Hi!
I need some support for periodizing 2025.
Below I will add some information on my training history and goals, not sure if this is enough (and hoping its not too much), so please feel free to ask :).
- 45 years
- Training structured since Feb 2022
- Training volume in 2025 so far:
Average weekly hours: 7
TSS: 5300
2022-2024 I was training 4.5 hours in average weekly and had a yearly TSS of
around 10.000
- Training program: until end of 2024 Trainerroad (TR), switched to Base and Build
training plan from TrainingPeaks (Dylan Johnson)
- Training outcome:
Peak Fitness in 2024 with 44, 2025 so far 53
FTP: around 280-290, but doing ramp tests only, switched to 20m-Protocol this year
with FTP around 275 so far.
- Periodization 2025 so far: Jan-Feb-Mar: Base, Apr-May: Build, last block of build until
end of May
Goals:
I would like to race in 2026, my dream race would be a stage race in the Alps
but sure, my fitness is not at this level. Have no podium aspirations but would
like to ride it competitively and not dying a thousands deaths and / or dropping out
due to lack of fitness. Probably I will aim for more longer single-day events first and do it just in 2027? So my uneducated guess is to work more on my a) Diesel-Engine and b) FTP/TTE, and focus on more race-specific needs (e.g. multi-day training back to back to simulate the race) just next year.
Bottom line:
I felt like stagnating at TR, also 3 hard workouts a week as part of all TR-Plan-suggestions felt draining at some point and the lack of long Endurance training (2h max) was bugging me.
So I switched to the Base/Build plans from Trainingpeaks as mentioned above with plenty of Endurance training (longest weekly ride in average 3h, but did also longer ones with 4h max) as I also bumped up my weekly average hours. Now with first month of Build completed I still feel good, not exhausted but sure, the prescribed WOs are hard (4x8, VO2 4x4, you know the deal 
).
Currently I am not worried about my FTP as it probably was set to high due to nature of ramp test. My Endurance level, however, is quite low imo: riding in Z1 (polarized zone) for 3h is 150W NP. I know, this only improves over years and years and I am too old to catch up to see serious peaks here.
Question:
How would you recommend further periodization in 2025?
My uneducated idea is to re-do Base again for 3 months at a higher level followed by 2 months of Build. Jan-Mar Base was starting with 1h Endurance rides, so my repeated Base will have longer Endurance rides right from the start.
Thanks a lot!
1 Like
Purely by chance I found this posting from user @Gerald
It seems to support my idea above of re-do Base in a progressed version (raising the Endurance-hours) followed by Build. Gerald suggested another progression but also seems to be at a higher training level (pure assumption on my side).
So my year would look like as follows (copying just the layout form the other post), bold ones already in the past:
(3 weeks load + 1 deload)
Base 1 3+1
Base 2 3+1
Base 3 3+1
Build 1 3+ 1
Build 2 3+1
More Rest?
Progressed Base 1 3+1
Progressed Base 2 3+1
Progressed Base 3 3+1
Build 1 3+1
Build 2 3+1
However, some feedback will be still appreciated - still being uneducated, thanks!
Thinking about even doing a block periodization with volume focus to boost the aerobic engine further but never did this. I also read, this is only recommended for advanced cyclist, so probobly not for me. When exactly is such a block done - at the end of the base period or at the end of the build period?
I find myself not to follow those plans. Full of motivation when I click: “Add new plan” but I never check them off. Stupid I know, but these days I talk to my ChatGPT-coach to discuss my training. Stupid again, I know. I keep asking the bot questions until the outcome is what I want to hear. From that moment I tell the bot he doesn’t have to cheerleader me and ask it for a suggestion. That suggestion I tend to follow for some reason. 
So basically I use it to talk with myself.
Not sure if your feedback was intended to be ironic (no english native speaker here) but, well, I just put my initial post into ChatGPT and received a very extensive reply how to proceed, including weekly examples. Does it sound reasonable? Yes. Is it reasonable? Maybe, still a training noob here
Not intended to be ironic. I coached some people (can’t coach myself for some reason) and I find people (with a job) not robots and I try to surf on the wave of life commitments and life stressors. I like block training. I don’t believe fully in the: “each week on Monday we do intervals. On Thursday we do VO2 etc”. Your body doesn’t know what day it is. Doing so, you can be more in tune with your body. It’s not the easy way because it’s much easier to say; “Tuesday is endurance”. So if a bot is mixing things up, with your own honest feelings from that moment, I can see that could work for some people. Another reason I like block training is motivation. I have a 3-4 day training block coming up and I always am highly motivated for that. More so then “every week more of the same”. After a block training with 3-4 consecutive hard days, there are 2-3 days off. Mentally that works for me.