Pro cyclist George Bennett once said in the Fast Talk Podcast, “I did a couple of big weeks, but I wasn’t doing intervals, I was just riding.” Big weeks of just riding with a weekly volume of 20-30 hours or more is what defined base training at its core.
It’s a training approach only reserved for the selected few. The pros that can afford to head south to get their miles in, when weather worsens in the winter month.
However, I think this is the wrong way of looking at base training. I think it’s a misrepresentation of base training at all. In fact, the common belief of base training as high volume low-intensity goes back to observations russian physiologist Leo Matveyev made on Soviet athletes preparing for the summer Olympics in 1952 and 1956. Matveyev discovered that these Olympians organised their training in a linear manner — from broad and easy toward hard and specific.
But as it turns out, apparently, we don’t live in the 50s anymore.
So what I like to do in this article is show you what base training in cycling can look like based on observational studies on Olympic endurance champions. And why I think many pro cyclists still get their own training wrong, simply because they don’t know any better.
The Misrepresentation of Base Training
Ever since the discovery of Matveyev, 20-30 or even 40 hour weeks of endurance riding dominated the base training of pro cyclists. It simply felt right. I mean Grand Tours demand pros to stay in the saddle for up to 40 hours per week, so it seemed logical for training to follow that same principle.
Peak performance would be obtained through the early racing season anyways. So it was an easy split to follow. Train like a maniac in the winter months, get in shape through spring racing.
Ripping Through The Early Days
Once it was discovered that most pros were completely over-raced in the 90s and early 2000s, and that this racing density for most was probably only sustainable under sustained drug use, things started to change. For example, former Paris-Roubaix winner Mathew Hayman saw his race days cut to half through two decades of pro cycling. Surprisingly, he also achieved his career best performance with the least amount of race days and coming off a period of forced rest.
So instead of racing, the focus changed to training.
Due to the in-depth tradition of cycling, however, everyone was still allergic to the intense part of training. The notion was that including intensity too early in the periodisation cycle will make you peak early and is a great way to get burned out quickly.
Interval training, though, was popularised in the 1950s already by Olympic champion Emil Zatopek. He’s a successful long-distance runner and was famous for epic interval workouts. To be precise, he crushed a 100x400m session on the track. That’s an insane 40km, so almost a marathon worth of total work. When asked why, he replied, “I already know how to run slow, I want to learn how to run fast.”
In contrast to cyclists, runners had a way more common relationship with interval training due to running on the track. So it was more a result of conditions rather than science.
Endurance Capacity is Short Lived
What no one in the pro cycling world included in the training equation or even knew about was that endurance capacity is short lived — and research is backing this up.
For example, according to a 2014 study from Norway, cyclists that performed low-intensity training only throughout the offseason, compared to cyclists who included one HIT session every 7-10 days, were unable to catch up with them during base training. The easy training riders lost so much ground that after base training, their lactate threshold power was still 12.1% lower compared to the intensity-using riders.
8 Weeks of offseason training was enough to miss the bus.
But that’s not all. A 2010 review on high-intensity vs. high-volume training on endurance performance showed that if training misses a balance of high-intensity and high-volume training, performance improvement can stagnate.
In other words, pro or non-pro if you neglect intensity not only during the offseason but also in the base phase you are running the risk of missing out on a huge performance boost.
Tempted by Extremes
The problem why so many pro cyclists and recreationals focus on large volumes rather than balanced intensity is that it’s so easy to measure and so obvious to see. You just look at the numbers and see that big 30 hour week. I see it all the time on social media. A cyclist posting his massive training week. We equal the volume of work with accomplishment.
Compared to the cyclist with a 30 hour week, a cyclist with a 15 hour week that got three threshold sessions of 30 minutes each done seems like nothing. Intensity simply isn’t that obvious, especially if it’s balanced.
