Lance Armstrong's Comeback Training Plan - Bicycling

The Comeback Training Plan
The 12-Week
Program for
reviTalizing
Your CYCling
fiTness
By Chris CarmiChael
with Jim rutBerg
© 2009, CarmiChael Training SySTemS, inC. all righTS reServed.

The Comeback Training Plan
Truth be told, by the time the
2005 Tour de France concluded
on the Champs Elysées in
Paris, Lance Armstrong was
all too ready to retire. What
had started as a comeback to prove—to
himself and the cancer community—that
cancer survivors were not fragile, but instead
capable of tapping into their experiences
fighting the disease to achieve even greater
accomplishments afterward, had turned
into an unprecedented run of seven Tour
de France wins. But the nine years since his
cancer diagnosis had been strenuous, and
the pressure to continue winning increased
with every passing year. By 2005 Lance had
been a professional cyclist for 15 years and
a professional athlete since he was a 16-
year–old triathlete. He was justifiably tired,
mentally and physically, and looked forward
to spending more time with his young
children and devoting more of his efforts to
the Lance Armstrong Foundation.
Never one to be idle for long, Lance threw
The ComebaCk
How a 37-year-old, busy father returned to peak
fitness—and you can too
himself into his new life. He became much
more involved in the fight against cancer,
speaking at universities, hospitals, fundraisers,
and even before the U.S. Congress.
Under his leadership, the Lance Armstrong
Foundation was instrumental in drafting
and passing new legislation in 2007 in Texas,
Proposition 15: Texas Takes on Cancer,
which allocated $3 billion over 10 years to
fund cutting-edge cancer research in Texas
laboratories.
And unlike many retired professional
athletes, Lance stayed in very good physical
shape as well. He rekindled his love for
running and competed in the New York City
Marathon in 2006 and 2007, and the Boston
Marathon in 2008. He continued riding his
bike, branching out to enjoy mountain biking
No one had ever attempted to do what
Lance Armstrong was proposing. Was it
even possible to regain the power necessary
to compete in the Tour de France?
and cyclocross as well as road cycling.
While Lance was enjoying his retirement,
I was focused on expanding Carmichael
Training Systems and mentoring CTS coaches
who were working with other pros as well
as plenty of motivated amateurs with busy
schedules. In 2005, a few members of the CTS
coaching staff competed in the Leadville 100
Mountain Bike Race, in Leadville, Colorado.
A few days later they challenged me to stage a
comeback of my own and compete in the 100mile
mountain bike event the following year.
Actually, it was more than a simple challenge:
They bet me $1,000 that I couldn’t finish the
event in less than nine hours.
I hadn’t entered a race in more than a
decade, but I’d ridden more in 2004 and
2005 than I had earlier in Lance’s Tour de
France reign, and I relished the challenge. So
I trained hard for nearly a year, dropped 15
pounds of body weight and joined the coaches
on the start line of the 2006 Leadville 100.
Nine hours and 18 minutes later, and out
$1,000, I crossed the finish line and vowed to
return the following year to claim the large
rodeo-style belt buckle reserved for finishers
who beat the nine-hour mark.
The Leadville 100 had long been on
Lance’s radar. He knew of the ultra-endurance
event held every August in Colorado, but
never had the opportunity to compete during
his professional career. But as he saw me train
for Leadville, his interest in the race grew. In
the spring of 2007, he called me and asked
me to meet him in the old mining town just
across Independence Pass from Aspen for a
ride. Lance was looking for a challenge, too,
and wanted to see the course so he could
decide if he wanted to give it a try.
© 2009, CarmiChael Training SySTemS, inC. all righTS reServed.
C o v e r p h o T o g r a p h y b y m i C h a e l d a r T e r

The Comeback Training Plan
On a Sunday morning in June, Lance, CTS
coach Jim Rutberg and I set out to ride the
first and last 25 miles of the course, which
included four of the race’s five major climbs.
Still obviously in great shape, Lance rode
away from us on every climb and proved to be
equally adept on the steep and rocky descents.
On the drive back over Independence Pass
to Aspen, he pressed me for every piece of
information I could provide on the race and
what it would take to win it in 2008.
Throughout the next year, Lance
continued his work with the Lance Armstrong
Foundation and stayed active on his bike, in
the gym and with his marathon training. He
didn’t talk much about the Leadville 100, and
I figured it had been a passing interest the
previous summer. Then Lance called again in
July wanting to meet in Leadville for another
reconnaissance ride, and this time his interest
wasn’t idle curiosity: He wanted to race.
reigniTing The fire WiThin
Lance’s decision to return to competition was
spurred by a confluence of factors. For the
first time since he had retired, he had taken
a particular interest in the Tour de France.
And as he watched the race on television from
the United States, he realized that the riders
occupying the top 10 positions in standings
were all riders he had competed against and
beaten. At the same time, he was looking for
the next challenge he wanted to tackle—and
he and I had been talking about my training
for the Leadville 100. In late July, Lance’s
competitive spark reignited, and he decided to
return to racing by joining me at the start line
of the 2008 Leadville 100.
