Modifying Your Cycling Training Plan
Life happens, and sadly, training gets derailed at times.
Sometimes it’s for a day, other times it’s for a week. Let’s take a look at how you can modify your cycling training plan when your schedule changes.
At the end of the day, consider your goals ahead: what do you need to do to get back on track as quickly as possible?
Retooling a calendar should be looked at the same as creating the initial one! Don’t overthink this.
Related Post: Planning Your Cycling Season
Missing One Workout
The biggest question that people ask is, “Should I skip this workout or shift it to the next day?”
This should be the easiest one to figure out, and at the end of the day, it’s only ONE workout in your training cycle, so it’s not going to have a big effect on you.
When in doubt, rest more than you think, you’ll come back stronger.
We’ve all missed BIG workouts; rearrange based on the training goal!
Let’s make a few assumptions here:
You’re shooting for 2-3 high intensity workouts a week
You have two recovery rides per week, on Monday and Friday
You are periodizing your training, or at least progressing in some manner (if you aren’t familiar with periodized training, give it a quick Google, as it’s an important concept)
Group rides DO count as 1 high intensity training session
Tuesday tends to be your hardest interval day, endurance ride on Wednesday, 2nd hardest interval day on Thursday (*unless it’s the week of a race)
If you’re racing, and it’s an A race, you’re tapering into the race. If it’s a B race, your hard workout is Tuesday and Wednesday
Saturday is a fast group ride and Sunday is endurance
Okay, easiest one first…
See Also: Polarized Training for Cycling
Missing A Recovery Ride
Recovery is important, but a missed a recovery ride? No problem! Move on and continue with your cycling training plan.
Next easiest one…
Missing Your Mid-Week Endurance Ride
You miss the endurance ride on Wednesday. Don’t make this a habit, as the endurance rides are extremely important to keep your CTL and TSS up, but it won’t hamper your overall training cycle. If you miss it, move on to Thursday.
Missing The Hardest Interval Session
You miss your hard day on Tuesday, and now are wondering, do I move this to Wednesday, but that might make Thursday really tough.
If you miss your hardest interval day, pick it up the very next day, in place of your endurance ride. Sure, this might make Thursday more difficult, but it’s great practice for when you do have two weekend races on Saturday and Sunday.
Another scenario where this is beneficial is if you go on a cycling trip with friends and are riding BIG Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
Teaching your body to go hard multiple days in a row is a good thing. Working this capacity can be just as important as workout Max Watts in intervals.
So if you missed Tuesday’s hardest workout:
Shift workout to Wednesday and continue forward
Rest extra well on Friday
If you’re still tired on Saturday, skip the group ride and make both weekend rides endurance! There is still a ton of benefit from that, and having only 2 high intensity rides in one week is totally fine!
Throwback to Belgium
Missing Your Second Hardest Workout
This one can be tricky...you miss Thursday’s workout. Do you push it to Friday, which then creates a three day training block?
What could go wrong?
If you push hard Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, it might make the following Tuesday, your biggest and toughest workout that you are building towards from the previous Tuesday, impossible to complete.
That said, the only way to figure that out is to test it!
What else could go wrong?
If you don’t have enough miles in your legs and are new to training, 3 big days in a row is a lot; you’ll be smoked on Monday and maybe need a few more days to recover, throwing everything up in the air.
Three day blocks are extremely beneficial if your body can handle it, so next time your Thursday interval workout gets missed due to a crazy life schedule, push it to Friday. For the first time, cut out any extra ride time that day, so if it’s intervals plus endurance, just complete the intervals, and save the extra energy for the two weekend rides.
Prepare to get some extra rest Sunday night and as much as possible on Monday.
Don’t forget to lean your diet towards carbohydrates on Monday so that you are really fueled for Tuesday’s intensity.
So, to summarize, you miss the second hardest interval day:
Shift it over to the recovery day’s place
Only complete the intervals and go home
Advance riders: complete the intervals plus normal endurance at the beginning and /or end
Prepare for a three day block and rest extra hard on Sunday night and Monday
Missing Weekend Group Ride or Endurance Ride
If you miss the weekend rides, there’s not much that you can do for that if you work a nine to five job. If you have a flexible schedule, and miss Saturday, ride long Sunday and Monday, then shifting the week forward a day and eliminating the endurance ride.
