fitness, so by the end of an 8-week block you'll be ready to go deep when things get tough.

Some cyclists need all-around fitness, with strong abilities in sustained power, high-intensity repeats, and everything in between. This balanced approach is what you'll get with General Build plans, which prepare you well for a wide variety of events and disciplines. If versatility is more important to you than narrow specialization, these 8-week plans are the ideal choice.

Sustained Power Build plans are designed to develop their namesake skill: sustained power. They achieve this through a focus on strength endurance, lactate tolerance, and aerobic conditioning, all designed to improve your ability to go faster for longer. Athletes who can benefit well from these 8-week blocks include time trialists, century riders, and even road racers whose events feature long climbs.

Triathlon's fastest and most intense events reward athletes who focus their training around this format, and Sprint Triathlon Build plans are designed to do just this. Picking up where Sprint Triathlon Base leaves off, these 8-week plans emphasize the mix of endurance and intensity you'll need to reach the podium.

The 8-week Olympic Triathlon Build plans take the fitness you developed during Olympic Triathlon Base and push it further, incorporating a gradually-increasing workload to build competitive power and endurance.

Balancing half-distance events' need for speed with their formidable endurance requirements, these 8-week blocks build powerful aerobic fitness you'll need on race day.

After building an aerobic foundation in the Base phase, full-distance triathletes are ready to start addressing endurance power on the bike and improving their sustainable run and swim speeds. These 8-week blocks are designed for the job, leaving you significantly faster as race day approaches.

The Polarized Build blocks are designed to build upon your aerobic base fitness with a growing emphasis on longer sustained efforts when compared to Polarized Base. Following the traditionally referenced three-zone model for Polarized Training, these plans reside within a polarized training intensity distribution between 80/20 and 95/5.

Races and rides with big climbs require many of the same skills as other terrain—endurance, a strong sprint, and the ability to attack above threshold. But long ascents place a unique focus on sustained near-threshold power, rewarding riders who can deliver these efforts for minutes or hours at a time.

These plans include plenty of above-threshold work that benefits every roadie, but add an additional emphasis on the sustained near-threshold power that you'll need to drop the pack on long climbs, especially when the decisive move comes at the end of an already-demanding race.

Criteriums are notoriously challenging. These relatively short races favor riders who can surge above threshold dozens of times in a row—all before unleashing an all-out sprint for the finish line. They're also unusually uniform in their difficulty, which means a diligent, event-specific approach to training can make all the difference.

The Criterium Specialty Plans are designed for the needs of criterium racers, as well as any other cyclist whose rides incorporate lots of repeated all-out efforts. Ideally completed following a Short Power Build plan, these 8-week blocks develop the high-end fitness that wins at the criterium level.

For athletes who are targeting long gravel races, gran fondos, or spirited multi-hour group rides, the Gran Fondo plans are the ideal choice. These specialty blocks primarily focus on muscular endurance and efficient aerobic output, with plenty of top-end fitness for cresting climbs, making the selection, and launching a final sprint.

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 decisive moves usually come from riders with a heavy helping of top-end fitness.

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.

Unlike other disciplines where athletes can recover mid-pack between efforts, time trials are truly unrelenting. Time trialists need the ability to ride steady and ride hard—for extended periods—in an aerodynamic position that compromises comfort and efficiency.

These plans target sustained power, as well as an ability to pace yourself and tolerate discomfort. You'll spend lots of time near threshold in aero position, fine-tuning your fitness for the race against the clock.

For offroad events lasting 3 hours or more, there's simply no way around it: you need serious aerobic endurance. That said, you also need the top-end fitness to power over climbs and muscle through punchy trail features without exploding. The Cross-Country Marathon specialty plans are built around these diverse endurance and top-end fitness needs.

These mid-distance offroad plans combine anaerobic, VO2 max, and Sweet Spot intervals, preparing athletes for the unrelenting nature of cross-country MTB racing and riding. Whether you're interested in XC events or simply love a challenging ride on dirt, the Cross-Country Olympic plans are a great choice.

No cycling discipline can match cyclocross for the diverse range of fitness and skills it requires—not to mention the over-the-top fun of racing and spectating at these events. So whether your goal is a CX-specific Specialty Phase of your training or simply a fun, focused boost to your offseason fitness, these plans deliver.

Gravity events like Downhill, Super D, Slalom, and Enduro favor athletes with strong anaerobic abilities and good technical skills. The Gravity specialty plans handle the fitness side of things, improving repeated sprint ability and the specific kind of hike-a-bike fitness you need to reach the top of that next downhill run.

Short track races are short, fast, and technically demanding—a bit like the offroad equivalent of criteriums, with just as much excitement and fun. Competitors need repeatable power, good endurance, and the sort of high-end fitness that can be honed with Short Track Cross-Country Specialty plans.

No other triathlon format is as grueling or demanding as full-distance races, and the Full Distance Triathlon specialty blocks are the last component in the training you need to succeed in these events. Specialty plans put the finishing touches on base and build phase work, leveraging those gains to sharpen your bike, run, and swim speeds alike.

Half-distance triathlons are long, but not as long as full-distance events. This makes them comparatively intense while also necessitating serious endurance, and the Half Distance Triathlon specialty plans strike the perfect balance between fitness and intensity in the final 8 weeks of training before your race.

As your goal events approach, it's time to utilize the fitness you've developed during the Base and Build phases and prepare to excel on race day. That's the goal of the Olympic Distance Triathlon plans, which sharpen your fitness with increased race-specific demands in each of the three disciplines.

These specialized and intensity-rich training blocks are the ideal final preparation for sprint triathletes. In 8 weeks, you'll sharpen your cycling, running, and swimming speeds in the lead-up to your race, integrating the gains you've made during Base and Build and preparing them for race day application.