When Lance committed to racing
Leadville, he had fewer than three weeks
to prepare for the event. But true to his
nature, he gathered as much information as
possible about the race, the course and the
competition. There was really only one man
to beat, former World Cup mountain bike
racer Dave Wiens, who had won the race five
consecutive times. In 2007, Wiens won his
fifth title and set a new course record, beating
Lance’s former teammate, Floyd Landis, in
the process.
But what caught my attention was the
enthusiasm Lance had for training. More
than once I commented to the CTS staff and
my friends that I hadn’t seen Lance so excited
about training since 1999. And then during
a training ride in Aspen, Colorado, Lance
asked me, “What if we just keep going after
Leadville?”
I thought he was talking about continuing
to race ultra-endurance mountain bike events,
and rattled off the names of a few more
competitions I believed Lance might enjoy.
“No,” he said. “I mean, what if we go back to
the Tour?” I was astonished. Go back to the
Tour de France?! Lance was almost 37 years
old and hadn’t raced as a professional in three
years. He was fit, but nowhere near as fit as
he had been during his last Tour de France, in
2005. And no one had ever attempted what he
was proposing to do. Was it even possible to
regain the power necessary to compete in the
world’s toughest cycling competition?
One of a coach’s responsibilities is to
be frank and honest with an athlete, and I
presented all the reasons why a comeback
might not be a good idea: What if he tried and
failed? Was he really ready to return to the
monastic lifestyle of a professional cyclist?
Did he really want to reenter the highly
political world of professional cycling?
But Lance had a goal that trumped all
the challenges presented by mounting a
comeback: taking the Livestrong message
international. The Lance Armstrong
Foundation’s success in passing Proposition
15 in Texas and the interest it had generated
in other states convinced Lance that it was
time to engage the world in the fight against
cancer. And what better place was there for
Lance to raise awareness for a global cancer
initiative than from the saddle of his bike in
competitions around the world? And as for all
of my questions, Lance simply replied that if
he succeeded in raising worldwide awareness
of the need to commit more resources to
finding a cure for cancer, then his comeback
would be a success, regardless of his racing
results.
And with that, I set about the task of
designing a training program that would
once again bring Lance back to the top of
professional cycling. Age, I concluded, would
not be the seven-time Tour champion’s
biggest challenge. There was plenty of
evidence to support this conclusion, including
incredible performances by other athletes
who had once been considered too old to win.
Just weeks earlier, 41-year-old swimmer Dara
Torres had earned a trip to the 2008 Olympic
Games, in Beijing, China, her fifth Olympics
as a competitor. She won both the 100-meter
and 50-meter freestyle events at the Olympic
trials, breaking her own American record in
the latter. In Beijing she earned three silver
medals, bringing her career total to 12 and
earning her the distinction of being the
oldest athlete to win a medal in an Olympic
swimming event.
Brett Favre, longtime quarterback of
the NFL’s Green Bay Packers, retired and
returned to professional football with the
To transform Lance, we had to accelerate
the progression of his training and
focus on three main areas: endurance,
intensity and body composition.
New York Jets at the age of 39. Indeed, Lance
was quoted in a September 2008 article in
Vanity Fair saying, “Look at the Olympics. You
have a swimmer like Dara Torres. Even in the
50-meter event [freestyle], the 41-year-old
mother proved you can do it. The woman who
won the marathon [Constantina Tomescu-
Dita, of Romania] was 38. Older athletes are
performing very well. Ask serious sports
physiologists and they’ll tell you age is an old
wives’ tale. Athletes at 30, 35, mentally get
tired. They’ve done their sport for 20, 25 years
and they’re like, ‘I’ve had enough.’ But there’s
no evidence to support that when you’re 38
you’re any slower than when you were 32.”
If age wasn’t Lance’s biggest challenge,
what was? I reasoned that it was the three
years away from elite competition. During a
normal year of his professional cycling career,
Lance rode about 45,000 kilometers (almost
28,000 miles), which means that even though
he stayed fit in retirement he missed out on
nearly 140,000 kilometers of training and
racing. And even more significant than sheer
distance, Lance missed out on the positive
training impact of three Tour de France
races. The Tour de France was not only the
endpoint of Lance’s training program, but
also an integral part of the plan for success
the following year. There’s simply no way to
replicate the intensity and demands of the
Tour in training, making the event itself a key
component to training for it. This was true
even during Lance’s comeback from cancer;
he finished fourth in the three-week Tour of
© 2009, CarmiChael Training SySTemS, inC. all righTS reServed.

The Comeback Training Plan
Spain in September of 1998 before winning
the Tour de France in 1999.
In response to the challenges Lance faced
in attempting to race the 2009 Tour de France
almost exactly one year after emerging from
three years of retirement, I designed an
aggressive plan of training and racing that
was different from Lance’s earlier plans but
based on the same proven methodology.
The ComebaCk Plan
Effective training is a process of progression.
