Beginner Road Race Training Schedule

Hi Andrew,

You'll be fine with 8-9 hours per week to begin race, but you'll probably need to fit it a few smaller workouts during the week in addition to the weekend training.

You can use my free training plans on www.freetrainingplan.com. The "Low volume - racing" plan, will generally be between 8-12 hours per week. Some weeks have more volume than others. The plans I created are a good balance between endurance, strength, bike specific power, and core.

Good luck,

Michel
www.freetrainingplan.com/racingblog

TrekGuy said:

Hello, I am a 20 year old male, about 5 foot 9 inches tall and 140 pounds. I have been road riding for about 2 years now, nothing serious just going for rides up to 50 miles at about 90 RPMs cadance and about 15 miles per hour. I have finally decided to put in the necessary time, energy and pain to start training for road races next year. I have been reading many different views on how to train and each one does not seem to beable to fit in my schedule. I can train about 8-9 hours a week with most of the time on the weekends. The races I plan to ride in are 20-30 mile circuits in Ohio with fairly flat to rolling roads. I dont belong to any teams or have any other cycling buddies to ride with so I am preaty much solo in training. I would like overall training which would prepare me for every possible situation in a race including climbing, sprinting, attacking,endurance, etc. Like I said earler, I have about a year to train for the races so I would like a good quality schedule that would prepare me for races and also build my "aerobic engine". Anyone know of a day by day training schedule that fits what I am looking for? If not, where is a good place to find one. Thanks for helping a beginner! -Andrew G.

Thanks, I'll check out you site.

michelbrazeau said:

Hi Andrew,

You'll be fine with 8-9 hours per week to begin race, but you'll probably need to fit it a few smaller workouts during the week in addition to the weekend training.

You can use my free training plans on www.freetrainingplan.com. The "Low volume - racing" plan, will generally be between 8-12 hours per week. Some weeks have more volume than others. The plans I created are a good balance between endurance, strength, bike specific power, and core.

Good luck,

Michel
www.freetrainingplan.com/racingblog

Most important thing...join a team. I can't recommend it strongly enough.

What kind of equipment or bike do you have? Do you have a PM?

I would suggest reading through the It's Killing me thread to get you started.

-js

TrekGuy said:

Hello, I am a 20 year old male, about 5 foot 9 inches tall and 140 pounds. I have been road riding for about 2 years now, nothing serious just going for rides up to 50 miles at about 90 RPMs cadance and about 15 miles per hour. I have finally decided to put in the necessary time, energy and pain to start training for road races next year. I have been reading many different views on how to train and each one does not seem to beable to fit in my schedule. I can train about 8-9 hours a week with most of the time on the weekends. The races I plan to ride in are 20-30 mile circuits in Ohio with fairly flat to rolling roads. I dont belong to any teams or have any other cycling buddies to ride with so I am preaty much solo in training. I would like overall training which would prepare me for every possible situation in a race including climbing, sprinting, attacking,endurance, etc. Like I said earler, I have about a year to train for the races so I would like a good quality schedule that would prepare me for races and also build my "aerobic engine". Anyone know of a day by day training schedule that fits what I am looking for? If not, where is a good place to find one. Thanks for helping a beginner! -Andrew G.

Hello, unfortunately I don't have a power meter but I do have a hrm. I have a Trek 1500 with Ultregra and 105 mix. I'll check out that thread. Thanks.

jsirabella said:

What kind of equipment or bike do you have? Do you have a PM?

I would suggest reading through the It's Killing me thread to get you started.

-js

Tyson I believe still does not have a PM but he did have access to a gym with an erg that had a watts reading/setting. I would advise you to defnitely consider doing the gym atleast three days a week and find an erg with a watts reading.

Since you want to race, training is only half the battle, the other half is getting used to riding in a fast pack. I found out the hard way so I would advise going to a place where a group of riders are are training and try and catch on to a few fast wheels. In the beginning it may wonder how will I ever hold on but with time everything will "SLOW DOWN" for you. It took me a year to get that feeling and it will happen to you.

I started with a triple ring trek 5000 and still have the frame....a great training bike to train into the ground!

good luck...

-js

TrekGuy said:

Hello, unfortunately I don't have a power meter but I do have a hrm. I have a Trek 1500 with Ultregra and 105 mix. I'll check out that thread. Thanks.