If you’re a Masters rider with a gran fondo circled for next summer, here’s the good news: you don’t need 15 hours a week to ride it well. You need about six, aimed at the right target. October is the right time to start. You don’t need big miles in the rain. You need habits, and the habits you build this winter decide how June feels.
I’ve coached riders since 2009, and busy adults almost always show me the same pattern. The plan isn’t the problem. The plan not fitting their life is the problem. So I build the week around your job, your family and your recovery, and I aim it at whatever holds you back right now.
Your body is a team of systems
When you climb hard, it feels like one thing: you’re going hard. Inside, several systems work together, and each one adapts at its own speed:
- The engine: your heart, lungs and metabolism. Your heart and blood volume respond within weeks, but deep aerobic change takes years of consistent riding.
- The legs: muscle, bone and tendon, plus the skill of pedalling and handling the bike. Skill improves faster than anything else, so we train it early.
- Durability: your ability to produce power in the last hour, not just the first. Most fondo riders fade here, and only consistent training builds it.
- The pit crew: sleep, fuel and stress. You get faster while you recover, and work stress lands in the same bucket as training stress.
Six hours can’t train everything at once, and it doesn’t need to. Good coaching comes down to two questions: which system limits you right now, and which sessions will move it without breaking the others?
Test, don’t guess
An INSCYD test shows me how your metabolism works: your aerobic ceiling (VO2max), how quickly you burn carbohydrate (VLamax) and the intensity where you burn the most fat (FatMax). Those numbers tell us whether your fondo needs a bigger engine, a more economical one, or more durability. They also let me set interval lengths and recoveries you can actually finish.
No test yet? Start with the week below, and let your long rides tell you where you fade.
A simple six-hour week
Here’s the shape I’d start most fondo riders with in the fall. Move the days to fit your schedule; the structure matters more than the calendar.
- Monday: rest, or a 20-minute walk
- Tuesday (60 min): one quality session. In October and November, keep it controlled: for example, 3 × 8 minutes at a “comfortably hard” effort with 4 minutes easy between.
- Wednesday (30–40 min): strength training. Squats or split squats, a hinge such as a deadlift or hip thrust, a push, a pull and some core work.
- Thursday (60 min): easy endurance. Hold a conversation the whole time.
- Friday: rest
- Saturday (2–2.5 hrs): the long ride. Ride mostly steady, and climb at a pace you could repeat.
- Sunday (60–75 min): an easy spin or a second strength session, depending on how you feel
That adds up to about six hours. Roughly 80% of it is easy, one session is hard, and strength work keeps a permanent spot. Cycling doesn’t load your bones the way running or lifting does, so strength training protects your muscle, bone and tendon. Most cyclists skip it. Don’t.
Ride your steady days easier than you think
Most riders ride their steady days too hard. They settle into a “medium” effort that’s too hard to recover from and too easy to make them fitter. I often ask riders to ride tempo a little easier, and at a slightly lower cadence, than they’re used to. That keeps the work on your slow-twitch (type I) fibres, so your heart, metabolism and muscles keep developing without leaning on the fast-twitch fibres that burn through carbohydrate. It may feel too easy at first. That’s the point.
How the plan changes through the winter
Think of the next eight months in three phases:
- October to December: build the base. Ride mostly easy, lift twice a week when you can, and keep one controlled quality day. Aim for consistency, not heroics.
- January to March: add strength and climbing. Stretch the Tuesday session toward longer climbing efforts, like 2 × 15 minutes at a hard but steady pace, and grow the long ride gradually toward 3 hours.
- April to event day: get specific. Ride the terrain and duration your event demands. Practise eating and drinking on the bike. A few longer rides at event pace teach you what that pace really feels like.
Every fourth week, cut your volume by about a third. Masters riders get even more out of those recovery weeks, because that’s when the fitness sinks in.
Use data and feel
Data without feel only tells half the story, and so does feel without data. After each ride, ask yourself how the effort felt. Could you sustain it? What would it feel like 20 minutes from now? Write a short comment, then compare it with the numbers. Over the winter you’ll build a catalogue of sensations, and on fondo day that catalogue will help you pace the climbs better than any head unit.
A plan you’ll actually follow
I spent 11 years at Cycling BC developing coaches, and I did my master’s research on how adults learn and what helps them follow through. The short version: the best plan is the one that survives a busy week. So build in flexibility from the start:
- Know your “minimum week”. When work blows up, what’s the smallest version that still counts? For most riders it’s the quality session, one strength session and a shorter long ride. Hit the minimum and you keep the habit alive.
- Don’t make up missed sessions. If you miss Tuesday, don’t cram it into Wednesday. Pick up the plan where it is.
- Plan the wet days. Here in the Lower Mainland, winter riding means rain. Decide now which sessions you’ll move indoors and which you’ll ride outside with fenders and good gloves.
- Set a goal you can reach this month. Name a short-term goal, chase it and achieve it. Every small win gives you the confidence to chase the big one.
A dream goal is a collection of daily goals. A great fondo in June grows out of a lot of ordinary Tuesdays and Saturdays done reasonably well.
Your takeaway for this week
Write down your six hours. Put the long ride, the quality session and one strength session in your calendar for the next four weeks, the same way you’d book a meeting. Then decide what your minimum week looks like. That’s it. You’ve started your build.
If you’d like a plan built around your schedule, your recovery and your event, and aimed at the system that holds you back, book a free 15-minute call. We’ll talk about what next season could look like.
Ben Chaddock is a Port Moody cycling coach for Masters riders, a former pro, the 2012 Canadian Criterium Champion and an NCCP Master Coach Developer.