My P90X Bike Race Training Plan
The Tour de Scottsdale is this weekend and I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve trained hard for this race using Insanity for my cardio. I’ve already come up with a new bike race training planfor my next race.
But, first…on Saturday, I rode the 70 mile course. It is hard. It’s really hilly and it was HOT. I’m really glad I rode it, because I discovered that I was going to need a lot more fuel than I thought I would to keep hammering the pedals for the entire race. I burned about 3,400 calories on the ride and only brought about 600 calories with me to fuel up. I’ll post a report on Sunday after the race.
As the Tour approaches, I’m already thinking about what’s next. The next race is the Phoenix Rock N’ Roll Half Marathon on January 17th. That leaves me with some time to get in some good old-fashioned strength training.
I’ve pulled out the P90X Workout Schedules and came up with the following bike race training plan:
P90X Lean is really the basis for this, so you’ll see the strength training has more of a core focus, since that plan uses Core Synergistics every week rather than just on Recovery Weeks.
Weeks 1-3
I’ll be working out with Tony Horton in Dana Point at The Game Plan during this Phase, so that’s going to be fun. The goal here is to build base fitness, particularly with the run. I’ll be focused on running for distance, not time here. Just good old fashioned jogging for the most part.
- MONDAY: Either P90X Core Synergistics or One-on-One Core Ball Sandwich (CBS)
- TUESDAY: Double Day with a morning ride or run and an afternoon/evening Yoga X or One-on-One: Patience Hummingbird (depending on time)
- WEDNESDAY: P90X Legs & Back and Ab Ripper X
- THURSDAY: Double Day with a morning run and an afternoon/evening Yoga X or One-on-One: Patience Hummingbird (depending on time)
- FRIDAY: P90X Shoulders & Arms and Ab Ripper X
- SATURDAY: BRICK (“bike/run…ick”) with 40 to 50 mile bike ride followed by runs of varying lengths
- SUNDAY: Football X (on the couch)
Week 4 (Recovery Week)
- MONDAY: Yoga X or Patience Hummingbird
- TUESDAY: P90X Core Synergistics or CBS
- WEDNESDAY: Easy run or ride
- THURSDAY: X-Stretch
- FRIDAY: Yoga X
- SATURDAY: 40-60 miles with optional run afterwards
- SUNDAY: Off
Weeks 5-7
The focus during this Phase is on speed with the run. I’ll be doing speed intervals twice a week to get faster. I may mix in some swimming here, but the run is my weakest event, so that’s my focus.
- MONDAY: Either P90X Core Synergistics or One-on-One Core Ball Sandwich (CBS)
- TUESDAY: Double Day with morning run and afternoon/evening Yoga X or One-on-One: Patience Hummingbird (depending on time)
- WEDNESDAY: P90X Legs + Back and Ab Ripper X
- THURSDAY: Double Day with morning run and afternoon/evening Yoga X or One-on-One: Patience Hummingbird (depending on time)
- FRIDAY: P90X Chest, Shoulders & Triceps and Ab Ripper X
- SATURDAY: BRICK (“bike/run…ick”) with 40-50 mile bike ride followed by runs of varying lengths
- SUNDAY: Football X (on the couch)
Week 8 (Recovery Week)
- MONDAY: Yoga X or Patience Hummingbird
- TUESDAY: Core Synergistics or CBS
- WEDNESDAY: Easy run or ride
- THURSDAY: X-Stretch
- FRIDAY: Yoga X
- SATURDAY: Bike ride (40-60 miles)
- SUNDAY: Off
If you’re not sure about the whole yoga thing, you gotta check out this blog post with a video by Tony Horton on the importance of yoga—Why Do Yoga?
After the end of Phase II, I will reassess where I’m at and whether all this is working for me. I have a 14 week training plan for my Half-Ironman race in April that will kick off at the end of November. The plan starts fairly easily, so I will likely just repeat Phase I, but substitute Chest & Back for Legs & Back. That will take me into the harder weeks of the triathlon plan. More on that later, but I’ll keep doing Core Syn or CBS and Yoga throughout the triathlon training period. That served me well during my training for the San Diego International, and this is going to be a lot harder than that was.
Just a quick note about my adherence to this schedule. I build these schedules with the thought that I’m going to get 80% of these workouts done. I rarely do 100% of them. Some days I just can’t do a double or I might be traveling out of town without my bike. That’s really not the point. The point is to set a goal for each phase. You can see above how I’ve set my goals to improve my running and that I’ll be focused on that. The workouts that further that goal are the key workouts of each week. I won’t skip those and, if I do, then I’ll move the schedule and replace something else. By doing this, I can get where I want to go. I believe that doing this is really important no matter what your goals might be.
Check out another P90X and Cycling training plan HERE.
The bottom line—figure out what you want and then lay out a path to BRING IT! And, if you’d like to swap advice and tips, you can message me here:
