When you train for cycling, you need to ensure you are getting the most out of your bike workouts. Each bike session should have a purpose that fits the occasion, AKA your goal race. In this article, we’ll show you how to craft a beginner cycling training plan that you can use for any type of bike race, triathlon, or duathlon.
Each beginner cycling training plan will focus on two key workouts per week. We’ll explain why you need these two workouts weekly to make the most significant fitness gains and how to structure your week to get the most out of your bike training.
Complete Guide to Beginner Cycling Training Plan
Beginner Cycling Training Plan:
- The Two Key Bike Workouts You Need
- High-intensity Ride
- Long Ride
- How to Incorporate These Two Bike Workouts Into Your Beginner Cycling Training Plan
- Weekly Structure for Beginners
- Example 6-Week, 10-Week, and 16-Week Training Plans for Beginner Cyclists
The Two Key Bike Workouts You Need
There are two training sessions that beginner cyclists need each week to get the most out of their bike training: a short, high-intensity ride, and a long ride. Specifically, these two rides target different energy systems that are crucial to cycling performance:
- Fast, high-intensity rides build your VO2 max
- Longer rides build up your endurance and aerobic fitness
There is more to these two workouts than just plugging in the numbers and pedaling. In this section, we’ll explain how to benefit from the high-intensity ride and how to accomplish the long ride.
By executing these rides properly, you will get the most out of every session and see a considerable boost in your cycling fitness with just two workouts a week.
High-intensity Ride
The high-intensity ride, or HIIT (high-intensity interval training), should be exactly as it sounds: very intense, excruciating, and exhausting by the end. In the final three months before your goal race, this is what the structure of your high-intensity ride should look like:
Short, high-intensity ride structure three months before goal race:
- 30–60 minutes of riding
- 15–30 minutes of high-intensity riding
Of course, we do these sessions for a reason. Each HIIT session is meant to develop your VO2 max, which is your ability to process oxygen. The higher the VO2 max, the better because you can take in more oxygen and fuel your muscles for more high-intensity work.
This is why we recommend one high-intensity bike session per week.
Benefits of High-intensity Training Sessions
- Short workouts improve strength and speed
- Short workouts stimulate fat loss
- Short workouts improve overall health
- Short workouts improve pain tolerance
- Short workouts improve endurance
- Short workouts improve muscle recruitment
It doesn’t take much time to make serious fitness gains with HIIT sessions. Just 10–20 minutes per week of strenuous effort are enough training stimulus to promote aerobic fitness gains and improve VO2 max.
How to Get the Most Out of High-intensity Bike Workouts
These two training sessions – the high-intensity ride and the long ride – are an essential part of a beginner cyclist’s training plan. And when you’re just starting, you want to get the most out of every session, especially if it’s only two bike workouts per week.
To maximize your gains from the short, high-intensity workout, structure your training week, so you arrive at your HIIT session feeling fresh. In other words, don’t do your HIIT session the day after your long endurance ride when you will definitely be tired.
For example, many athletes go big on the weekends when they have more time and stick to shorter training sessions during the week. If you do your long endurance ride on Saturday, you could do your short HIIT session on Tuesday or Wednesday after you’ve had plenty of time to recover.
Long Ride
The long training ride will increase your endurance and stimulate aerobic fitness. For a beginner cyclist, building up their endurance can be one of the most challenging aspects of getting into cycling. Anyone can sprint for 10 seconds, but few can ride for 3–4 hours at a consistent pace.
With the long ride, you will teach your body to ride for an extended period, access fat as fuel, and build the confidence that you need to cover your race distance comfortably.
Beginner cyclists needn’t ride a century in their first week of training. Instead, the long ride is about building your endurance over an extended period. Here’s how.
How to Build Your Endurance
“Long endurance rides” does not imply riding for five hours straight every week of the year. Most of your long rides won’t be longer than a couple of hours. Only in the last 3–4 months before your goal event should you start building up your training volume and pushing your endurance limits.
This only applies to cyclists targeting events where distance will be challenging, such as a road race or Gran Fondo. For criterium racers and track cyclists, endurance rides never exceed more than a couple of hours, even at the peak of their training season.
Building your endurance comes from consistent training over weeks and months and a structured training plan. In the 3–4 months before your goal event, aim to increase the duration of your long ride by roughly 7–10% each week, with a rest week every third week, repeating the pattern until your pre-race taper.
Here’s how it should look for a triathlete preparing for a 70.3 whose goal is to achieve a 120k over-distance endurance ride before their race:
- Week 1: 50 km
- Week 2: 55 km (10% longer than the previous week)
- Week 3: 30 km rest week (roughly 60% of the previous week)
- Week 4: 61 km (10% longer than where you left off)
- Week 5: 67 km
- Week 6: 40 km rest week
- Week 7: 74 km
- Week 8: 82 km
- Week 9: 50 km rest week
- Week 10: 91 km
- Week 11: 100 km
- Week 12: 60 km rest week
- Week 13: 110 km
- Week 14: 120 km
- Taper for the race
How Long Do I Need to Ride?
When it comes to your endurance rides, the distance you eventually target depends on the distance of your goal event. As a rule of thumb, you want to eventually be able to complete 80% of your goal race distance in training.
If you’re training for a 100-mile road race, for example, you should target an 80-mile endurance ride at the peak of your training. Remember to build up in 7–10% increments, as outlined above.
For triathletes, we have a complete guide to triathlon training with more information on endurance rides and HIIT sessions for triathletes: Triathlon Training 101 – Everything You Need to Know to Complete Your First Race.
How to Incorporate These Two Training Sessions Into Your Beginner Cycling Training Plan
Now that we know the what, why, and how of our two key training sessions, it’s time to build them into our weekly training plan.
Weekly Structure for Beginners
For a beginner cyclist, cycling training plans should be very simple. With just two rides per week, you only need to worry about spreading out those sessions. In other words, don’t do your high-intensity and long rides on back-to-back days. Space out these sessions by at least a day, preferably 2–3 days, to give yourself ample opportunity to recover.
You can find more information on training plan structure and tips for beginner cyclists in How to Improve Your Cycling.
Example Six Week Training Plan for Beginner Cyclists
Here’s how we put it all together in a six-week training plan for beginners. Notice how the two key workouts are placed throughout the week, with plenty of time to rest and recover between training sessions.
You can certainly do additional rides throughout the week, but make sure they are 30–60 minutes in Zones 1/2. Once you have completed one of our beginner cycling training plans, you can move on to advanced cycling training plans and start adding in more rides each week.
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Rest day | HIGH-INTENSITY RIDE 45 mins total inserting two sets of 10×20 second hard Zone 4/5 efforts | Rest day | Rest day | Rest day | LONG RIDE 45 mins in Zones 1/2 | Rest day |
| Week 2 | Rest day | HIGH-INTENSITY RIDE 45 mins total inserting two sets of 10×20 second hard Zone 4/5 efforts | Rest day | Rest day | Rest day | LONG RIDE 55 mins in Zones 1/2 | Rest day |
| Week 3 | Rest day | HIGH-INTENSITY RIDE 45 mins total inserting two sets of 10×30 second hard Zone 4/5 efforts | Rest day | Rest day | Rest day | LONG RIDE 45 mins in Zones 1/2 | Rest day |
| Week 4 | Rest day | HIGH-INTENSITY RIDE 45 mins total inserting one set of 6×2 mins hard Zone 4 efforts | Rest day | Rest day | Rest day | LONG RIDE 70 mins in Zones 1/2 | Rest day |
| Week 5 | Rest day | HIGH-INTENSITY RIDE 45 mins total inserting two sets of 10×30 second hard Zone 4/5 efforts | Rest day | Rest day | Rest day | LONG RIDE 80 mins in Zones 1/2 | Rest day |
| Week 6 | Rest day | HIGH-INTENSITY RIDE 45 mins total inserting one set of 6×3 mins hard Zone 4 efforts | Rest day | Rest day | Rest day | LONG RIDE 45 mins in Zones 1/2 | Rest day |
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Rest day | HIGH-INTENSITY RIDE 45 mins total inserting two sets of 10×20 second hard Zone 4/5 efforts | Rest day | Rest day | Rest day | LONG RIDE 45 mins in Zones 1/2 | Rest day |
| Week 2 | Rest day | HIGH-INTENSITY RIDE 45 mins total inserting two sets of 10×20 second hard Zone 4/5 efforts | Rest day | Rest day | Rest day | LONG RIDE 55 mins in Zones 1/2 | Rest day |
| Week 3 | Rest day | HIGH-INTENSITY RIDE 45 mins total inserting two sets of 10×30 second hard Zone 4/5 efforts | Rest day | Rest day | Rest day | LONG RIDE 45 mins in Zones 1/2 | Rest day |
| Week 4 | Rest day | HIGH-INTENSITY RIDE 45 mins total inserting one set of 6×2 mins hard Zone 4 efforts | Rest day | Rest day | Rest day | LONG RIDE 70 mins in Zones 1/2 | Rest day |
| Week 5 | Rest day | HIGH-INTENSITY RIDE 45 mins total inserting two sets of 10×30 second hard Zone 4/5 efforts | Rest day | Rest day | Rest day | LONG RIDE 80 mins in Zones 1/2 | Rest day |
| Week 6 | Rest day | HIGH-INTENSITY RIDE 45 mins total inserting one set of 6×3 mins hard Zone 4 efforts | Rest day | Rest day | Rest day | LONG RIDE 45 mins in Zones 1/2 | Rest day |
