Grand Tour

Training plan

Your A-race sets the plan. FondoLab counts back from race day, fits every week to the time you have, and tells you each day what to ride and why.

Phases to race day: base, build, specialty, a taper that keeps you sharp
Each day fitted to the time you have, never two hard days in a row
Watts from your FTP, or by feel; a file for your bike computer
FTP and long efforts, what a gran fondo asks for; no sprints

An example

A rider of 52 with an FTP of 250 W, riding 5 hours a week now, with Monday and Friday off, to a 7½-hour gran fondo 16 weeks away.

The season

Prep · 1 wk
Base · 6 wk
Build · 4 wk
Specialty · 3 wk
Taper · 2 wk
recovery week
Fitness (CTL), planned

Week by week

Week	Phase	Hours	Very hard	TSS	Fitness	Fatigue	Form	Notes
Mon 26 Oct now	Prep	5	0	221	32	36	−3
Mon 2 Nov	Base	6	1	278	33	42	−8
Mon 9 Nov	Base	7	1	330	36	50	−14
Mon 16 Nov	Base · recovery week	4	1	184	34	38	−3
Mon 23 Nov	Base	7.5	2	385	38	55	−17
Mon 30 Nov	Base	7.5	2	391	41	62	−21
Mon 7 Dec	Base	8	2	410	44	66	−22
Mon 14 Dec	Build · recovery week	5	1	221	42	47	−5	Fitness test.
Mon 21 Dec	Build	8	2	380	44	58	−13
Mon 28 Dec	Build	7.5	2	373	46	61	−15
Mon 4 Jan	Build	8	2	369	47	61	−14
Mon 11 Jan	Specialty	8	2	392	49	65	−16
Mon 18 Jan	Specialty	8	2	395	50	66	−16
Mon 25 Jan	Specialty	8	2	387	51	66	−15
Mon 1 Feb	Taper	5	2	243	49	48	+1
Mon 8 Feb	Taper	3.5	0	146	54	89	−35	Example fondo (A) Race week. Form +11 on race day.

Fitness (CTL), fatigue (ATL) and form (TSB) on each week's Sunday evening, as the plan expects them: worked out from the fitness you started with, the planned sessions and your races. FondoLab can't read the rides you did yet, so every week is planned, past ones too. Fitness dips in a recovery week because it averages your recent load; you don't lose what you can do in one lighter week.

Training research supports the principles well: mostly easy riding, a few hard sessions, steady growth, recovery and a taper. The exact numbers are FondoLab's judgement, and the method page says which. How the plan is built →