Sunday / Monday LONG
Tuesday: Recovery ride
Wednesday: hardest interval day
Thursday: 2nd hardest interval day
Friday: recovery Ride and resume schedule
What If You’re Racing?
It depends if it’s an A priority race or a B Priority Race, and this even opens the discussion of whether you should have A or B races depending on your racing category and goals.
If you have an A Race coming up, you’re tapering and while the placement of the workouts is important, remember that the hay is in the barn.
Related Post: When to Taper for a Cycling Race
The harder workouts are just to keep you sharp, so don’t skip them if you miss them, but I wouldn’t do anything hard 3 days before (so if you’re racing Saturday, don’t thrash at all on Friday, Thursday, or Wednesday).
I don’t feel like it’s a great idea for me to give any more detailed general guidelines when an A race is on the line...we really need to know what kind of race it is and what your training has looked like over the past 2-3 blocks (consistency, intensity, hours), so if things have gone awry before your big race, email me and I’ll try to help you out in a timely manner!
If it’s a B race, you want to show up and do well so that you get some race experience and have the physical capability to go deep. There’s not much point to showing up so shattered that you’re blown out the back in 15 minutes, but you’re not expecting to throw down massive PR’s and ride away from everyone.
That said, if you miss the hard workout, make it up. If you’re racing Saturday, it’s okay to do a hard workout on Wednesday or Thursday. Don’t back the TSS down and rest too much before B races if you race a lot. If you do, you won’t have the ability to drive your CTL as high as it could go before the taper for the A race.
Missing Two Workouts During The Week
Regardless of which two workouts it is, even if it’s the hardest and second hardest, or the two recovery rides, just ensure that you get that hardest workout done at some point. The only time we wouldn’t say this is if you’re about to have an A race, which again, you should be in a taper, so there really isn’t a hard workout.
Said differently: you miss Tuesday and Wednesday….Thursday should now be the hardest workout of the week, and then you have Friday to recover before your long rides. You need that intense session.
Even if you have a B priority race in there, you need to get this building block in place and completed so that you can move on with the progression of time or intensity for the next hard workout the following week.
You could even look to throw some intervals in one Saturday as part of your long ride, then keep Sunday’s volume there, but lower the intensity a bit. You don’t have to, and don’t want to, come home wrecked from every weekend ride.
Missing one workout isn’t the end of the world. Two, well…. just kidding
Missing Three Workouts During The Week
If they’re the big three, it’s worth asking yourself if you should just count this as a rest week and not overthink it. Three days off can be a mini rest week, and then roll into the weekend and restart your training block.
If it’s something more scattered like missing Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, again, like above, focus on getting the hardest sessions in.
Even if you only rode hard then on Wednesday and Friday, with two weekend rides, that is enough training. You’ll be able to move on with the progression of workouts.
I’d more ask yourself WHY this happened; crazy life upheaval or poor planning? Try to see if there’s an underlying scheduling issue so you can avoid this.
Missing Four or More Workouts
At this point, you’re basically resting, so whether you wanted it or not, you’re on a rest week.
Restart the training block over completely.
If you’re coming up towards a race and in the last block before it, keep your race week taper the same, but up the intensity the week before.
So let’s say you’re 15 days out from a race and things start to get wonky. You’re moving through the week and riding just isn’t happening. Even though you want to be shedding fatigue for an A race at this point, if you get to Thursday and haven’t done much work, you don’t want to taper for a whole other week, especially if it’s anything like a gran fondo or road race.
You can be more rested for a criterium or prologue TT, but you want some riding in the legs for anything that has some duration to it.
Throw some intervals in on Friday that are higher intensity, like VO2Max. Ride endurance on Saturday, and then the same intervals on Sunday.
This will keep the legs ready to shred and taper into the week.
Missing Full Weeks Of Training
You basically need to retool the schedule and figure out when you can ride and where the goal is. Full weeks off are really bad for endurance sports; CONSISTENCY IS KING.
Conclusion
Missing some workouts doesn’t have to create a rocket science typed problem.
Look at your goal, and ask yourself: how do you move forward to best accomplish it? Retooling a calendar should be looked at the same as creating the initial one!
Think of intensity and training stress. Will more help, or hurt, your performance?
If you have any more questions, feel free to reach out to us online. Ask us about our cycling training programs, our testimonials, or why our team’s experts are the right choice for your cycling coaching needs.