You’re fit, and you’ve got several single-day races under your belt. Now it’s time to step up and progress your riding to multi-day events. While the Absa Cape Epic and Old Mutual Joberg2c are the big-name events, they’re not the best races to start with; there are loads of less challenging three-day stage races that are fun to do, and perfect for getting you going on your journey into stage racing.

However, it doesn’t mean you can wing it when preparing for them. You may be riding fit, but stage races require specific training to develop the skills needed to last three or more consecutive days on a bike. So we’ve developed a short eight-week plan to get you ready for your first stage race. And if you’ve done one before, rather than just “wing it”, you’ll be amazed at how much more you enjoy it if you prepare properly.

What’s The Goal?
What this training plan aims to do is build on the key elements of your aerobic fitness, fatigue resistance and speed endurance. The structure is based on a six-rides-per-week schedule, made up of
two days of high-intensity intervals and four days low-to-moderate intensity or long, slow distances (LSD). The idea is to see a progression in those key elements as the weeks pass, building you into the
stage-racing machine you want to be.

Week One

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 15-min warmup, followed by 3 x 8 min at 80-90% of max heart rate (avoid going higher than 90%). 5 min easy pedalling between. Duration – 1 hour
Wednesday: Steady, continuous effort at 70-80% of max heart rate. Duration – 90 minutes
Thursday: 15-min warmup, followed by 8 x 4 min at 80-90% of max heart rate (avoid going higher than 90%). 2 min easy pedalling between. Duration – 1 hour
Friday: Steady, continuous effort at 70-80% of max heart rate. Duration – 90 minutes
Saturday: Steady, continuous effort at 70-75% of max heart rate. Duration – 4 hours
Sunday: Steady, continuous effort at 70-75% of max heart rate. Duration – 3 hours

Additional Info:
The aim of the back-to-back long rides on the weekend is to overreach the muscular and aerobic systems, so that you stimulate fatigue resistance and aerobic fitness.

Week Two

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 10-min warm-up, followed by 30 min at 70-80% max heart rate, then 4×3 min at 80-90% of max heart rate (avoid going much higher than 90%), 3 min easy pedalling between. Duration – 1 hour
Wednesday: Steady, continuous effort at 70-80% of max heart rate. Duration – 90 minutes
Thursday: 15-min warmup, followed by 8 x 4 min at 80-90% of max heart rate (avoid going higher than 90%). 2 min easy pedalling between. Duration – 1 hour
Friday: Steady, continuous effort at 70-80% of max heart rate. Duration – 90 minutes
Saturday: Steady, continuous effort at 70-75% of max heart rate. Duration – 4 hours
Sunday: Steady, continuous effort at 70-75% of max heart rate. Duration – 3 hours

Additional Info:
Weeks two and three change slightly, building on week one. This is most evident on Tuesdays, with 30 minutes low- to moderate-intensity riding before intervals. This is done to ramp up the development of aerobic fitness and fatigue resistance.

Week Three

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 10-min warm-up, followed by 30 min at 70-80% max heart rate, then 6×4 min at 80-90% of max heart rate (avoid going much higher than 90%), 3 min easy pedalling between. Duration – 90 minutes
Wednesday: Steady, continuous effort at 70-80% of max heart rate. Duration – 90 minutes
Thursday: 15-min warmup, followed by 20 x 30 seconds hard, with 30 seconds easy pedalling in between. Heart rate won’t be a useful guide, so aim for hard but well-paced efforts. Duration – 1 hour
Friday: Steady, continuous effort at 70-80% of max heart rate. Duration – 90 minutes
Saturday: Steady, continuous effort at 70-75% of max heart rate. Duration – 4 hours
Sunday: Steady, continuous effort at 70-75% of max heart rate. Duration – 3 hours

Additional Info:
The session for Thursday on Week 3 is aimed specifically at building short-burst speed to develop speed endurance. The short, sharp bursts – along with the short recovery periods – will adapt your body to the intense and sudden speed changes that happen in stage races.

Week Four

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 15-min warmup, followed by 3 x 7 min at 80-90% of max heart rate (avoid going much higher than 90%), with 3 min easy pedalling between. Duration – 1 hour
Wednesday: Steady, continuous effort at 70-80% of max heart rate. Duration – 1 hour
Thursday: 15-min warmup, followed by 8 x 4 min at 80-90% of max heart rate (avoid going much higher than 90%) with 2 min easy pedalling between. Duration – 1 hour
Friday: Steady, continuous effort at 70-80% of max heart rate. Duration – 1 hour
Saturday: Steady, continuous effort at 70-75% of max heart rate. Duration – 3 hours
Sunday: Steady, continuous effort at 70-75% of max heart rate. Duration – 2 hours

Additional Info:
Week four serves as a halfway breather. The midweek efforts are all one hour long (no 90-min sessions) and the weekend LSD rides have all been cut by an hour. This offers a little respite, and ensures that you don’t burn out before the eight weeks are up. It’ll also let you gauge your performance, and do you good when you crank it up again in the weeks to follow.

