Block Periodization Cycling Training Plan

If you’ve been cycling for a while, and take your training relatively seriously, you’re most likely doing intervals one to two times per week. These cycling intervals, at their core, consist of specific wattages being performed over specific durations, arranged in a manner with specific numbers of repetitions and specific rest periods. 

The whole point of cycling intervals is to elicit a physiological adaptation (getting faster) for the athlete from the dosed stimulus (the intervals). This is the micro scale: the actual workout.

When we take a step back and look at the slightly more macro view, how we arrange these workouts also matters, and it can have an effect on the response to the stimulus provided.

This is where cycling’s Block Periodization comes into play. Block periodization cycling training has become a bit more popular over the past couple of years, so we want to take a deeper look at it and give you EVOQ.BIKE’s take on it.

What is Block Periodization?

Let’s assume you are following a training calendar that consists of three weeks of training, and then one rest week. 

Block periodization can simply be described as a highly targeted form of interval training in the first week of your training cycle. You will overload your training with an unusually high number of hard interval days in that first week.

block-periodization-number-of-intense-workouts.png

Week Number One of training would include 4 to 5 high intensity sessions at the physiological system you are looking to improve. This could be FTP workouts, VO2Max interval sessions, or Anaerobic work.

If this makes you shutter a bit, we understand; it is a LOT to handle for an athlete, and one of the pitfalls of this novel approach.

After the first week of overloaded training, Week 2 and 3 would only have one of the targeted sessions, and then you would focus on a rest week.

Block vs. Linear Periodization: What’s the Difference?

Linear Periodization is a more classic style of periodization for cycling training plans. Let’s say you are looking to improve your FTP.

Over the next three weeks, you would have two hard interval sessions on Tuesday and Thursday.

linear-periodization-number-of-intense-workouts.png

Let’s take a look at how we might organize these sessions. Also, if you miss a session, check out this article on how to modify your cycling training calendar effectively.

In week 1: Tuesday might be a normal 4 x 8m @ 98-105% FTP, or “32 minutes of work”.  Thursday could be something that works on Lactate Clearance. We won’t get into the nitty-gritty details of that workout, but let’s say it has “30 minutes of work”.

In week 2, the Tuesday workout would extend out to 40 minutes of work, and Thursday’s increases to 40 minutes of work.

In week 3, if the athlete is not overly tired from two solid weeks of training, you might increase the duration again, on both Tuesday and Thursday.

A Block Periodization example might include intervals on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and maybe Sunday.

You’d be looking to hammer FTP intervals all week long. That said, this doesn’t seem realistic. 

One thing to consider: an athlete that wants to do this type of cycling training may only look to use this for VO2Max work or Anaerobic work since the durations are shorter, and you might be able to ride at those intensities for short durations and really muscle the intervals out. It sounds extremely tough to hit FTP efforts on workout 4 and 5 of the week!

Linear Periodization is great for base and build cycles when you slowly build up the physiological systems over time, and I use this system for myself most athletes during their pre-race months.

The problem that was hinted at above, before you get to the longest, or hardest session, you might be too tired to complete it. I don’t see this as a huge problem with linear periodization in the pre-race season, because we’re really just looking to build aerobic fitness in the safest, and more progressive way possible.

However, when we are in race season, or coming up towards it, the first week of training might have some extremely hard workouts so that the athlete can hit these fresh! They will have the most energy, physically and mentally, in order to perform at their best at these workouts.

If they knock them out of the park, we might make Week 2’s even harder. If they fail them, that’s okay. Taking the at bat was important, and this is a great chance to learn your limits as a cyclist, and truly find out strengths and weaknesses.

How is Block Periodization Used in Cycling?

Block Periodization Cycling Training is used in cycling in order to really focus the training stimulus on the athlete, and this focused training can help eliminate an athlete’s desire to try to train too many things at one time. 

While certain systems can be trained together, such as FTP and VO2max development, we wouldn’t recommend training FTP intervals and Anaerobic Capacity, due to the crossover of anaerobic and aerobic work.

Block Periodization Training can allow an athlete to get the lion’s share of hard workouts done in just one week. This can really be relieving to some athletes that stress out over two to three whole weeks of intervals. There are disadvantages to block periodization training though as well, which we will discuss.

