Masters (40+) Century Ride/Gran Fondo Training Plans
"Thanks to the training plan I've never been fitter and had the greatest ride of my life!"
Is A Century Ride/Gran Fondo Masters Plan Right For You?
Our Masters Century Ride/Gran Fondo training plans are designed for athletes who are over 40 years old. But, they’re also perfect for time-crunched athletes, regardless of age.
The workouts are just as challenging as with our normal training plans, but there are more recovery days. And more strength and conditioning work, so you get strong and mobile – no matter what your age.
Not all over-40’s athletes need a masters plan though. It depends on your individual needs as an athlete, and also your circumstances. We’re all different.
When to Consider Choosing a Masters Plan:
- Your training time availability is reduced with work and family commitments.
- You feel sleep deprived from daily stresses.
- Your body has different needs in terms of recovery, strength and flexibility training.
- You suffer recurrent injuries.
- You feel constantly fatigued or overwhelmed by your regular training.
- You keep catching colds and other viruses.
Can I Still Race Successfully?
Yes, you can. In fact, by following our Masters cycling plans, you may well race better than ever. The key to success is training consistently, without missing workouts due to injury, fatigue or time limitations. It’s not always about “who can do the most training?”.
All our training plans adhere to the principle of “Progressive Overload”. Meaning that the stress placed upon your body gradually increases over time. By training consistently with regular recovery periods, you’re more likely to absorb the gradually increasing training loads.
How is a Masters Plan Different?
Rest and Recovery
Strenuous cycle training will create fatigue, stress and muscle damage. As we mature it can (arguably) take longer for your body to adapt and remodel. This decline in rate of recovery will vary according to genetics and training history.
Insufficient recovery time can lessen the effect of the workout and leave you more prone to injury. Masters Century Ride/Gran Fondo plans have more rest days each week (1 or 2 days per week) and a 1:2 ratio of active recovery weeks to hard weeks (this is 1:3 in regular plans). That means you’ll do two weeks of challenging training, and then take an active recovery week (with around half the training stress).
Strength and Conditioning
As we get older, our muscle density begins to decline, and it becomes crucial to counter the effects of age-related muscle loss.
When you choose to follow Phil’s Century/GranFondo Masters plans, you can download the associated FREE Strength and Conditioning plan. These have two scheduled strength and conditioning workouts per week, designed to promote:
- Performance through improved strength and power.
- Increased muscle mass.
- Injury prevention by strengthening connective tissue, muscles, and tendons.
- Flexibility to maintain power through a full range of movement.
- Improved bone density.
- Fat-free body mass (a leaner physique).
All Strength and Conditioning workouts can be carried out at home. There are also alternative exercises if you prefer a gym based workout.
Training Intensities and Volume
Training intensely is the key to success in any sport, regardless of age. Strong performances come from having a solid base and workouts that maximise your anaerobic fitness, speed, power and skill. Evidence suggests that higher intensity work with less volume is beneficial for the Masters athlete training for endurance cycling events. Shorter, more intense workouts will also free up valuable time for recovery and work/family commitments. Masters plans optimise your training time with the right ratio of volume and intensity relevant to each plan.
Approach to Training
As an older athlete with a full life, prioritising is an essential skill. Ideally schedule your week, planning times for family, training, work and sleep. You should also be prepared for the curve balls that cause chaos in your best laid plans. Consistency in training is arguably the most important trait amongst successful Masters cyclists. Here are some ideas to help you stick to your regime:
- Use your commute as an opportunity to train.
- Add in strength and conditioning at home, with the kids if necessary!
- If you can’t do a whole session, do part of it, something is always better than nothing.
- Commit to a lunchtime workout.
- Double up sessions if necessary, for example tag your strength and conditioning and midweek rides together to save showering twice.
- Life will occasionally get in the way and if you need to miss an odd workout, let it go and move on. It happens to us all.
Top Training Tips For A Century Ride
You can either cycle outdoors in good weather, or indoors using a static bike or indoor trainer. Many indoor trainers let you wirelessly link to interactive cycling software like Zwift. This means you can ride with real people in a virtual environment – which makes it mentally easier to do long rides indoors. The workouts in our training plans can be exported to platforms such as Zwift, TrainerRoad and Garmin. However, it’s sensible to do at least some of your training outside on the bike you intend to use during your Century. This ensures you’re used to the feel and handling of your event-day bike.
Cycling Tips
Your training program should be built around two or three key rides each week. After that, any additional rides you do are advantageous, but not essential. The first key session is an endurance ride, where you slowly increase your ride duration over a period of months, from whatever is comfortable for you now, up to 85-90 miles. These rides should be done at chatting pace, ideally with friends, while you consume energy drinks and snacks every 30 minutes along the way.
Your second key ride is a speed session, designed to raise the ceiling of your current ability. By training your body to ride harder, it will then feel easier to maintain a given pace for longer. For example, ride 5 x 10 minutes at 90% of your 1-hour race pace effort, with three-minute recoveries (plus warm up and warm down). You should progress these rides over time, so your body keeps adapting to new stimulus.
If you have time, you should include another endurance ride each week, mostly done at an easy intensity. For this ride, build up from whatever duration is comfortable for you right now, up to 60-70 miles over a period of months. During this ride you should also throw in a few short, sharp efforts, such as riding hard up any hills.
Any additional rides you do should be 1 to 3 hours in duration, done mostly at an easy/steady intensity. It won’t do you any harm to throw in a few harder efforts during these rides but keep at least 80% of your riding at an easy intensity. Most importantly, you want to feel relatively fresh for your three key weekly rides.