Week Five

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 10-min warmup, followed by 8 x 3 min at 80-90% of max heart rate (avoid going much higher than 90%), with 2 min easy pedalling between.  Duration – 1 hour
Wednesday: Steady, continuous effort at 70-80% of max heart rate. Duration – 90 minutes
Thursday: 15-min warmup, followed by 8 x 4 min at 80-90% of max heart rate (avoid going much higher than 90%) with 2 min
easy pedalling between. Duration – 1 hour
Friday: Steady, continuous effort at 70-80% of max heart rate. Duration – 90 minutes
Saturday: Steady, continuous effort at 70-75% of max heart rate. Duration – 4 hours
Sunday: Steady, continuous effort at 70-75% of max heart rate. Duration – 5 hours

Additional Info:
Things ramp up again in Week 5 as volume starts to build, with midweek rides going back to 90 minutes, and an hour each added to Saturday and Sunday.   Make sure that on your rest day you do nothing but rest. With an intense eight-week training programme, resting properly will benefit your training and progression.

Week Six

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 10-min warm-up, followed by 30 min at 70-80% max heart rate, then 3 x 8 min 80-90% of max heart rate (avoid going higher than 90%),with 4 min easy pedalling between. Duration – 90 minutes
Wednesday: Steady, continuous effort at 70-80% of max heart rate. Duration – 90 minutes
Thursday: 15-min warmup, followed by 20 x 30 sec hard, with 30 seconds easy pedalling in between. Heart rate won’t be a useful guide, so aim for hard but well-paced efforts. Duration – 1 hour
Friday: Steady, continuous effort at 70-80% of max heart rate. Duration – 90 minutes
Saturday: Steady, continuous effort at 70-75% of max heart rate. Duration – 4 hours
Sunday: Steady, continuous effort at 70-75% of max heart rate. Duration – 5 hours

Additional Info:
Week 6 continues the trend, with the return of the 30-minute pre-interval moderate effort on Tuesday.

Week Seven

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 10-min warm-up, followed by 30 min at 70-80% max heart rate, then 3 x 3 min 80-90% of max heart rate (avoid going higher than 90%),with 3 min easy pedalling between. Duration – 90 minutes
Wednesday: Steady, continuous effort at 70-80% of max heart rate. Duration Duration – 1 hour
Thursday: 15-min warmup, followed by 7 x 5 min at 80-90% of max heart rate, with 2 min of easy pedalling between. Duration – 1 hour
Friday: Steady, continuous effort at 70-80% of max heart rate. Duration – 1 hour
Saturday: Steady, continuous effort at 70-75% of max heart rate. Duration – 2 hours
Sunday: Steady, continuous effort at 70-75% of max heart rate. Duration – 2 hours

Additional Info:
The LSD rides on Week 7 are drastically shortened as you go into the final week of training. This is to ease you into a week of tapering, so that you don’t go into the final week too fatigued and unable to recover in time for race day. Don’t be tempted to overdo it – you’ll do more harm than good. If you feel you haven’t progressed enough in terms of speed, ramp up the Thursday training routine in Week 7 by doing this workout instead: 15-minute warm-up, then 30 x 30 seconds hard with 30 seconds of easy pedalling between. Just remember that you can’t use heart rate to gauge your effort levels – use your intuition.

Week Eight

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 15-min warmup, followed by 5 x 3 min at 70-80% of max heart rate, 30 sec at 80-90% of max heart rate, and 30 sec out of the saddle at 80-90% of max heart rate, 3 min of easy pedalling between. Duration – 90 minutes
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: Pre-race routine: 15-min warm-up, followed by 4 x 1 min at 80-90% of max heart rate, with 3 min of easy pedalling between each interval. Duration – 1 hour
Friday: RACE Day 1
Saturday: RACE Day 2
Sunday: RACE Day 3

Additional Info:
This week is all about getting in as much recovery as possible before the race. The training backs right off, to offload fatigue and bring through some freshness. This taper is particularly short, because the programme is short and intense and the volume is high. This means you are required to take a complete back seat and avoid any fatigue.[/tab][/tabs]

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