I had a quick question about the strength portion of your Base Building Plan. Will I need access to a gym to do these workouts? From the sample plan, it appears that I’ll be in the gym one day (strength workout) and then the ab days could be done at home?

The short answer is yes, but let me give you the long answer about strength and conditioning for cyclists too.

The Base Plan is broken down into three broad categories: on the bike, cross training, and strength and conditioning. By doing all three portions you maximize your overall fitness. Many cyclists have no desire to go to the gym, which I feel is very short-sighted, but I digress. So this plan could be a cycling only base plan, but I add the other two… well… because I think it makes for a more rounded program.  Here are your priorities for your base plan.

The on-the-bike can be done indoors or outdoors, whatever your conditions allow. We design the program so that if you are stuck indoors, you can import the workouts to Zwift or simply use your Garmin or Wahoo to control your smart trainer.

The cross-training portion is typically some cardio other than the bike. This could be an elliptical machine, running, rowing, or alpine tour skiing. Okay, I through AT in there because that is what I use for my cardio, VO2 Max efforts during the winter. The last portion is strength and conditioning.

The strength training works best when you have access to a gym or at least free weights. I created the strength plan on the idea that at a minimum the athlete would have access to a community gym with fitness machines. However, the ideal situation would be a fully stocked gym with free weights. The conditioning portion can be down without gym equipment with little to no modification. There may be an exercise or two that you cannot do even if you have a gym, for instance, my gym is an LA Fitness and they do not have a weight sled, so I have to skip that one. I use the Pilates steps to do box jumps.