The 12-week program in this guide, for
instance, progresses from easier workouts
to more challenging ones as you gradually
get stronger. In between Lance’s Tour de
France victories, he kept training so his
fitness was never more than about 20 percent
off the mark he needed to achieve to be in
race-winning form. That meant that his
progression through the winter and spring
each year could be relatively gradual. But
after three years away from elite competition,
his fitness—in terms of his endurance, his
sustainable power output, and his ability
to launch high-power accelerations—were
well more than 20 percent below his peak.
To transform a now 37-year-old retired
father of three back into a Tour de France
contender, I knew that we had to accelerate
the progression of Lance’s training and focus
on three main areas: endurance, intensity and
body composition.
enduranCe
At the 2008 Leadville 100, Lance rode with
five-time defending champion Dave Wiens for
nearly 90 miles, all of which were contested at
more than 9,000 feet in elevation with climbs
that topped out at 12,600 feet. As the two
men reached the top of the last significant
climb of the race, Lance said something to
Wiens he’d never said to anyone in a race
before: “You go, I’m done.” Wiens, displaying
a spirit of camaraderie rarely seen in road
racing, urged Lance to stay with him, but
at nearly six hours into the race Lance was
well beyond the longest ride he’d completed
since the 2005 Tour de France. In the end,
Wiens crossed the finish line to capture his
sixth consecutive Leadville 100 title, taking
another 13 minutes off the record he’d set
the previous year when he won in front of
Floyd Landis. Lance finished only about two
minutes later.
To rebuild Lance’s endurance, I set him
up with a schedule that called for three-day
blocks of four-, five- and six-hour rides, and
within a few months he was able to complete
Becuase time was short, I incorporated
elements of the training programs that
work for time-strapped amateurs into
Lance’s Tour de France preparation.
reCovery on a grand SCale
after nearly 20 years of working with Lance, I understood what an extraordinary athlete
he was, but even I was surprised by Lance’s rapid fitness progression between
the fall of 2008 and the spring of 2009. Looking back through Lance’s training logs, I
realized that the only other time he had made similarly impressive gains was in the winter
between 1998 and 1999. Another similarity between his two comebacks: his high levels of
dedication, focus and enthusiasm. What’s abundantly clear is that no one had truly realized
how tired Lance had been at the end of his historic Tour de France run.
It occurred to me that perhaps the three years away from professional cycling could
prove to be more beneficial to Lance’s performance in 2009 than detrimental. One of the
most important principles in training is that of overload and recovery. For a system to adapt
and grow stronger it must first be overloaded and then allowed time to recover. On the
smallest scale, this is the reason there are recovery periods between hard efforts during
interval workouts. From there the principle expands to include rest days during hard training
weeks, a recovery week within a month of training, and finally a longer recovery period
lasting several weeks at the end of a long season.
But what about a recovery period on a grander scale? Lance began his career as a
professional triathlete at age 16. He transitioned to cycling and turned pro in 1992 after
the Olympic Games. And even though he missed the 1997 season as he battled cancer, he
still approached life then as a professional cyclist. Lance devoted his life, year in and year
out, to being a pro athlete from 1992 through 2005, so you could look at his three years
away from the sport as an extended recovery period.
Regardless of Lance’s results in 2009, I believe the concept of a grand recovery
period has implications for athletes of all ability levels. Amateur racers and recreational
cyclists frequently train and participate in events for several years and then turn their
attention to other things. Maybe you were a Cat 3 five years ago, or an avid century rider,
but your bike has been collecting dust or you’ve resigned yourself to weekend spins to
stay moderately fit. It took Lance three years to want to get back into the game. Maybe it
has taken you more time, or less, but once again Lance is showing us that all comebacks
are possible. My advice? Follow Lance’s lead and create your own comeback.—C.C.
these rides at an average power output of
between 280 and 320 watts. Lance would
take one or two days of shorter, easier rides
between these blocks in order to recover and
prepare for the next one.
inTensiTY
Covering the distance is only part of the
challenge of racing the Tour de France—or
meeting any cycling goal for that matter—
and I knew we had to also prepare Lance to
handle the intensity of racing for 21 days in
July, initiating and responding to attacks, and
going for the win. To do this, I started Lance
on interval training early on in his comeback
training, starting with longer Tempo and
SteadyState Intervals and progressing to
shorter, more intense PowerIntervals.
From my years of coaching everyday
cyclists who have very limited time available
for training, I also knew that short, highintensity
interval training was also an
effective way to build a strong aerobic engine,
so I incorporated elements of the training
programs that work for time-strapped
amateurs into Lance’s Tour de France
preparation.
bodY ComPosiTion
In the three years since Lance had last
raced professionally, he had kept busy with
a significant amount of strength training.
While he had done some strength training
during his Tour de France years, he was
always mindful not to gain too much upper-
© 2009, CarmiChael Training SySTemS, inC. all righTS reServed.

The Comeback Training Plan
body weight, as this increased muscle mass
would inevitably reduce his power-to-weight
ratio. Like many athletes, Lance packs on
muscle rapidly, and by the time he began his
comeback training he had added about 10
pounds of lean muscle mass to his frame. To
make matters worse, most of that muscle was
on his upper body, where it would do him little
good in terms of powering his bicycle uphill.
