Articles and guides to help you understand power-based cycling training and get the most from your workouts.
Heat training for cycling takes 6 to 14 days of an hour or more in the heat. What the trials found, how fast it fades and how to do it on a turbo.
How much to drink on a bike ride depends on your sweat rate. Weigh in before and after, finish no more than 2% lighter and never heavier.
An off-season break in cycling costs little fitness, but stopping completely can raise anxiety and move your heart rate data. What the transition studies found.
How to pace a 10 mile time trial. Even power on the flat, a few percent more into the wind and up the drags, and a first two minutes at target, never above it.
Menstrual cycle and cycling training. A meta-analysis of 78 studies found performance only trivially lower on period days, so plan around symptoms, not phases.
How much protein do cyclists need? About 1.4 to 2.0 g per kilo a day, 1.6 to 1.8 on hard training days, in meals of 20 to 40 g. What the tracer studies found.
Caffeine for cycling, how much to take, when, whether to keep your coffee, who it does nothing for, and how late is too late before an evening turbo session.
What is a good FTP? No study maps amateur FTP by level, age or sex, so this guide uses the lab classifications, the W/kg each level held, and what age changes.
What is the best cycling cadence? No single number. The economical cadence rises with power, and pros climbed at 71 rpm but time trialled at 92. The research.
Threshold intervals for cycling, from 2x20s to over-unders, with the power to ride them at and what the trials show about how well they work.
Cycling training after 50, from the ageing and masters cyclist research. VO2max falls about 7 to 11% a decade, and the hard sessions are what to keep.
Mads Würtz Schmidt's winning Unbound and Traka power files, second by second. Nine hours at 4.3 W/kg, three alone on a borrowed wheel, best hour after a flat.
Recovery week cycling, how often to take one and how much to cut, from the overreaching and taper trials, with the numbers each study changed.
VO2max intervals for cycling compared, from 30/15s to 4 x 8 min, with the work, rest, power and evidence for each, and how often to ride them.
How many hours a week should you train cycling? About 3 gets most riders fitter, 4 to 6 suits a first 100 km sportive, and 2 hard rides a week hold fitness.
How to train for your first sportive, 100 km or 100 miles, with a 12 week plan in % of FTP or by feel, and the pacing, fuelling and taper that go with it.
100g of carbs per hour cycling held late power better than 60g in a trial of 15 riders, and a second found total carbohydrate use no higher at 150g than 120g.
Cycling durability training, from the Montreal Worlds power files and the research. The race went to riders whose power held after hours of work.
Cycling with a cold, when an easy ride is usually OK and when to rest, from the neck check, two cold trials and IOC guidance on coming back.
How quickly you lose cycling fitness, from the research. VO2max falls about 6% in two to four weeks off, and two hard sessions a week can hold it.
Sodium bicarbonate for cyclists, what 15 years of meta-analyses and a new bicarb gel study show. It helps short, very hard efforts and little else.
How to pace a sportive, from a study of 6,589 Quebrantahuesos finishers. The fastest riders started slower and gained their time on the high climbs.
Winter cycling training, what to build and what you can afford to lose. Ride mostly easy, keep one harder session and set your event date now.
Base training or sweet spot when you only have a few hours a week? What the trials say about short weeks, and how WattPlan shapes yours.
Moving your training indoors for winter. Set up the turbo, fan and space properly, expect lower power, and rebuild the week around structure.
Strength training for cyclists works when it is heavy. Trained riders lifting twice a week at 4 to 10 reps gained time-trial power. How heavy, how often, when.
How WattPlan builds your cycling training plan, what the Coach can and cannot change, and how your week is repaired when you miss workouts.
What a 45 minute turbo session is worth. Short indoor workouts count by Load, not the clock, and here is what fits a time-crunched winter week.
How to know when your FTP has increased without a test. What WattPlan looks for in a ride, the thresholds it uses, and why it asks first.
Getting started with WattPlan, day by day. Set up, ride, read Fitness and Form, talk to the Coach, and see what stays free and what Premium adds.
What is W prime in cycling? Critical power draws the line and W' is what you can spend above it. How W'bal drains, refills and shapes pacing.
How to connect a smart trainer, power meter and heart rate strap over Bluetooth, which device supplies which number, and how to stop dropouts.
What to do in race week before a sportive or gran fondo, one day at a time, with openers the day before and the two traps that leave riders flat.
Target Fitness is bounded by your hours, your ramp rate and the taper, and a modest number is usually the honest one.
