Warm-up is necessary before every high quality workout to ensure that the muscles are working efficiently and that your energy production systems are up to speed. Jumping on your bike and starting a hard interval session or motorpacing right away is not only hard on your body, but also won't improve your fitness as much as following a warm-up.
After you've completed the hard part of the workouts, begin a cool down by doing a mirror-image of your warm-up. Allow the pulse to drop steadily as the legs continue to turn the cranks at a comfortable cadence while decreasing resistance.
The "Ramp" (described in the Ramp section of "Tests") serves as an excellent warm-up before an intense workout. It can also tell whether you are recovered and ready for a tough ride.
The training programs described here are listed by calendar months since races tend to occur at set times each year. While this calendar may be optimal for racing in some parts of the country, you may need to alter the timing of the periods to fit your needs.
For racers who have been competing for less than three years, complete the Base 2 training block twice and omit Build 3. This will boost your endurance, the most important element for the novice.
Fitness can best be developed by building to progressively higher levels for each of the first three weeks of every four-week block by increasing duration and/or intensity. To ensure recovery, the fourth week of each four-week training block should have total training time and intensity reduced to approximately 50% of the previous weeks' levels.
CompuTrainer workouts referenced by number in these schedules are explained in detail starting in the Workouts section.
The workouts frequently call for a "rolling course." This is a course that typically has hills with grades less than 4% and which allows you to keep your pulse in the prescribed zone.