Firstly thank you for looking at or even purchasing this plan.

This plan is a time crunched plan for those with around 5-6 hours a week to spare with all the sessions scheduled to be completed in the typical working week (Mon - Fri) with the assumption that you would do these sessions before or after work or even during your lunch break. You want to do these sessions in a fasted or semi fasted state. They are not long enough to require any fuelling other than some hydration during the session.

The time commitment is therefore fairly manageable for most people, that said a lot can be accomplished in this time, think of the 80/20 rule.

The sessions have been scheduled in such a way that the most amount of force required from your muscles starts at the beginning of the week when it is assumed you are at your most rested following hopefully an easy weekend. If you plan on doing more cycling on the weekend then perhaps you need a slightly different plan or just make sure that any ride on the weekend is at an easy conversational pace. Also make sure one of the days is a rest day.

As I was saying, generally the weeks are scheduled so that peak power is higher at the start of the week, as the week progresses the force (or peak power) reduces but the time spent at any given intensity increases, so there is an inverse relationship. A bit like your own power duration curve.

See the example week 3 – Day 1 – Neuromuscular, Day 2 – Anaerobic Capacity, Day 3 Maximal Aerobic Capacity, Day 4 – Z3 High aerobic endurance, Day 5 – Lower aerobic endurance.

Most of the weeks will follow this pattern to ensure that when we target each energy system you are the most receptive and able to tolerate the work loads to the best of your ability. They also link in with each other in a complimentary way so that the previous session provides a priming effect.

Using week 3 as an example, Both days one and two will require much more muscular force than day 3. But although these sessions might feel hard they won’t utilise the aerobic system to the same extent as day three.
Similarly day three will feel hard with more impact on your cardio respiratory system but the forces generated by the legs will be far lower.

As the weeks progress sessions will become harder and the focus changes from less anaerobic to more maximal aerobic as the legs become stronger and are able to push your heart and lungs that much further.
This plan does therefore assume you have some base of fitness and that you have been doing some training prior to this, even if it’s not structured.

If you’ve not done much for a while then please see my other plan below:-
https://www.trainingpeaks.com/training-plans/cycling/road-cycling/tp-417623/the-tried-tested-timecrunch-6-week-beginner-plan-zwift-indoor-compatible