How I Plan A Week

With my annual plan complete I can start with my weekly planning.  It should be noted that all plans, including the annual plan, should remain fluid.  Life always throws us a curve ball so just be prepared to work around it.  Don't let things like that stress you too much. 

I base my training plan on Friel's training bible.  Reading that book can be confusing the first time through.  I've read it a dozen times and still pick up information I missed before.  Since most of us are beginning or will be beginning our training season, I'll use BASE period as an example of how I schedule a week. 

Below is is a layout of a BASE period week straight out of Friel's book. 

At first this can look a little confusing, but it's not too bad.  On the left, under weekly plan, are the four INTENSITIES [more info here] at which you will train (High, Medium, Low and Recovery).  Below that is workout codes, which you can find in Friel's book, or use your own codes.  Since I also do workouts by CTS, I have some of my own codes in addition to Friel's. 

To the left you have the days of the week with Duration (D) and Intensity (I) below each day.  The two blue boxes (black boxes in the book) are used to identify at what duration and intensity I am doing for that particular day.  Once you know the duration and intensity of your workouts, you pick the particular workouts you want to do.  Being BASE 1 period, Friel's workouts focus on Endurance and Speed, thus I would pick appropriate workouts. 

I don't normally use the 'Weights' row since it's not that hard to track what phase of weightlifting you may be in.  The 'Bike' hours row is where I assign the hours for the day.  For me, a 'recovery' duration is up to an hour of easy riding (or just take the day off).  'Low' duration is an hour, 'Medium' duration is 1.5 to 2.5 hours and 'High' duration is 2.5+ hours.  The little blue box in the bottom right corner just adds up the total hours.

Below is an example of how I would schedule my first BASE week.  Given it's my first day back on the bike training, I increase my hours slowly, thus you may see a medium duration, but only 1 hour scheduled.  Just don't want to rush into it.