Team bus
Workouts
What the plan is built from. Each workout has levels from easiest to hardest; the plan climbs them a level each time a workout comes back.
| Workout | Trains | Shape | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Endurance ride easy |
Endurance | steady | Steady riding you could keep up all day. Most of your training is like this: it builds the engine and teaches your body to burn fat. |
| Long ride easy |
Endurance | steady | The week's longest ride, steady and easy. A gran fondo is long: this is where you get used to the hours. |
| Recovery ride easy |
Recovery | steady | Very easy spinning, to loosen the legs the day after a race. · FondoLab default |
| Tempo blocks moderate |
Tempo | 2 × 12 min → 3 × 20 min | Long blocks just under threshold, the effort of a long climb in a fondo. They raise the power you can hold for hours. · FondoLab default |
| Low-cadence tempo hard |
Tempo | 4 × 6 min → 7 × 6 min | Six minutes just under threshold in a big gear at 50–60 rpm: a muscular effort. It builds force on the pedals without raising VLamax, as heavy strength work in the gym does. |
| Threshold hard |
Threshold | 3 × 10 min → 3 × 20 min | Long efforts at your FTP. They lift the power you can hold for about an hour, the base of every hard climb. · FondoLab default |
| Race-pace climbs moderate |
Race-specific | 3 × 15 min → 3 × 30 min | Climbs as long as your race's, at the power your race's pacing plan rides them, so the pace feels familiar. Without a pacing plan: 80–88% of FTP. · FondoLab default |
| Over-unders very hard |
Threshold | 3 × (3 × 2 min / 1 min) → 4 × (4 × 2 min / 1 min) | Two minutes just under threshold, one just over, over and over. You learn to ride on after a surge on a climb. · FondoLab default |
| 30/15s very hard |
VO2max | 2 × (10 × 30 s / 15 s) → 3 × (13 × 30 s / 15 s) | Thirty seconds hard, fifteen easy, in series. In trained and elite cyclists they raised VO2max and power more than longer intervals did. |
| 40/20s very hard |
VO2max | 2 × (8 × 40 s / 20 s) → 3 × (10 × 40 s / 20 s) | Forty seconds hard, twenty easy: FondoLab's variant of the 30/15s, a little longer on and off. · FondoLab default |
| VO2max intervals very hard |
VO2max | 4 × 4 min → 6 × 5 min | Four to six minutes as hard as you can hold evenly. They raise your ceiling, which lifts your threshold too. |
| Varied VO2max intervals very hard |
VO2max | 4 × (3 × 30 s / 70 s) → 6 × (3 × 30 s / 70 s) | Five-minute intervals with three hard surges in each. Cyclists spent longer near VO2max this way than at an even power. |
| Threshold after hours hard |
Durability | 2 × 10 min → 2 × 20 min | A long ride with threshold efforts at the end. A fondo is decided late, when you are tired: this trains that. |
| Race rehearsal moderate |
Race-specific | 2 × 20 min → 2 × 40 min | A long ride with blocks at the power your race's pacing plan aims for, eating what you plan to eat on race day. Your gut gets used to the carbs. Without a pacing plan: 70–80% of FTP. |
| Openers easy |
Race week | 3 × 1 min / 2 min | A short ride with three one-minute efforts just above threshold, the day before the race, so your legs feel awake. · FondoLab default |
| Fitness test very hard |
Test | 20 s + 3 min + 6 min + 12 min | A 20 s sprint and 3, 6 and 12 minutes all out. It measures your FTP, and the plan's watts follow it. · FondoLab default |
A gran fondo is ridden on FTP and long efforts, so the library has no sprint or anaerobic workouts. How the plan is built →