Weeks 5-8 WORKOUTS

Hotchillee Winter Warmer Training Plan 22/23 Weeks 5-8

Oct 2022

Hotchillee Winter Warmer Weeks 5-8

Want an easy to follow 16-week training Plan? The Hotchillee Winter Warmer is for you! Read more about our plan to get you through those dark winter months below.

There are 16 brand new fully built and scripted workouts that have been created by our in-house coach Nikalas Cook – former coaching consultant at British Cycling, author of the Road Cycling Performance Manual, Hotchillee Ride Captain and regular Ride Leader on the Hotchillee Gain Train.

We’re heading into Week 5 but there’s no reason why you can’t join the Winter Warmer party now.

Hotchillee Premium members will also have full access to Nik’s knowledge and support on the #training_plans group on the Hotchillee companion app .

Weeks 5-8 Workouts

The simplest way to complete this session is to join our WOT (Watts on Tuesday) ride at 1830 every Tuesday on Zwift. This will be an official Zwift Event so can be found on the Zwift Event Calendar. Simply sign-up for the ride, log-on and you’ll be good to go.

If you can’t make WOT, and you’re a Hotchillee Premium member or 2023 event rider you can simply download the .zwo workout file and use/ride as a Custom Workout at any time.

https://www.zwiftworkout.com/how-to-import-a-custom-workout-on-zwift

https://support.wahoofitness.com/hc/en-us/articles/4855679964690-Workouts

Don’t forget, for your second midweek session, the ideal is to join the Hotchillee Gain Train at 1830 on Thursdays on Zwift but, if you can’t make this, you can repeat the workout or do a “sustainably hard” 45-60 minute ride or race.

Week 5: 31/10/22

Grind 2: 59 TSS

Big Gear/Low Cadence work is effectively strength training on the bike, lays the foundations for a strong and stable pedal stroke and should be part of any winter training plan.

The key to getting the intended gains from these sessions is to stick to the cadence targets. Don’t “cheat” the efforts by spinning faster - grind them out!

For this dose, you’ll be following the same X5 Big Gear/Low Cadence efforts between 3-5 minutes in duration, working both seated and standing and with 5-minute recoveries as Week 1 but we’ve dialled up the intensity a bit.

Week 6: 07/11/22

Sweet-spot 2: 71 TSS

Sweet-Spot is so called because it gives significant training gains but without as much pain and suffering as working at threshold - that comes later.

In this session you’ll do X2 20-minute blocks around Sweet-Spot but be ready for little sting in the tail of the second interval.

Week 7: 14/11/22

VO2 Max 2: 69 TSS

Training in Zone 5 is all about building your ability to hold an effort above your red-line. This is essential for tackling steep climbs, bridging a gap, making a break or just dishing out some pain.

In this session, you’ll be performing X5 4-minute Zone 5 efforts.

Week 8: 21/11/22

Anaerobic Capacity 2: 50 TSS

Working on your top end and your ability to recover from those efforts. In these sessions the emphasis on quality rather than quantity.

As the fourth week in the rotation this fits in with more of a “recovery” week where you should be looking to dial your volume down.

This session builds on the 20/40 intervals you did four weeks ago building up sprint durations and cutting recoveries. You’ll perform X4 5-minute blocks alternating sprint and recovery efforts.