I am writing this after just finishing week 8 of the 12 week - 90 day - Cycling training program called CycloCore 90. I cant say enough good things about this program , it has helped me improve to a point I barely thought was possible.
I am a 51 yr old cyclist having come back to cycling after years of a) no exercise b) decent running c)kettlebells!!!! and finally back to the bike. My level of fitness has been fairly decent for about 5 years but will need to improve if I want to cycle in the Swiss Alps - which is the plan for this summer. Last year I did loads of cycling locally on a mountain bike but I have always wanted a road bike and gifted myself on late last year.
So back to Cyclocore - I was looking for something to help be improve to get me able to cycle in the Alps and found this program. The reviews I could find sounded promising so I paid my money and made my choice....
I got the 90 day plan which is basically 2 sets of 5 week active plans, 1 week recovery week. The active weeks are a combination of indoor HIT bike trainer workouts, core workouts and outside in the real world cycle plans. The plan says the exercise is expected to be harder than I can do - got that right! - and I am improving every week.
The creator is Graeme Street, now of Soulo.tv and it looks like this Cyclocore plan is the base plan for everything else that he does. The plan itself is fairly easy to follow - I do it early morning then cycle to work... puff puff .
I went for a cycle today - 60kms and it has 2 big climbs, each about 8km and about 6% gradient all the way. I am so surprised at how doable it felt, dont get me wrong, im shattered :) but in a good way.
I highly recommend this initial 90 day program if you are looking for something to kick start your cycling fitness - I am loving every sweaty minute of it.
Go to soulo.tv for more information - you wont regret it.
April 2017
Update -Finished the program and after a week of rest and recovery I tackled what would have been a huge multi climb ride - huge for me that is. It was clearly challenging but all went well apart from the fizzy left foot which started about 40km into the ride. Another thing to investigate. Now on to the climbing specific program or ill never get up Sustenpass in a decent time. I am going to take part in HighwaytoSky on May 20th. This is the website https://www.highwaytosky.com it will be my first real Alpine pass, cant wait!
