CREATING A PERSONAL TRAINING PROGRAM
American River Cycling Club
There are as many cycling training programs as there are trainers, but certain basic “rules of thumb” can
be used to help you develop your own personal training program for that upcoming event, which could
be a road race, criterium, time trial, or century.
General Guidelines
Each cyclist has different goals, abilities, and available time. Use these guidelines to help you plan your
personal training program and stick to a training schedule.
• Before beginning a regimented training program, develop a base of at least 500 miles of
easy rides. (If you have a good winter or off season training program, you can pare down
this recommendation.)
• Once you have your training base, calculate your average weekly mileage, and then plan to
increase it by no more than 10 to 12 percent per week. This includes both total weekly
mileage as well as the distance of your long ride.
• You can estimate the length of your training program by using your “average” long ride from
your 500 mile base training period, increasing it by 10 percent a week, and repeating this
until you arrive at a figure that is 75 percent of the length of the event for which you are
training.
• Be flexible and adjust your program to your lifestyle. A rigid personal training program is
destined to fail.