| Week 7 | Rest day | HIGH-INTENSITY RIDE 45 mins total inserting two sets of 8×40 second hard Zone 4/5 efforts | Rest day | Rest day | Rest day | LONG RIDE 90 mins in Zones 1/2 | Rest day |
| Week 8 | Rest day | HIGH-INTENSITY RIDE 45 mins total inserting one set of 5×4 mins hard Zone 4 efforts | Rest day | Rest day | Rest day | LONG RIDE 100 mins in Zones 1/2 | Rest day |
| Week 9 | Rest day | HIGH-INTENSITY RIDE 45 mins total inserting two sets of 8×40 second hard Zone 4/5 efforts | Rest day | Rest day | Rest day | LONG RIDE 45 mins in Zones 1/2 | Rest day |
| Week 10 | Rest day | HIGH-INTENSITY RIDE 45 mins total inserting one set of 5×5 mins hard Zone 4 efforts | Rest day | Rest day | Rest day | LONG RIDE 110 mins in Zones 1/2 | Rest day |
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Rest day | HIGH-INTENSITY RIDE 45 mins total inserting two sets of 10×20 second hard Zone 4/5 efforts | Rest day | Rest day | Rest day | LONG RIDE 45 mins in Zones 1/2 | Rest day |
| Week 2 | Rest day | HIGH-INTENSITY RIDE 45 mins total inserting two sets of 10×20 second hard Zone 4/5 efforts | Rest day | Rest day | Rest day | LONG RIDE 55 mins in Zones 1/2 | Rest day |
| Week 3 | Rest day | HIGH-INTENSITY RIDE 45 mins total inserting two sets of 10×30 second hard Zone 4/5 efforts | Rest day | Rest day | Rest day | LONG RIDE 45 mins in Zones 1/2 | Rest day |
| Week 4 | Rest day | HIGH-INTENSITY RIDE 45 mins total inserting one set of 6×2 mins hard Zone 4 efforts | Rest day | Rest day | Rest day | LONG RIDE 70 mins in Zones 1/2 | Rest day |
| Week 5 | Rest day | HIGH-INTENSITY RIDE 45 mins total inserting two sets of 10×30 second hard Zone 4/5 efforts | Rest day | Rest day | Rest day | LONG RIDE 80 mins in Zones 1/2 | Rest day |
| Week 6 | Rest day | HIGH-INTENSITY RIDE 45 mins total inserting one set of 6×3 mins hard Zone 4 efforts | Rest day | Rest day | Rest day | LONG RIDE 45 mins in Zones 1/2 | Rest day |
| Week 7 | Rest day | HIGH-INTENSITY RIDE 45 mins total inserting two sets of 8×40 second hard Zone 4/5 efforts | Rest day | Rest day | Rest day | LONG RIDE 90 mins in Zones 1/2 | Rest day |
| Week 8 | Rest day | HIGH-INTENSITY RIDE 45 mins total inserting one set of 5×4 mins hard Zone 4 efforts | Rest day | Rest day | Rest day | LONG RIDE 100 mins in Zones 1/2 | Rest day |
| Week 9 | Rest day | HIGH-INTENSITY RIDE 45 mins total inserting two sets of 8×40 second hard Zone 4/5 efforts | Rest day | Rest day | Rest day | LONG RIDE 45 mins in Zones 1/2 | Rest day |
| Week 10 | Rest day | HIGH-INTENSITY RIDE 45 mins total inserting one set of 5×5 mins hard Zone 4 efforts | Rest day | Rest day | Rest day | LONG RIDE 110 mins in Zones 1/2 | Rest day |
| Week 11 | Rest day | HIGH-INTENSITY RIDE 45 mins total inserting two sets of 10×40 second hard Zone 4/5 efforts | Rest day | Rest day | Rest day | LONG RIDE 120 mins in Zones 1/2 | Rest day |
| Week 12 | Rest day | HIGH-INTENSITY RIDE 45 mins total inserting one set of 4×6 mins hard Zone 4 efforts | Rest day | Rest day | Rest day | LONG RIDE 45 mins in Zones 1/2 | Rest day |
| Week 13 | Rest day | HIGH-INTENSITY RIDE 45 mins total inserting three sets of 6×30 second hard Zone 4/5 efforts | Rest day | Rest day | Rest day | LONG RIDE 130 mins in Zones 1/2 | Rest day |
| Week 14 | Rest day | HIGH-INTENSITY RIDE 45 mins total inserting one set of 3×8 mins hard Zone 4 efforts | Rest day | Rest day | Rest day | LONG RIDE 140 mins in Zones 1/2 | Rest day |
| Week 15 | Rest day | HIGH-INTENSITY RIDE 45 mins total inserting two sets of 10×40 second hard Zone 4/5 efforts | Rest day | Rest day | Rest day | LONG RIDE 45 mins in Zones 1/2 | Rest day |
| Week 16 | Rest day | HIGH-INTENSITY RIDE 45 mins total inserting one set of 3×10 mins hard Zone 4 efforts | Rest day | Rest day | Rest day | LONG RIDE 150 mins in Zones 1/2 | Rest day |
Sources
Triathlon Training 101 – Everything You Need to Know to Complete Your First Race
Everything You Need to Know About Heart Rate Training Zones
How Long Are Road Cycling Races?
Nutrition Calculator for Running, Cycling, Swimming, and Triathlon
Total Beginner’s Guide to Triathlon & Time Trial Cycling