Etape training plan - Phase 2 - Jan to April

Progress so far

As I've said a few times over the past 3 or so months, so far so good.

Training through October & November were solid, productive and certainly helped form an endurance base with which to build on.

December wasn't as I'd hoped.

The snow and two bouts of illness kept me from training as planned with time on the bike being far less than the previous two months. Thankfully I'm feeling much better although I still have a persistent and nagging cough which seems slightly reticent to leave my system. Give it another week or so and I'm quite sure I'll be back to full health.

Etape training - Phase 2 - Jan to April

So anyway - the new year brings in a new phase into my training. The aim of this phase remains the same as for phase 1 - it's still all about building up the endurance base and spending time on the bike.

In essence, it's the increased time in the saddle, up to 12 hours per week, that differentiates this training block from that of the sessions of the past few months. I'll not go into too much detail although a basic weekly training plan from now until April is as follows:

- Monday: Rest
- Tuesday: 1.5 - 2 hours endurance session which for me means maintaining a heart rate of between 165 - 170 bpm)
- Wednesday: 45 min recovery ride (150 - 155 bpm)
- Thursday: as per Tuesday
- Friday: as per Wednesday
- Saturday: as per Tuesday
- Sunday: long steady ride up to 6 hours within 150 - 155 bpm

For more info on this type of training I'd suggest getting hold of the book Elite Performance: Cycling: Successful Sportives by Garry Palmer & Richard Allen. All of my sessions in the run up to the Etape are based on those from within this book - well worth a read.

Future fears

So on a very basic level I'm all set from a training front for the next 3 months. Clearly my list above is rather simple. I'll certainly need to work on other aspects other than simply spending time on the bike. I'm still a relatively poor climber and not at all confident riding in big groups.

Clearly these areas need addressing and addressing fast. The climbing aspect doesn't worry me. There are plenty hills around me to play and train on. My greatest fear and one I've so far yet to tackle is riding within a peleton. The Sunday club run is one thing but a 200 - 400 people chain gang it isn't.

If anyone has any suggestions on this then really, I'm all ears.