Cycling Base Training: A 12-Week Base Plan for Indoor and Outdoor Riders

Base training is the first phase of a season: weeks of mostly aerobic riding that build endurance, efficiency and the ability to absorb harder work later. Skip it and intense training tends to plateau quickly; do it well and every later block works better.

What base training builds

• A bigger aerobic engine: more blood vessels, more mitochondria, better fat use.
• Muscular endurance for long rides.
• Durability: the ability to repeat training week after week without breaking down.
• Good habits: regular riding, fueling and recovery.

Traditional base vs sweet spot base

	Traditional base	Sweet spot base
Main intensity	Lots of zone 2	Zone 2 plus sweet spot intervals (88–94% FTP)
Weekly hours	Higher (often 8+)	Works on 5–7 hours
Best for	Riders with time, long-event goals	Time-crunched riders, indoor training

Both work. Choose by how many hours you really have.

12-week base plan

About 5 to 8 hours a week, four to five rides. Three building weeks, then one easier week, three times over.

Weeks	Key session 1	Key session 2	Long ride	Other rides
1	FTP test	Tempo 2x15	1.5 h zone 2	1–2 × 1 h zone 2
2–3	Sweet spot 3x10 → 3x12	Tempo 2x20	1.75–2 h zone 2	1–2 × 1 h zone 2
4 (easy)	Short tempo	—	1.25 h zone 2	Recovery spins
5–7	Sweet spot 3x15 → 2x20	Tempo 3x20	2–2.5 h zone 2	1–2 × 1 h zone 2
8 (easy)	FTP test	—	1.5 h zone 2	Recovery spins
9–11	Sweet spot 2x20 → 3x20	Over-unders (short)	2.5–3 h zone 2	1–2 × 1 h zone 2
12 (easy)	FTP test	—	1.5 h zone 2	Recovery spins

Long rides can be split indoors, for example our 90-minute zone 2 ride on the trainer with a longer outdoor ride at the weekend.

Base training do's and don'ts

• Do keep easy rides genuinely easy.
• Do increase volume gradually.
• Do practice eating on long rides.
• Don't turn every ride into a hard group ride or race.
• Don't skip recovery weeks; adaptation happens there.

After base

Base usually leads into a build phase with more threshold and VO2max work, then race-specific training. For the full picture, see our cycling training plan and, for long events, the long-distance plan.