cycling training plan
A Cycling Training Plan Built Around Your Event — Road, Gravel, or MTB
Set your event and its distance; PaceBeats models the demand in kilometers and TSS, builds a periodized season to your FTP, and rebuilds every week around your actual riding.
Best for
Road, gravel, and MTB riders with a real event on the calendar who want a season that peaks on purpose, not another interchangeable interval block.
A real week from a PaceBeats athlete building toward this race — built from their Garmin history, rebuilt every week.
Model the demand of the event you actually entered
A 90 km road race, a 160 km gravel epic, and an MTB marathon are different problems. PaceBeats starts from your event's distance and terrain, models what finishing it well demands in kilometers and training stress, and works backward to today.
- Event distance and terrain set the endurance target, not a generic template
- Demand is expressed in concrete numbers — weekly kilometers and TSS
- Long-ride progression is sized to the event, so the distance never arrives as a surprise
- Fuelling practice is scheduled inside the rides where it matters
A season periodized to your FTP, not a 4-week booster
One-size interval blocks raise numbers for a month and then plateau. A real season moves through phases — base, build, peak, taper — with every zone and target anchored to your FTP as it changes.
- Base develops aerobic durability and repeatable weekly structure
- Build adds sweet-spot and threshold work sized to your current FTP
- Peak rehearses event-specific demands: pace blocks, terrain, nutrition
- Deterministic guardrails cap weekly load jumps so progression stays absorbable
Rebuilt every week around your actual riding
Your rides sync from your Garmin nightly, and next week is rebuilt around your availability, your races, and your constraints. Flag a travel week or a brutal stretch at work and the plan reshapes instead of silently piling up missed sessions.
- Travel, illness, and schedule changes trigger a rebuild, not guilt
- Rate how rides felt in your own words — it becomes athlete memory that shapes how future workouts are written
- Race priority decides which sessions are protected when hours shrink
- Cycling-only is a first-class mode — no swim slots to ignore, no run sessions to delete
Strength work that serves the bike
Force on the pedals is trainable off the bike. PaceBeats places short strength sessions where they support your riding — general strength early in the season, maintenance doses as event-specific work takes over.
- Early-season strength builds force production and durability
- Sessions shrink to maintenance as key rides become the priority
- Soreness is kept away from decisive interval and long-ride days
- Low-cadence work on the bike bridges gym strength into pedal force
A representative cycling build week
Mid-build for a gran fondo, for a rider training ~8.5–9 hours a week. The Saturday long ride with event-pace blocks is the anchor — the interval days raise the ceiling, and everything else keeps you fresh enough to execute them.
Recover
- Rest or 30 min mobility + core
VO2 intervals
- Bike 75 min — 5×5 min at 105–110% FTP, 5 min easy between
Strength
- Strength 45 min — lower-body force + trunk
- Optional 30 min Z1 spin
Sweet-spot
- Bike 90 min — 3×15 min at 88–94% FTP, 5 min easy between
Spin easy
- Bike 40 min Z1–Z2 recovery spin, or full rest
Long ride + event pace
- Bike 3:00 — Z2 with 2×20 min at event pace
- Rehearse race nutrition (60–90g carbs/hr)
Endurance + cadence
- Bike 90 min Z2 — 4×5 min low-cadence (55–60 rpm) strength blocks
PaceBeats builds weeks like this from your training history — then reshapes them when you miss a session, nail a hard one, or your schedule shifts. Predict your race time or start free.
Questions athletes ask
Do I need a Garmin?
Yes — PaceBeats builds your profile from your Garmin data. Your ride history flows in nightly, and your planned bike sessions land on your Garmin automatically.
How many hours a week do I need for a cycling training plan?
It depends on the event. Many riders prepare well for a road race or shorter gravel event on 6 to 8 hours a week; longer gravel and MTB marathon events often reward 8 to 12. PaceBeats builds to the hours you actually have and tells you what those hours can realistically deliver.
Does it work for gravel and MTB events, or just road?
All three. The plan is built from your event's distance and terrain, so a 160 km gravel race gets long, durability-focused preparation while a punchy road race gets more repeated-intensity work.
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