At the same time, Lance had remained
quite lean. In the summer of 2008 his bodyfat
percentage was not as low as it had been
during his Tour de France victories, but it
was still below 12 percent. This presented a
challenge because it meant that getting down
to Tour de France weight would require Lance
stripping muscle off his body and not just fat.
But rather than stay out of the gym, it was
actually important for Lance to intensify his
strength training. Cyclists rely on a strong
core to provide a solid platform that their
powerful legs can push against, and a weak
core leads to a lot of wasted energy. As strong
as Lance’s legs were, he needed to focus on
building even more strength with cyclingspecific
lower-body resistance exercises.
For the specifics of his strength program,
Lance enlisted the help of Peter Park, owner
of Platinum Fitness, in Santa Barbara,
California. Park’s program included dynamic
strength-training movements, including
kettleball swings, lateral lunges, step-ups with
weights and Bulgarian split-squats.
Lance made progress rapidly, and by
December 2008 Johan Bruyneel—the team
director who had guided Lance to all seven
of his Tour de France victories and who
would again be his team director when Lance
returned to the peloton—and I recommended
that he reduce his focus on strength training
in preference for more race-specific training
on the bike.
inTo The Wind Tunnel
Lance won 11 of the 19 individual time trials
held during his seven-year Tour de France
reign, but he hadn’t been on a time-trial bike
since Stage 20 in 2005. His strength against
the clock was crucial to every one of his
Tour victories, so getting Lance back onto a
time-trial bike was a high priority. It was so
important that one of the first calls made
after Lance committed to the comeback was
to the Low Speed Wind Tunnel, in San Diego.
Wind-tunnel testing had been an annual
event for Lance during his career, and he
had formed a team of engineers, designers,
aerodynamics experts and coaches to
optimize not only his position on the bike but
also the design of his equipment. Referred to
as the F1 Group, the team that gathered in
San Diego in November consisted of three of
us from CTS as well as representatives from
Trek, SRAM, SRM, Bontrager, Giro, Oakley
and Nike—all suppliers of equipment and
clothing Lance would use during time trials.
For aerodynamics, the team relied on Steve
Hed, the aerodynamics guru who was one of
Lance’s first sponsors when he was a triathlete
and the creator of the three-spoke carbon
wheels Lance and his teammates frequently
rode during Tour de France time trials.
The week before the wind-tunnel visit,
Lance had competed in an individual and
a two-man team time trial at the Tour de
Gruene, in Texas. During the individual time
trial he used a brand-new riding position, and
although he won he reported that he didn’t
feel like he had access to all his speed in that
position. The position was adjusted so it was
more like his 2005 time-trial position for the
following day’s team time trial. He won the
race with longtime friend John Korioth and
took that setup with him to the wind tunnel.
To get some baseline numbers, Lance was
first tested on a bike set up exactly like his
2005 position. He was then tested on the bike
with the new position. The data showed that
the 2005 bike was very fast, but that adding
a few features of the new position reduced
Lance’s drag numbers even further.
The following day, Lance traveled to
the velodrome at the ADT Event Center in
Los Angeles to confirm that the positions
that looked best in the wind tunnel were
actually the best in the real world. He rode
two-kilometer efforts (eight laps) at constant
speeds (50kmh) and the team downloaded
power data each time he returned. If an
aerodynamic position was truly superior,
Lance would be able to maintain 50kmh
using less power. (In a racing situation this
would translate to riding at his maximum
sustainable power and going faster.) Accuracy
was crucial, because the difference between
the best aero position and a good one could
be as little as four to six watts. SRM was in
charge of ensuring accuracy, so the company
brought a laboratory-grade power meter
with 20 strain gauges—one of only four in
existence. For comparison, the Pro version of
an SRM has four strain gauges and is accurate
within 1 percent. When asked about the
accuracy percentage of the lab-grade power
meter, SRM’s Daniel Gillespie simply replied,
“It’s accurate. Period.”
But it’s one thing to determine the optimal
balance among aerodynamics, comfort and
Cyclists rely on a strong core to provide
a solid platform that their powerful legs
can push against, and a weak core leads
to a lot of wasted energy.
power production in the wind tunnel and on
the velodrome, and something else to actually
ride full-gas in that position for an hour at the
Tour de France. Since it would take a while for
Lance to get used to riding a time-trial bike
again, I started prescribing interval workouts
in the aero position immediately following
the trip to California.
measuring The Progress
Lance had little trouble getting back into the
routine of training as a professional athlete,
but the big question was whether his body
would adapt after the three-year layoff. I
monitored Lance’s training by analyzing
power files downloaded from his power meter
and set up a schedule of performance tests
to gather scientific data. The first test was in
mid-November, a few weeks before Lance was
scheduled to travel to Tenerife, Spain, for his
team’s first training camp.