What to do after a missed workout. One skipped session costs almost nothing, so move it or let it go and keep the rest of your week intact.
Why is your power lower indoors than outdoors? Heat is the biggest reason. What causes the gap, how large it can be and whether to keep two FTP figures.
ERG mode explained. The trainer holds the watts you set, whatever your cadence or gear. When to use it, when to ride slope mode, and how to escape the spiral.
How to choose a smart turbo trainer. Wheel-on vs direct drive, which specs matter, why repeatability beats accuracy, and what to buy.
WattPlan keeps score across twelve areas of progress, using rides you did before you opened the page. What each one measures, and what stops a ride counting.
What type of cyclist are you? How WattPlan reads sprinter, climber or time triallist from five power durations, and why two labels can differ.
You do not need power to get a Load figure. How WattPlan works one out from heart rate, why it needs three numbers from you, and where it is less reliable.
Is VO2max genetic? Partly. What family and twin research shows, how trainable FTP and VO2max are, and how years of training narrow the gap.
Nine cycling metrics explained, from Load and Efficiency Factor to decoupling, MAP and estimated VO2max, and what a rising or falling trend means.
Upload a GPX and WattPlan builds a pacing plan with power targets per climb and feed markers, plus W' warnings once it knows your CP, exported as a GPX.
Durability is how well your power holds deep into long rides. How WattPlan predicts your power at 3, 5 and 7 hours and turns it into a 0 to 100 score.
How to pace a hilly race or time trial, why power belongs on the climbs, what to do on descents and in wind, and how W prime balance sets the limit.
Indoor cycling training on a turbo or smart trainer. The workouts that suit it, setup, cooling, fuelling and how to structure a winter indoors.
How to increase FTP, from the trials. Two interval sessions a week, 4 x 8 minutes beat 4 x 4 and 4 x 16 in Seiler's study, plus easy riding and a recovery week.
Heart rate zones for cycling, five bands set from your threshold heart rate, in beats per minute at four thresholds, and when to trust power instead.
A cycling training plan for beginners to follow today. Eight weeks, three rides a week, and every session given as effort, heart rate and % of FTP.
What Efficiency Factor means in cycling, how WattPlan works out watts per heartbeat, and how to read your trend by ride type over 4 to 8 weeks.
What cardiac decoupling is in cycling, how WattPlan works it out, and why under 5% on a steady ride is the usual sign of a solid aerobic base.
Power zones in cycling explained. The seven zones as a share of FTP and in watts at 200, 250 and 300 W, what each one trains and how much time to give each.
Sweet spot training for cycling is riding at 88 to 94% of FTP. What the trials found against polarised weeks, how many sessions a week and the best workouts.
Polarised vs pyramidal training for cyclists. What each intensity split looks like, what the pooled research found, and which suits your weekly hours.
Periodisation for cyclists in plain terms. How base, build, peak and recovery phases fit together, how long each lasts, and how to plan back from your event.
What training load is in cycling, how WattPlan calculates Load from Weighted Power and FTP, and typical values for rides and weeks.
Weighted Power vs average power in cycling. Why variable rides cost more than the average shows, how Weighted Power is calculated and when to use each.
How to read your cycling power curve. What your best power at 5 seconds, 1, 5 and 20 minutes says about your strengths, limiters and training.
Carbs per hour cycling, from the research. 30 to 60 g for rides of 1 to 2.5 hours, 60 to 90 g beyond that, and 100 g for a hard 4 hour event with gut training.
Race day nutrition for cyclists, from carb loading two days out to the pre-race breakfast, caffeine and what to eat in the first hour of a sportive or race.
What to eat after a bike ride, how much carbohydrate and protein, when timing matters and when your next normal meal is enough.
How to taper before a cycling event. How long to taper, how far to cut volume while keeping intensity, and the signs that your taper is working.
How much sleep cyclists need, what the research shows sleep loss does to endurance and power, and practical ways to sleep better in race week.
What is FTP in cycling? Functional Threshold Power, the most power you can hold for about an hour. What it means, how to test it and how it's calculated.
Zone 2 training is steady riding at 56 to 75% of FTP or 69 to 83% of threshold heart rate, easy enough to talk in full sentences. How much of it to ride.
Fitness, Fatigue and Form explained for cyclists. How WattPlan's Fitness and Form chart works them out from Load, and how to read each line before a big day.
Put the training ideas into practice with a plan that adapts to your week. Start free and upgrade when you're ready.