Will Block Periodization Make You Faster?

Block Periodization Training can definitely make you faster as a cyclist, but it’s important that we dig deeper into that first week of overloaded interval training.

I feel that the internet’s recommendation of 5 hard interval workouts is too much. If you are truly hitting these workouts hard, it will not be possible to complete 5 high quality workouts. Even if you can, the risks, which we will talk about, far outweigh the benefits.

A form of Periodization training is used in helping an athlete peak for a huge event. This can sometimes be called Block Periodization, but it’s really an inverted Linear Periodization. We are getting into subtle nuances here.

Oftentimes athletes respond well from having a big kitchen sink week, with 4 hard sessions over 7 days. The next week might only consist of 2 hard sessions, but still big hours. The final, and third week of training, will consist of less intensity, but still solid hours so that the athlete gets a ton of time on the bike, but doesn’t risk overtraining or cracking themselves with too much intensity.

This type of periodization can make you faster.

The questions you need to ask yourself are: what is my training maturity? Can my body handle this type of training? Will I fall apart after such a highly intense load?

See Also: Tempo Training

Top Benefits of Block Periodization for Cycling

Block Periodization has some benefits if it can be executed correctly. Let’s take a look at the block periodization pros and cons, starting with the benefits that a rider could experience when undergoing block periodization training.

  1. Targeted Training Load. You absorb a high dose of a very targeted stimulus, creating a big adaptation to the training load. 

  2. Time Advantage: nearly an entire block’s worth of interval training is theoretically completed in just one week.

  3. Easy to Understand: when compiling a training calendar, athletes can get extremely varied in their training when looking at an entire month. When it all boils down to just one week, just 4-5 workouts, the focus is there.

  4. Time for other aspects of cycling training. If all of your VO2Max workouts (or most of them) are completed in the first week, you can now focus on other workouts or physiological systems, by focusing the cycling workouts on endurance, lactate clearance, or even high torque work if that fits into your plan.

  5. More Quality Sessions. This benefit assumes you are actually able to complete the sessions. If you did 5 sessions in week one, and then just one in week 2 and week 3, you’d have an extra session completed, versus the 6 that are completed in linear periodization. That’s a big ask though.

  6. It’s a fun challenge. Some athletes might really get excited by the prospect of trying to even complete this week. That being said, the fun can easily go overboard and lead to an overuse injury. Use common sense out there. If it starts to feel like too much training, back it down.

See Also: Indoor Cycling Training Plan

Disadvantages of Block Periodization for Cycling

The disadvantages of block periodizations seem to be more numerous in my mind.

  1. Only for experienced athletes. Right off the bat, the less experienced athlete is not going to have enough volume in the body to handle this type of initial training week. This will lead to the athlete encountering non-functional overreaching; this means that you're not going to absorb the training even after you complete the rest week after the training cycle. 

  2. Can lead you to be overtrained. While you’d hopefully arrive into that first week of training very fresh, you could easily overreach if the training is catching up to you months down the road.  Overreaching is when you train too hard where your body can’t absorb the stimulus. When this happens, you don’t actually break the body down and come back faster (the whole point of training); you just break the body down, and it is in survival mode. This is when athletes get sick, grumpy, sleep poorly, and a whole host of issues that you don’t want to experience.

  3. Poor execution of sessions. Once you get past the first 2 sessions, it might be very hard to push enough watts to create an adaptation. Let’s say you’re shooting for 125% FTP on a set, but the next day you’re only able to hit 110%. I’m not saying that the last session is “bad”, but with enough rest and a more traditional periodization, you could make the last session more “quality”. Quality over quantity!

  4. Doing too much in one block of training (with the extra time): The other big issue is that if you do make it through, and you start feeling good a couple of days after that week, most are not going to rest enough, and they're going to just throttle it again. More is better, right!? Not always!

  5. Doing too much, too far from your goal event. It depends on how you taper, but if you’re performing this block periodization training during the block before your taper, you’re putting the hardest workouts the farthest away from the event. These are most likely fine tuning workouts, that you don’t want that far away. You’d prefer to have some just 2-3 weeks out. Block periodization could force you to front load the most adaptive sessions the farthest from when you’d really want to hit them. 