The test was a standard lactate threshold
test, during which Lance progressed through
a series of steps. At the end of each threeminute
stage, the resistance Lance was
pedaling against was increased by 25 watts,
and his finger was pricked so a small sample
of blood could be tested to see how much
lactate it contained. At intensities below
lactate threshold, an athlete’s blood lactate
levels remain low, and they start to rise as
the athlete gets closer to threshold. When an
athlete crosses his threshold, his blood lactate
levels increase dramatically, and coaches
and sports scientists can plot the levels on a
graph and determine the point where lactate
threshold was reached. More importantly,
they can determine how much power the
© 2009, CarmiChael Training SySTemS, inC. all righTS reServed.

The Comeback Training Plan
athlete was producing at threshold, as this is
the key determinant of how fast an athlete
can ride for prolonged periods of time—as in
time trials and long mountain climbs. In the
mid-November test, Lance’s lactate threshold
power was determined to be 400 watts.
At the training camp, team director Johan
Bruyneel observed that Lance was one of the
three strongest riders, an impressive feat
considering he had been training seriously
for only about three months. But it was
still too early to deem Lance’s comeback a
complete success. Lance had been training
hard while the other cyclists on the team had
been finishing up their racing seasons and
taking some well-deserved time off. Dean
Golich, a coach and sports scientist who has
worked with Lance and me since the early
’90s when Dean and I coached together at
USA Cycling and Lance was a member of the
US National Team, summed up the situation
well by commenting that Lance’s fitness was
about 10 percent better than expected and
his teammates’ power outputs were about 10
percent below their peak racing fitness.
A few days after Lance returned from
Tenerife, Dean and I traveled to Austin, Texas,
to test Lance’s lactate threshold in the Pedal
Harder Performance Center located inside
Lance’s Mellow Johnny’s bike shop. Lance’s
former teammate, Kevin Livingston, runs
the center and was in charge of administering
the test and gathering the blood lactate data.
The positive training impact of the team
training camp was immediately apparent:
Lance reached lactate threshold later in the
test and his new lactate threshold power was
measured at 425 watts. He had improved by
25 watts in just two weeks.
As impressive as his power improvement
was, Dean and I noted that his blood lactate
levels throughout the test were also lower
than they had been during the previous test.
Lactate is made when an athlete produces
power using the anaerobic energy system, and
lower lactate levels indicate that the aerobic
engine has become stronger. That told me
that Lance was adapting well to his training
because it meant his body was getting more
energy by burning fat through his aerobic
system.
baCk To raCing
Bolstered by encouraging test results, Lance
readied himself for the first race of his
comeback: the six-stage Tour Down Under,
in Australia. He traveled first to Hawaii for
a two-week training camp that consisted of
more three-day training blocks, this time
with only one day of active recovery between
each. And I joined him in Hawaii to put him
behind the motorbike for a handful of onehour
motorpacing sessions. Lance’s power
output showed he was ready to race, but he
and I both knew it was also important for
him to get reacquainted with the 40 to 60
kilometer-per-hour (25 to 40 mph) pace of
professional racing.
Lance had chosen the Tour Down Under as
the launching point of his comeback for a few
reasons. First of all, it was a great opportunity
to bring the Livestrong message to another
continent. And from a racing standpoint, it
was important for Lance to get back into the
fray. You need great fitness to win the Tour
de France, but you also need to race shoulderto-shoulder
with nearly 200 other racers
day after day. The professional peloton is a
hostile and unforgiving environment, one
that demands an athlete’s complete attention
in order to stay safe, let alone win. Along
these lines, Lance’s main objective was not
to win the Tour Down Under, but to use the
At the team training camp, Lance was one
of the three strongest riders, an impressive
feat considering he had been training
seriously for only about three months.
race to get used to the rhythm and routine of
professional racing.
For me, the Tour Down Under was also
an important component of Lance’s training.
During his Tour de France years Lance never
raced in January, preferring to train and wait
until later in the spring to start competing.
But my comeback plan included an earlier
start to Lance’s racing season as well as
more races than normal, because there is
no better way to gain race-winning fitness
than to race. It is impossible to replicate the
demands of racing in training, because the
intense efforts in races are unpredictable and
extreme, and often come one after another
in rapid succession without adequate time
to recover. To get Lance ready for the 2009
Tour de France, I encouraged him to enter
the Tour Down Under in January, the Tour
of California in February, Castilla y Leon in
March, and for the first time in his career, the
three-week Tour of Italy in May.
Lance performed well in the Tour Down
Under and even tested himself a few times
with accelerations off the front of the peloton.
It was a good first step because, although the
race is difficult, it doesn’t include either a
long individual time trial or a major climbing
stage. It was still a little early for those efforts,
but six days of high-quality racing in high
temperatures and gusty winds provided
Lance with a superb training stimulus.
In preparation for February’s Tour of
California, Lance spent more time climbing
and continued to work on his time-trial
power. The work paid off and Lance was
more than capable of fulfilling his role
of superdomestique for his team leader,
Levi Leipheimer, who went on to win his
third Tour of California. Race fans had an
opportunity to observe a Lance Armstrong
they weren’t accustomed to seeing. Instead
of riding as the team leader at the back of a
long line of teammates, it was Lance who was
sitting at the front of the line setting the pace
for Levi. What was most impressive to me
was Lance’s ability to do so much pace-setting
work and still finish 14 th in his first major
time trial since the 2005 Tour de France.
