WHO THIS IS FOR
IS THIS YOU?
The self-coached rider starting to plan
You've been riding without structure and want to understand the framework behind serious training plans.
The rider whose fitness peaks at the wrong time
You feel great in February and flat in June, and want to know how to flip that.
THE ROADMAN VIEW
The Roadman view
The word makes it sound complicated. It isn't. Periodisation is just the idea that you can't be at your best all year, so you deliberately choose when to be at your best and work backwards from there. Anthony has covered this with Joe Friel, Dan Lorang, and Dylan Johnson across multiple episodes, and the framework they all use is structurally the same: a long base phase to build the engine, a build phase to sharpen it, and a peak to express it.
The reason most amateurs never periodise is that they confuse consistency with sameness. Riding consistently is good. Riding the same way every month of the year — same zones, same sessions, same effort — is what prevents adaptation. The body responds to change, and periodisation is simply the organised version of providing that change.
You don't need a coaching software licence or a spreadsheet with twenty tabs. You need a target date, a rough plan backwards from it, and the discipline to do easy phases easy and hard phases hard. That's it.
EXPERT EVIDENCE
WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY
- Joe FrielAuthor of The Cyclist's Training Bible; co-founder of TrainingPeaks
Friel has argued for decades that the biggest gains available to amateur cyclists come from structuring the year rather than from any single session or training trick. The annual training plan — an A-event, phases working back from it, honest recovery built in — is the foundation everything else sits on.
Hear it: Joe Friel's Cycling Training Plan Structure | Roadman Cycling - Dan LorangHead of Performance, Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe
Lorang's work coaching Primož Roglič across a full Grand Tour season distils to the same principle: you cannot be at peak condition every week of the year, and attempting it guarantees you are never truly at your best. The amateur equivalent is picking two or three A-events and building everything around them.
Hear it: Roglic's Coach Builds A Training Plan For Amateur Riders | Dan Lorang
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
DO THIS WEEK
Pick one A-event and work backwards
Find your most important event — a gran fondo, a sportive, a target climb — and place it on a calendar. Then block out three to four months before it as your build phase, and the months before that as base. You now have a periodised year.
Assign a different focus to each phase
Base = high volume, low intensity, mostly zone 2. Build = introduce threshold and VO2max blocks. Peak = sharpen and taper. Don't mix phases. Trying to do base and build simultaneously means doing neither properly.
Schedule deload weeks every 3–4 weeks
Within each phase, reduce volume by 30–40% every third or fourth week. Fitness is built during work; it's expressed during recovery. Planned deloads prevent accumulated fatigue from masking your gains.
COMMON MISTAKES
WHAT CYCLISTS GET WRONG
MISTAKETraining the same way in December as in May.
FIXEach phase should feel different. December is base work, not mini-build. Let the year have seasons.
MISTAKESkipping the base phase because it feels too easy.
FIXThe base is what allows high-intensity work to land later without injury or burnout. Skip it and your build phase crumbles.
MISTAKETreating every ride as an A-event and refusing to have down phases.
FIXYou cannot be at peak fitness year-round. Plan your peak, protect your off-season, and let adaptation happen in the down months.
FAQ
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Do amateurs really need to periodise?
What is linear versus undulating periodisation?
How many A-events should I plan per year?
Can I periodise on 4 hours a week?
What is the difference between periodisation and just having a training plan?
Do pros periodise differently from amateurs?
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