FUELLING
FUEL YOUR NEXT BIG RIDE PROPERLY
Use the calculator for your next session — or get the full fuelling guide emailed over: dual-source carbs, gut training protocol, race-day script.
WHO THIS IS FOR
IS THIS YOU?
The stalled committed amateur
You train 6–12 hours a week and your numbers haven't moved in 3+ months.
The 'more is more' rider
You've been adding volume and intensity but going backwards, not forwards.
THE ROADMAN VIEW
The Roadman view
Anthony has had this exact conversation with John Wakefield, Dan Lorang and Stephen Seiler, and they describe the same shortlist every time. When an amateur reports a stuck plateau, the problem is rarely lack of effort — it's almost always one of five structural issues. The instinct to 'push harder' is usually the thing keeping you stuck.
The most common is grey-zone drift. You think your easy rides are zone 2; the file shows zone 3. You think your hard rides are at threshold; they're hovering at sweet spot. That mid-intensity creep accumulates fatigue without delivering adaptation. Then recovery breaks down — and as Anthony puts it, you don't get fitter from training, you get fitter from recovering from training. A stalled rider often just needs a deload, proper food and sleep, and the fitness they already built finally shows up.
The good news is that a plateau is fixable, and it's rarely about doing more. It's about doing the right work, fuelling it, and letting your body express what it's quietly built. Most riders who break through cut a session, not add one.
EXPERT EVIDENCE
WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY
- Professor Stephen SeilerExercise physiologist, polarised-training researcher
Grey-zone training is the most common error trained amateurs make and the single biggest blocker to progression. Too much moderate-intensity riding accumulates fatigue while under-delivering adaptation.
Hear it: 80/20 Training to Ride Faster | Dr Stephen Seiler - Dan LorangHead of Performance, Lidl-Trek
Recovery is a separate trainable input, not the absence of training. An under-recovered athlete can't express the fitness they've built — the number on the test reads low because they're tired, not because they're unfit.
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
DO THIS WEEK
Take a deload week now
Cut volume to 50–60% for one week with no hard intervals. It's not lost time — it's how you let accumulated fatigue clear so the next block lands.
Audit your intensity split
Colour a fortnight of rides by zone. If your easy rides sit in zone 3 or your hard rides never reach threshold, that grey-zone drift is your plateau. Pull the easy days down and the hard days up.
Check fuelling and sleep honestly
Are you eating enough carbohydrate to support your training load? Are you sleeping 7+ hours? Under-fuelled, under-slept training plateaus regardless of how the sessions look on paper.
Change the stimulus
If you've done the same intervals, routes and intensities for over a year, the body has adapted and stopped responding. Swap the focus — from threshold blocks to VO2max, or add a strength block.
COMMON MISTAKES
WHAT CYCLISTS GET WRONG
MISTAKEResponding to a plateau by training harder and more.
FIXMore of what stalled you rarely restarts progress. Deload, fix structure, then reintroduce quality.
MISTAKEIgnoring recovery and fuelling because they're not 'training'.
FIXThey are. Under-recovery and under-fuelling are the two quietest plateau causes, and both are fixable in a week or two.
MISTAKERunning the same plan for over a year.
FIXPeriodise. The body adapts to a repeated stimulus and stops responding — change the focus every block.
FAQ
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How long before I should assume I've plateaued?
Can fuelling really cause a plateau?
Should I do more intervals to break a plateau?
Is a plateau just my genetic ceiling?
Will a coach actually help me break through?
Can a deload week really make me faster?
NOT DONE YET
STOP GUESSING. START PROGRESSING.
Not Done Yet is structured coaching for cyclists who want more than generic plans. Personalised programming, direct coach access, and a community of riders pushing each other forward — $195/month.
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