Fourteenth was a long way from being a
dominating performance, but when you put
it in the context of his comeback and his role
within the team during the preceding days of
racing, it was a performance that indicated his
form was right on target.
Racing is a great form of training, and we
used the Tour of California as the start of a
high-volume training block for Lance. Instead
of taking a recovery period right after the race,
Lance kept riding. For the next week, he piled
on the miles; we were taking advantage of
the training stress he’d already accumulated
during the Tour of California by heaping on
more volume. But in order for this block to be
effective, it was important to cut back on the
intensity and focus on long, steady hours in
the saddle. By the time Lance was done, he
had completed a massive two-week endurance
block that would build the stamina necessary
to return to competition in Europe.
The Tour of Italy was the race Lance was
building up to. Sure, the 2009 Tour de France
was the long-range goal, but the immediate
© 2009, CarmiChael Training SySTemS, inC. all righTS reServed.

The Comeback Training Plan
concern during March and April of 2009 was
preparing Lance for his first appearance at the
Giro d’Italia. If Lance was adequately prepared
for the Giro, I reasoned, he’d race well enough
to achieve a really big bump in his fitness
level. That meant Lance had to be a factor in
the race. He had to be near the front of the
peloton on major climbs, be a strong asset for
Levi Leipheimer and stay in the top 10 to 20
places in the overall classification. In other
words, he needed to have the conditioning
to ride where the racing was most difficult,
because being there would supply the
stimulus necessary to take his fitness to the
next level. If all he could do was ride in the
back of the pack, he’d get a three-week stage
race under his belt, but the training stimulus
wouldn’t be enough to get him up to Tour de
France condition in time for July.
Through most of March, things were
looking great. Following a climbing training
camp in Italy and southern France, Lance had
a strong ride in the 256-kilometer Milan-
San Remo classic, and then moved on to the
Castilla y Leon stage race in Spain. I was really
looking forward to seeing his result from
the Stage 2 individual time trial, because his
power outputs going into the race were very
good and I was confident he’d get a result
that would make his competitors take notice.
Unfortunately, Lance’s comeback came to an
abrupt halt during Stage 1, when he crashed
and broke his collarbone.
TWo sTePs forWard,
one sTeP baCk
Setbacks are part of the game in sports
and training, and throughout his cycling
career Lance was pretty lucky to avoid major
injuries. That this broken collarbone was
the first of his entire career was remarkable,
considering that a fractured clavicle is the
second-most common cycling injury (behind
skin abrasions). Nevertheless, he was headed
back to Austin to have surgery when he
should have been racing in Spain.
The nice thing about a broken
collarbone—if there’s anything nice about
breaking a bone—is that you can typically
return to training reasonably quickly. Within
four days of his crash in Spain, Lance was on
a stationary bike. The workout wasn’t that
important, but the act of getting back to
pedaling was. One thing I’ve learned about
comebacks is that you have to maintain
forward momentum. An athlete, whether
it’s Lance or you, has to feel like the process
is moving forward, even if training has been
put on hold. If a comeback stalls, it often
stops altogether.
Within 10 days of his crash, Lance was
back to doing interval training on his own
bike on an indoor trainer. He wasn’t putting
much weight on the handlebar because of his
collarbone injury, but that’s another reason a
broken collarbone can be seen as a “preferred”
injury. Compared with anything involving
the legs, hips, back and head, riders are
often able to maintain a higher training load
throughout their recoveries from shoulder,
arm or hand injuries.
By the time I joined Lance in Aspen,
Colorado, where he had gone for altitude
training, three weeks had passed since his
surgery and he was back out on the road.
Although he had some minor pain in his
collarbone still, he could pull on the handlebar
during climbs, ride on rough dirt roads and
descend with full confidence. All told, the
broken collarbone was a very minor setback
and it actually offered him the opportunity to
add a new race to his schedule.
Silver City, New Mexico, is one of the
secret gems of cycling in the United States.
Located at 5,895 feet above sea level and
surrounded by mountains, it’s a high-altitude
training ground that’s far enough south to be
hospitable in winter and beautiful year-round.
For the past 23 years, riders have been going to
Silver City in late April for the Tour of the Gila,
and in 2009 the race made a perfect addition
to the altitude training Lance had been doing
in Aspen following his collarbone injury.
The Tour of the Gila may not be as well
known internationally as the Tirreno-
Adriatico stage race or other races used as
tune-ups to the Tour of Italy, but it offered a
unique training opportunity for Lance. Had
he chosen to go back to Europe for his final
pre-Giro tune-up race, he would have spent
his days sitting in the middle of the peloton.
At Gila, he was one of the main players in the
race, and he spent many miles setting a hard
tempo on the front of the pack. Considering
that his role at the Tour of Italy would be that
of domestique, the way he was able to race at
the Tour of the Gila made it a better option
than a European event.
