Periodization, Reverse Periodization

Periodization gets into an area of training where you not only adopt the philosophy that every ride has a purpose, but these rides combine to form a bigger plan where you obtain a peak of fitness targeting a certain event. The idea is that you break your year/season up into periods which lead up to a peak. The general approach is something like base, build, peak, race, transition, offseason.

The wikipedia definition can be found here. To better follow some of the ideas here it is a good idea to read the Energy Systems link first.

Friel uses the classic approach as such:

• Prep. Late fall through early winter. 3-8 weeks in general. This consists of resistance training, cross training, and some bike training.
• Base. There are 3 sub-periods in the Base of 3-4 weeks each. The focus is basic abilities. Muscular endurance is introduced in base2 and the focus in base3.
• Build. There are 2 sub-periods in the Build of 3-4 weeks each. The focus here are the higher abilities while maintaining the basic abilities.
• Peak. 1-2 weeks where you taper/sharpen.
• Race. 1-3 weeks where you cash in, but lose fitness in the process.
• Transition. 1-4 weeks, take a break, active recovery.

Carmichael has a similar approach:

• Foundation. A 16 week base where you work on your aerobic engine, strength training, and pedaling mechanics. Carmichael does not believe endurance and resistance training mix well.
• Prep. This is where intensity & volume increase. Sustainable power @ LT is a focus, obtained by doing frequent & long intervals @ LT. Work can be 2 or 3 days in a row, but you need to increase recovery time (block training). These workouts need to be done at intensity, just below your actual LT.
• Specialization. Your goal is in this period. Here you focus on race specific elements & high-end energy systems, high intensity, and lower volume (this assumes non-endurance events). Workouts are full throttle and there is plenty of active recovery. Your aerobic conditioning may suffer here, so you can throw in a few weeks of endurance to maintain that.
• Peak. A time of unloading and & supercompensation, really just an extension of specialization.

As you can see, there's really not much difference between these 2 plans. They start slow, ramp up, then focus as the event draws near. This is in agreement with the traditional periodization schemes used for decade.

Reverse Periodization

But many people, including myself, believe this structure is outdated and less practical. First of all, you should never take the offseason off. So you should never need to start each year like you're never ridden before. Thus, base rides with little intensity are a waste of precious training time. Secondly, how do you start your season in January with long, steady rides? For those of us in the winter locales, this isn't practical. Finally, doesn't it make some sense to build up the higher skills then go for long rides which tax all of these higher skills while working on increasing your endurance? Indeed, and thus we have reverse periodization.

This is where you want to make sure you've reviewed the Energy Systems link. We're basically focusing on 2 of the higher energy systems to start the season, VO2max (L5/L6) and LT (L4). These are the 2 most important energy systems a rider can focus on. Dave Morris (see Morris Principles) advocates this as well, so far as I can tell. These are general thoughts on reverse periodization.

First start off with a pure block (see Block Training) of VO2max (L5/L6) work. This will help you build the power you need to successfully ride for longer durations. This may very well be the single most important energy system in terms of focus and block training. After the VO2max block do an LT (L4) block, again pure. In season, some LT work can be tacked on to VO2max days, but the reverse is less productive as the L5/L6 work suffers when done tired.

After these 2 weeks you get more into "in season" riding, where you go for long rides on the weekends. You basically want to start these in March and do them once a weekend. You can also tack endurance time onto the end of the VO2max intervals if you so desire. I prefer to keep it for the weekends. You should also start hard group or off-road rides around the same time, once a week.

Now you're at a point where you've built up some power with VO2max and LT work, and you're working it into your season plan by using those abilities in your hard group rides or off-road rides. You're also working on endurance with a long weekend ride. After some time of this, you should start to swap out some of those endurance rides with L3 rides. Or you can reverse the order you introduce L2 and L3 or make them the same ride. Details up to the user in a lot of cases. The L3 work is more important for the endurance rider, who is going to need to be able to put in a lot of time with a brisk yet efficient pace.

You should be sprinkling sprints in with all your work save for the first 2 pure blocks of the season.

As the season gets towards the event/goal, you're going to work on mixing more than focusing on one system. You may do a mixed L5 or L4 block leading up to a race. But you'll still be doing sprint work (L7) as well as race simulations and endurance/tempo work.

In between events it's important to step back and focus on L4/L5/L6 work again to build up these systems. But you don't want to do pure blocks now because you've also got to hit the endurance rides as well. Endurance usually suffers near an event so you need to get that built up between events.

You can use the group rides or hard off-road rides as part of a block. It makes more sense to use it as your first day, then do a second day after it. Or for those of you who are doing 3 day blocks and ride better following a ride day, make it your second day. There are more variables here than you might think. Slight changes often times make more of a difference than you'd imagine. It is crucial to run through a lot of these permutations first to see what works for you.

Essentially, traditional plans boil down to L2 work, then adding L3/L4/L7 work, then later hit ting L5 and building to L6. In reverse periodization, you almost do the exact opposite. You start with L5 and L6, then add L4. After these blocks you add L2/L3 and L7. You then cycle back to the L4/L5/L6 as a focus later in the season, either right before or right after events, or both. The idea behind reverse periodization is that you make the power first, then you maintain it. Then you add it to your normal base/tempo rides that act as race simulations.