  6. Mental burnout from training. If you’re always smashing the first week super hard, eventually, this could just get stale. I’d dread that first week back if I was doing block periodization over and over again.

  7. Overuse injury. Be careful. Smashing this much, even for just a week, could lead to some funny things happening to the body, especially if you are adding volume to this week.

What is a Sample Block Periodization Cycling Plan?

While we talked about FTP work above, a sample block of VO2Max Block Periodization could be the following:

I am actually shuttering a bit looking at this. It is SO MUCH INTENSITY. I can’t see myself actually getting through these workouts.

I do use this one-week process on myself and with some other athletes in specific instances. It’s one major overload week, but I don’t just hit one system. I’ll work FTP and VO2Max, so it’s all hard riding, but not a complete death march. 

Here’s the deal though, I don’t think 95% of athletes need this. 

EVOQ Periodized Intensity Week Recommendation

evoq-cycling-block-periodization.png

This is incredibly stout, but hear me out.

  • Monday: rest day after a long weekend of riding.

  • Tuesday: normal high-intensity day.

  • Wednesday: A lot of quality time at the threshold, but manageable after Tuesday’s very hard session.

  • Thursday: Long endurance

  • Friday: rest day

  • Saturday: A hard session hitting both vo2max (via the slow component) and lactate clearance. 

  • Sunday: Long endurance

While you’re not specifically riding AT VO2Max power all week, you’re directly helping VO2Max development by:

  • Maximal Aerobic Power from the VO2Max intervals on Tuesday

  • VO2Max via the slow component from the lactate clearance session on Saturday

  • Increasing the mitochondrial side of the VO2Max equation on the long endurance rides. 

Some would argue that riding directly at threshold doesn’t help, but the mental gains made from riding at the red line are very valuable for racing; also, that session will add significant fatigue to make you really dig deep for the sessions later in the week.

The second week would go back to normal training, with just two hard sessions on Tuesday and Thursday, and then endurance the remainder of the training days (Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday).

You need to do this overload if you are stage racing, doing LONG gravel races or road races that are four to 7 hours, or are a Pro or Cat 1 racer. Why? 

These big blocks help your depth; said differently, what wattage can you put out at hour 4? It’s not going to be a max watts effort, but it’s going to help you hit the biggest numbers that you can late in the day, or late in the stage race.

There is no way I’d have some of my efforts at the end of Gravel Worlds or Tour of Southland Stage 7 Time Trial without some massive weeks followed by tapers and rest. Here was my prep for Tour of Southland.

Most athletes though are Cat 3-5 and doing one-day races. Depth truly isn’t the biggest thing for them. It’s can they make the break, can they stay in the group, and win at the end. They need to practice some race-winning moves and finishing moves for “depth” in terms of a one-day event, but not a long stage race. They have such a smaller amount of volume in their body that the overload can be riskier than the reward though

For that newer athlete above, I’d prefer that you train properly in a progressive manner, and then the last block is slightly higher volume and intensity but not this full-out MASSIVE overload week. Then taper correctly and you’ll be FLYING.

Conclusion

The more you read about Block periodization training in cycling, the more you’ll read about some benefits and the drawbacks.

What I’d encourage you to do, is really ask yourself how it applies to your training and racing GOALS, and will it help you get there faster, or in a more efficient manner? 

My initial thought is no, it won’t. The risks far outweigh the benefits in my opinion.

That being said, one concept of the Block Periodization (the initial week overload) could be used if you are doing stage races or are a really experienced cyclist who has hit a wall and can’t seem to progress with normal periodized structure (said differently: you’ve been training properly five to seven years and need some extra boost in the training!). 

Most of us will be fine with a normal periodized structure through the base and build phases, and just consider flipping the normal periodized structure as you get closer to big races where you might need to taper towards the end of the block as opposed to progressing to harder workouts.

If you have more questions, email me at Brendan@EVOQ.BIKE

If you’re curious about getting faster, beyond just reading blogs, take a look at our cycling coaching programs.

Curious if our team is any good? Check out our coaching testimonials!

About Brendan

Author and Athlete Bio


Interval Training / Season PlanningBrendan Housler1 Comment