Former World-Tour pro Ian Boswell, however, learned his lessons of extreme training. In an interview with Bikeradar he said that he still thinks that most pros train too much. When he switched to Gravel with his work and family responsibilities he changed his training. He went from ultra-high volume to more moderate 15-20 hour weeks during the season with a focus on intensity. With that approach he maximises his time with intensity and has more time to recover and fuel.
Ever since switching to Gravel he achieved outstanding performances in the Unbound 200 gravel despite training far less compared to his World-Tour times and competition.
That’s because a base training that will make you faster in the long run is far more about consistency and balance than extremes. Far more about lots of grey rather than black and white.
To show you what I mean, here’s how world- and Olympic endurance champions perform theirs.
Base Training According to Olympic Champions
When you look at the incredible success in endurance sports of the small nation that Norway is, you might be curious on how so many world-class athletes could come out from so little people.
Well, as it turns out it’s not purely about luck but also about an insatiable obsession for improvement. Most of the endurance sports research nowadays emerges from Norway. Same for a 2014 study that looked at the training year leading up to a world- or olympic gold medal performance from 4 male and 7 female XC-skiers and biathletes. I wrote about that study extensively already and suggest you go read it here. In this article I will purely focus on their base training.
For reference, base training in the literature is called general preparation. Essentially, training to train. I think general preparation is a better expression of what you’re doing but base training got the word out.
Laying The Foundation
What distinguished base training from all other phases in these endurance champions was that it showed the highest training volume. On average it was 31% higher than in the subsequent build-phase. Researchers deemed volume essential for a world-class performance several months later.
Interestingly, all athletes followed a traditional periodisation with a gradual increase in volume from offseason to base training. During the base phase, weekly volume was 18 hours on average. However, intensity was included all year long. In fact, during the base phase these champions focused on two weekly interval sessions around the threshold and VO2max.
Furthermore, throughout base training there was no huge spike or drop in training load among any of the mentioned champions. No epic workouts, no monster weeks. Instead, controlled and sustainable sessions that can be repeated from week to week.
Research supports this. In a 2010 review on intensity and duration distribution for endurance athletes, from Dr. Stephen Seiler, it’s suggested that athletes should focus on two or on occasion three weekly threshold or HIT sessions and that more is associated with symptoms of overreaching and overtraining. A 1999 study on runners came to a similar conclusion. They had a group of runners perform one weekly VO2max session and then overtrained them with three weekly sessions. What they found was no further improvement in endurance performance markers after the overload period but instead increased markers of overtraining.
Whether intentionally or unintentionally, elite endurance champions followed these principles grounded in strong scientific evidence.
So if there’s anything that matters most in your base phase, it’s consistency. Consistency in intensity. And consistency in the volume of easy rides.
With that in mind let’s translate these findings into practical workouts and an example training week now.
Laying the foundation for a successful cycling season is a long-term project. The real work starts long before your first race. That’s why I’ve designed a step-by-step training path – from offseason to base to event building – to guide you all the way to your best performance yet. Find the base training plan that suits your level of fitness below:
1. RV Base Training for Cyclists, 6 Hours (12 Weeks)
2. RV Base Training for Cyclists, 10 Hours (12 Weeks)
3. RV Base Training for Cyclists, 15 Hours (12 Weeks)
How to Properly Build Your Base in Cycling
For most cyclists, base training lasts three months and usually starts in January and ends in March.
Now, how do you get the most out of your base phase? First of all focus on increasing your training volume at a sustainable rate. If, on average for example, you train 10 hours per week you might want to increase your weekly volume towards 12-13 hours during base training. Remember the base phase should still demonstrate your highest training volume across all other phases of the periodisation cycle.
Handling Intensity
Next, and most importantly, you want to focus on two or on occasion three weekly interval sessions. These interval sessions should primarily focus on extended threshold work like Tempo efforts done at 85-90% of your FTP, Threshold intervals done at 95-100% of your FTP, and HIT intervals done at an RPE of 8-9 out of 10, if 10 is your max effort.
