This 26 week training plan will incrementally build your fitness so you are at your peak fitness for a 50 Mile Mountain Bike Race at the end of the training plan. This training plan can be used with power and/or heart rate training.

This is a Time Crunched training plan for the athlete with little time to spend training during the week. Off days are Mon and Friday. Workouts during the week, Tues-Thurs, are 60-90 minutes long and can be done indoors or outdoors. They are short and sweet, but will give you the most bang for your buck. Workouts on the weekend are longer, ranging from 2-5 hours. The rides that are 3-5 hours don't start until the last 3 months of the program..

You will be working on a combination of building your fitness with a variety of types of rides (long, short and intense, mountain bike specific, etc.), and will also work on your pacing and nutrition for a 50 mile race.

This training plan has three phases to it:

Phase 1: Weeks 1-8
Rides during the week are shorter and more intense. You can do these indoors or outdoors. Rides on the weekend are meant to be outdoors and are focused on fun, moderate-hard rides

Phase 2: Weeks 9-16
Rides get longer. During the week they can be done indoors or outdoors, but on the weekend the rides begin to increase rapidly to start prepping you early on with Base miles for the 50 mile race

Phase 3: Weeks 17-Race day
Rides get more and more specific to what you will encounter at a 50 mile race. You will be given race specific long rides every Saturday that work on combination of fitness, pacing, and nutrition strategy for your race day.

The plan focuses on the athlete looking to start training specifically for a 50 mile race. You can add races throughout the plan as needed.