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You want to participate in a cycling marathon? Here you will find a training plan that will sharpen your form for your season highlight.

Marcel Wyss created a 14-week training plan for Datasport that is specifically geared towards L'Étape Switzerland. Regular training and a basic level of fitness are required for this prior to the last 14 weeks. The 14-week plan is designed for amateur cyclists who train between three and five times a week.

The most important tips

• Listen to your body: if you feel tired/lacking strength, skip training or only train loosely!
• Train polarized: Train predominantly low-intensity (LIT) or high-intensity (HIT). Try to keep training time in the medium-intensity range short or avoid it.
• Recovery is important: Make sure you get enough sleep and take care of your muscles with fascia roller, stretching & massage.
• Eat right: Give your body the energy it needs. Dieting at the wrong time - for example, after a workout or during HIT workouts - is like scoring an own goal!
• Target your workouts: Don't try to cram everything into one workout. HIT training and basic endurance do not belong in the same training session!

Assessing intensity levels with the RPE scale

RPE stands for "Rate of Perceived Exertion". It is a measure to gauge the subjective perception of exertion of a physical activity. The scale ranges from 1 to 10. The advantage of the RPE scale is that you can individually adjust the exertion depending on your daily form. Thus, you can take into account your daily form, which is influenced by sleep, previous training, nutritional status, motivation, time of day, injuries, etc., in the training.

Periodization of the 14 weeks

1. 8 weeks general build-up training: During this period you need both Low-Intensity-Training (LIT) and High-Intensity-Training (HIT)
2. 2 weeks volume block: As many LIT hours as possible
3. 2 weeks HIT block: Only short HIT workouts
4. 2 weeks tapering block: A mixture of HIT and LIT

To the training plan (in German)

Important points to read about the sample training weeks

• The key weekly workouts are marked with a cup. These workouts are mandatory to complete.
• Depending on time resources, you can choose between the rest of the workouts. If two workouts are proposed on the same day, you can choose which one you prefer.
• Note the intensity levels given based on the RPE scale.