Always be mindful of over training, road safety and avoiding injury. Your first goal is always to make the start-line of your target event. It’s also important to include regular recovery periods, so you can train happily and consistently over a period many months.
Strength Training Tips
We include two sessions per week in our FREE Strength and Conditioning plans. Not everyone can fit them in around their busy lives, on top of their cycling, but it’s good if you can. These workouts improve your strength and flexibility, which leads to more efficient movement patterns and fewer injuries.
Using a Century Ride Training Plan
Online training plans are for athletes who don’t feel the need for a personal coach, but who still want the structure and planning of an expertly-written training program. Research has shown that you are twice as likely to reach your goals if you train with a structured plan.
Compatible with over 100 apps & devices, including:
Compatible with over 100
apps & devices, including:
Head Coach & Founder: Phil Mosley
Why Use Our Training Plans?
Flexible, structured training for any level
Research-backed plans for any experience-level that fit around your lifestyle. From leading endurance coach Phil Mosley.
The world's best training app
We use TrainingPeaks for personalised training zones, trackable progress and so much more - on any major training device.
Certified coach support (rated 4.9/5)
On top of full help-centre & FAQ support (with videos), our coaches will quickly reply to any questions you have about your plan via email!
As featured on...
1. Choose from over 35 plans from 6-39 weeks long
With beginner, intermediate, advanced, masters (40+) and off-season plans – we’ll have the perfect one for you.
2. Activate your free TrainingPeaks™️ account
A flexible calendar, targeted training zones, trackable progress and so much more – on any device.
3. Get your online plan and start ticking off sessions!
Keep motivated with any of your training questions answered quickly by our team of certified coaches!
About Phil Mosley
Phil is a recognised expert with over 20 years of experience, having featured on many endurance sports publications. He founded MyProCoach in 2010 to to offer the world’s most comprehensive range of online training plans, all designed to help you enjoy the same success that himself and his athletes have, while still making sure you have quality time for your family, friends and career.
Masters Century Ride/Gran Fondo Training Plans (9-39 Weeks)
WITH FREE EMAIL COACH SUPPORT
We use TrainingPeaks to deliver your plan – the world’s most popular endurance coaching platform. Free to use, TrainingPeaks is an online calendar that lets you record, track and analyze your training sessions.
It has a host of great features allowing you to get as in-depth as you like, including the ability to export your workouts to your training devices (Garmin, Zwift, Apple Watch etc) and follow them in real time.
TrainingPeaks enables us to set you in-depth training plans in a way that other formats cannot. Phil Mosley is a Certified Coach and one of the best-selling coaches on the platform.
Whenever you need help with your training plan, we aim to respond to your emails within 24-hours. Our Certified coaching team are on hand to answer any questions during the first use of your plan, plus a bonus three months after its completion.
During checkout, please also share your email so I can send you a series of 5 helpful emails to get you started.
As you can understand, some limits apply (for example, we can’t analyse your data or edit your training plan) but for anything else relevant to your training, we would love to help. You also have full access to our online help centre, with videos and articles to help you train effectively.
We have a huge range of plans that enables you to select one that best meets your goals, schedule and ability. If you’re not sure where to start, read on below for a quick overview.
What type?
Our Standard and Masters plans are designed to get you ready for your target event, while our Off-Season plans are designed to allow you to recover from a tough season whilst maintaining your well-earned fitness. Generally, Masters plans are designed for athletes over 40 years old, although plenty of younger athletes love them too. The workouts are just as tough as with our standard training plans, but with more scheduled recovery days. Some find it easy to carry on with a normal training load, while others need to change their approach to training.
What length?
For the best outcome, count back from your “A” target race date and simply choose a plan to fill that gap (you can still work in other, smaller races during your plan). Note that longer plans start easier and progress more gradually than shorter plans. The body responds best to constant, gradual progression with regular recovery periods, and that’s exactly what our plans are designed to give you!
What level?
Choosing the correct level will help you get the most out of your plan. Generally, if you’ve never done this event before or currently train up to a few times per week, you might consider a Beginner plan. Alternatively, if you’ve done this event many times before or currently train 5+ times a week, you might consider an Advanced plan.
But don’t worry too much – we also let you swap the level for free within 14 days of purchase, if you find it too easy/hard!
Visit the MyProCoach Help Center for further guidance and to contact our Certified coaching team.
Certainly! Our training plans allow you to easily swap a few days around each week to suit your availability. Or you can swap out a session, to attend a similar group workout instead. That’s fine. If you opt for TrainingPeaks Premium (from $9.92 per month) you can even drag & drop your workouts onto different days. We give a few recommendations on how to best do this in our help centre.
And you can also train for multiple events! Our training plans guide you up to your target “A” race, but it’s also good to include some “B or C” races along the way. Our help centre goes through the exact steps you should take to enable you to get full benefit, without detracting from your key focus
BEGINNER
Perfect for your first Century or Gran Fondo-
Premium, flexible plan
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Intuitive tracking software
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Help centre & FAQ support
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Email access to coach
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From just $3.23/week!
INTERMEDIATE
For seasoned cyclists-
Premium, flexible plan
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Intuitive tracking software
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Help centre & FAQ support
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Email access to coach
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From just $3.23/week!
ADVANCED
Optimise your potential-
Premium, flexible plan
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Intuitive tracking software
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Help centre & FAQ support
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Email access to coach
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From just $3.23/week!
Under 40? Check our Century/GranFondo standard plans.
Join Over 40,000 Successful Athletes
A Growing Community Of Athletes
*on average athletes use their plan twice (our plans can be activated multiple times for free)
Kickstart Your Training Today!
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