Coming out of the offseason you first want to start with tempo intervals in the first month of the base until you can comfortably manage an accumulated work-duration of 40-60 minutes per session. Focus on two Tempo sessions per week.
Once you have that established you want to start including threshold intervals in the second month of base training. Depending on your level of fitness you are looking for 30-60 minutes of accumulated-work-duration and 2-3 threshold sessions per week.
Going back to the study on Olympic endurance champions, researchers found that they had an average intensity distribution of 90% low-intensity and 10% high-intensity throughout the year. So with a 15 hour training week comes 1.5 hours of interval work. For example, if you train on average 15 hours per week you could either do three weekly threshold sessions of 30 minutes each, doing two sessions of 45 minutes each, or one at 60 minutes and one of 30 minutes of work.
If , on the other hand, you can only manage a weekly volume of around 6 hours, you might still do the same amount of intensity as someone riding more. So you could still do three weekly threshold sessions of 30 minutes each. In this case the split would be 4.5 hours of zone 2 endurance and 1.5 hours of threshold work. So you see that even at such a low volume your easy rides still comprise most of your training.
Fine Tuning Your Engine
Eventually, in the last month of base training you might want to include one weekly HIT session in addition to one weekly tempo or threshold session. I’m talking about nothing crazy here but something like 4×3 minutes of hill repeats or 3x8x40/20 intervals should get the job done. Based on this, I suggest you use your rest weeks during base training to either do some reduced HIT training or do an FTP test to set your zones correctly and measure your progress. A rest week with a slight reduction in volume should be on your schedule every three to four weeks.
Now, one thing I haven’t mentioned yet is strength training. Strength training should nowadays be part of routine for every serious cyclist.
Again a balanced approach is what you’re looking for and if you ask the olympic champs, they did two weekly strength sessions of around 30 minutes each. You can find more information in this article, however you are looking for some explosive exercises, regular- and single leg lifts, and some core training.
All the above will ensure that you finetune your aerobic engine and end base training on your highest level yet. Not exhausted but as fit as possible.
Balance Trumps Extremes
There are still many pro cyclists training too much. Chasing monster weeks and epic interval sessions. And some recreationals also fall into that trap. Extremes work well because they look good on paper and make it feel like an accomplishment. But more is not always better. It can and will backfire sooner or later if it hasn’t already.
In contrast, smart training that will ensure you progress continuously isn’t sexy. It isn’t instagramable. Yet, a balanced approach of intensity and volume that can be repeated consistently, week after week, month after month, year after year is what separates the very best from the best. It’s what makes a very good base training.
Build a Higher Base Fitness
Cycling performance is about applying the fundamentals consistently, not chasing fads. If you’re looking for simple and proven ways to train smarter, I’ve built easy-to-follow TrainingPeaks plans based on these principles. Check them out below if you’re ready to simplify your training and get results:
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Resources
- Training for intense exercise performance: high-intensity or high-volume training?
- What is Best Practice for Training Intensity and Duration Distribution in Endurance Athletes?
- The Road to Gold: Training and Peaking Characteristics in the Year Prior to a Gold Medal Endurance Performance
- Best‑Practice Training Characteristics Within Olympic Endurance Sports as Described by Norwegian World‑Class Coaches
- Training Session Models in Endurance Sports: A Norwegian Perspective on Best Practice Recommendations
- Interval training at VO2max: effects on aerobic performance and overtraining markers
- Changes in Blood Values in Elite Cyclists
- The Response of Sexual and Stress Hormones of Male Pro-Cyclists During Continuous Intense Competition
- George Bennett Fast Talk Lab Podcast
- Ian Boswell on Base Training
- Mathew Hayman’s Career Break-down Part 1 and Part 2
- Interval training for performance: a scientific and empirical practice. Special recommendations for middle- and long-distance running. Part I: aerobic interval training