Going into the Tour of Italy, Leipheimer
looked like he had the form necessary to
challenge for the pink leader’s jersey, and Lance
was excited by the prospect of supporting his
teammate to a Grand Tour victory. For most of
the 2009 Giro d’Italia, Leipheimer had a viable
chance of capturing the pink jersey, but fatigue
from a season that began with a win at the
Tour of California in February caught up with
him in the third week of the race.
For Lance, the first week was the
toughest. Unlike the Tour de France, which
tends to start with a few days of relatively flat
stages designed to showcase the speed of the
sprinters, the Giro d’Italia mixes mountain
Within four days of breaking his collarbone,
Lance was on a stationary bike. The
workout wasn’t that important, but the
act of getting back to pedaling was.
stages and sprinters’ stages right from the
start. And in 2009, the organizers included
two back-to-back long stages in the first week
that each topped 240 kilometers. By the end
of the first week, Lance was tired, and it was
time to see how his body would adapt. If the
training program had adequately prepared
him for the Giro, he’d start feeling better
and stronger about halfway through the
second week of the race. If he didn’t start
feeling better, that would mean his pre-Giro
conditioning was inadequate and that instead
of adapting to the stress of the race, he would
continue to get more and more fatigued. For a
few days, all we could do was wait and see.
Part of what separates Grand Tour
champions from the rest of the peloton is the
way their bodies respond to the incredible
stress of a three-week race. Everyone fatigues
during a Grand Tour, but the handful of riders
in contention for the overall victory has the
ability to adapt to the stress, overcome the
fatigue and get stronger during the third
week. Lance has long been one of those riders,
and despite being well behind the leaders
of the 2009 Giro d’Italia, his individual
performances and sensations on the bike
indicated that he was getting stronger as the
race approached its final stage in Rome. He
finished the race in 12 th place, which was a
strong showing for the second-oldest man in
the race and a guy who had been riding and
running only for fitness 10 months earlier.
© 2009, CarmiChael Training SySTemS, inC. all righTS reServed.

The Comeback Training Plan
your ComebaCk plan
A 12-week program to revitalize your fitness
i
believe there is an athlete in every body, and no matter how
long it’s been since you last considered yourself an active
cyclist, you have what it takes to get back out there and regain
your rightful place in the pack. If you’re reading this, you’re
a person who enjoys spending time on your bike. It doesn’t
matter whether you want to race, ride centuries, go to the
local group ride, or just cruise the streets or trails. A comeback
doesn’t need to be founded on high-pressure goals like winning races
or riding farther or faster than you ever have before. It can be, but it
doesn’t have to be. A comeback is about being happy and accomplishing
personal goals that make you proud. Lance returned to professional
cycling because he wanted to engage a worldwide audience in the fight
against cancer and because he loves to train and race. He didn’t launch
a comeback because he needs more yellow jerseys. If he wins another
one, that’s great. If he doesn’t win anything, but succeeds in raising
international awareness of the fight against cancer, then the comeback
will be a success.
Likewise, when I decided to launch my own comeback in 2005, I
didn’t do it because I had dreams of winning the Leadville 100. I did it
because it has been a long time since I’d felt the exhilaration of being
a powerful cyclist. My comeback was about remembering how great it
feels to be strong and fast, and rediscovering my love for training.
We are extremely fortunate to be cyclists. It’s a sport and activity
that can be adapted to all manner of goals, and you can be a cyclist
from your early childhood all the way to your final days. The kind of
riding you do, the type of bike you ride, your average speed and the
events you participate in may change, but the beauty of our sport is
that it can evolve as you do. As long as you have two wheels and pedals,
everything else is semantics.
The programs in this guide are designed to get you back to the
cycling activities you love most, or get you started as a cyclist. And if
you already have years of riding in your legs, you’ll be happy to know
that even if you’ve been off the bike for a while, your body will still
adapt to training more quickly than if you were starting out as brandnew
rider. I’ve included two 12-week training plans. The Back in the
Saddle Plan (page 12) is for riders who have been away from the bike
or barely ridden for at least the last six months, and the Performance
Plan (page 13) is for cyclists who have been riding regularly (two
or three times a week) but are looking to return to a higher level of
performance. Recognizing that the vast majority of people using these
programs will be working adults with families waiting for them at
home, I’ve scheduled only three workouts per week on the Back in the
Saddle Plan and four workouts per week in the Performance Plan. If
you’re using the Performance Plan and have more time to devote to
training, add an endurance ride on Wednesday, but maintain the rest
days on Monday and Friday. If you’re using the Back in the Saddle Plan,
I don’t recommend adding any additional training sessions, even if
you have the time. Like athletes who are just starting their training,
athletes who are returning to cycling after a long period of being
relatively sedentary have more problems dealing with volume (training
hours) than intensity. Even though some of the weekday workouts
contain difficult intervals, the intensity is governed by your field test
results so it’s appropriate for your fitness level. Adding more volume,
however, can lead to a training workload your body is not ready for.
