The months ahead!

The training planner is a 17-week training programme and is fully detailed below.

• To work out when to start the programme, simply count backwards 17 weeks from the date of your chosen marathon. For example if you are competing in the first Chain Reaction Cycles MTB Marathon in Wales (Spring and Night) on the 7-8th April 2012, the week commencing 2nd April is week 17 and “Event week”. So your training programme will have commenced beginning January 2012. If this is your first marathon event of the year, it’s important to keep up with some training over the winter months and not have too much of a lay off over Christmas! See winter training.

If your first Chain Reaction Cycles MTB Marathon or Road Sportive is not until the summer, the same principles apply. Use the chart to see when to commence the 17-week programme.

The programme consists of 5 “phases of training”:
- base training phase
- pre-season training phase
- early season training phase 
- peak fitness phase
- event phase

All phases (except event phase) consist of 4-week rides. A start week – a build week – a push week and a recovery week.

There may be several weeks before your 17-week programme is due to start, but that is definitely not an excuse to sit back and relax! Instead you will spend a little longer in the base training phase building endurance. The extended base phase still consists of 4-week blocks to progressively increase fitness and allow the body sufficient recovery.

MONTHLY PLANNER FOR MTB-MARATHON TRAINING