© 2009, CarmiChael Training SySTemS, inC. all righTS reServed.

The Comeback Training Plan
ComPleTe The CTs field TesT
The CTS Field Test should be completed
before you begin either of the training
programs in this guide. When you view the
programs, you’ll notice that the CTS Field Test
is not included in the schedule. Rather than
work it into the program itself, I want you to
complete it a few days before you begin one of
the training programs.
The Field Test itself is two eight-minute
efforts, but when you get on the bike, you’ll
need time to complete the warm-up, the Field
Test and a good cooldown, so budget a total of
an hour for the whole Field Test workout.
CTs field TesT insTruCTions
When performing the CTS Field Test, collect
the following data:
> AverAge heArt rAte for eAch effort
> MAx heArt rAte for eAch effort
> AverAge power for eAch effort
(if you use A power Meter)
> AverAge cAdence for eAch effort
> weAther conditions (wArM vs. cold,
windy vs. cAlM, etc.)
> course conditions (indoors vs. out-
doors, flAt vs. hilly, point-to-point vs.
out And bAck, etc.)
> rAte of perceived exertion (rpe, or
how hArd you felt you were working)
for eAch effort.
Step 1: Find A Suitable Course The CTS Field
Test can be completed on an indoor trainer, or
you can find a relatively flat course or a course
that is a consistent climb of about a 6 percent
grade. (A course with steep climbs or descents
will dictate your effort more than you will.)
Above all, find a course that’s safe, without
stop signs or traffic lights. For the sake of
being able to compare one test to another,
complete the test in weather conditions that
are reasonably common for your area.
Step 2: Begin Your First Effort Begin the effort
from a standing start. Resist the urge to
geTTing STarTed
start too fast; you should reach your top speed
about 45 to 60 seconds after you start, but not
before that.
Step 3: Find Your Pace And Gear Keep accelerating
and shifting until you reach a speed you
feel you can barely maintain for the length
of the effort. Focus entirely on completing
this effort at the highest power output you
possibly can. Try to maintain a cadence above
90 rpm on flat ground or on an indoor trainer,
and above 85 rpm if you’re completing the test
on a climb. When you get to the final minute
of the time trial, really open the throttle.
Step 4: Recover And Prepare For Effort #2
When you reach the end of Effort #1, you
should be completely drained, but keep pedaling
for the whole 10 minutes of recovery.
Step 5: Complete Effort #2 After the 10-minute
recovery, begin Effort #2 from your start
point. Gradually increase your speed for 45
to 60 seconds, just like the first effort. Avoid
the temptation to pace yourself based on your
first effort.
Step 6: Cool Down And Record Your Data All
that’s left is to cool down with easy spinning
for 15 to 30 minutes. Record your CTS Field
Test data, and use the charts on page 10 to
calculate your training intensities.
CalCulaTing Training
inTensiTies for CTs WorkouTs
To calculate your individual training
intensities for CTS Workouts, you need to
know either the higher of the two average
power outputs or the higher of the two
average heart rates from your CTS Field Test.
If you have both pieces of information, you
should calculate both power and heart-rate
training intensities, but use the power ranges
to gauge your interval efforts whenever
possible.
WorkouT desCriPTions
The workouts described below are used in the
training programs in this guide.
EnduranceMiles (EM) This is your moderatepace
endurance intensity. The point is to stay
at an intensity below lactate threshold for the
vast majority of any time you’re riding at EM
pace. The heart rate and power ranges for this
intensity are very broad in order to allow for
widely varying conditions. It is okay for your
power to dip on descents or in tailwinds, just
as it is expected that it will increase when you
climb small hills. One mistake some riders
make is to stay at the high end of their EM
range for their entire ride. As you’ll see from
the intensity ranges for Tempo workouts, the
One mistake some riders make is to stay at
the high end of their EnduranceMiles
range for the entire ride—you’re better off
staying in the middle of your range.
upper end of EM overlaps with Tempo. If you
constantly ride in your Tempo range instead
of using that as a distinct interval intensity,
you may not have the power to complete highquality
intervals when the time comes. You’re
better off keeping your power and/or heart
rate in the middle portion of your EM range
and allowing it to fluctuate up and down from
there as the terrain and wind dictate. Use
your gearing as you hit the hills to remain in
the saddle as you climb. Expect to keep your
© 2009, CarmiChael Training SySTemS, inC. all righTS reServed.

0
The Comeback Training Plan
insTruCTions for CalCulaTing CTs Training inTensiTies
1. Find the higher of the two average power outputs, and/or the higher of the two average heart rates from your CTS Field Test.
2. Multiply this power output and/or heart rate by the percentages listed in the table below to establish the upper and lower limits of your
training ranges.
samPle: Training inTensiTies for Joe aThleTe
Let’s say Joe Athlete completed the CTS Field Test and recorded average power outputs of 300 watts and 296 watts. During the same efforts, his
average heart rates were 172 and 175, respectively. He would use the 300 watts and the 175 heart rate to calculate his training intensities, even
though they came from different efforts during the CTS Field Test.
The lower limit of Joe’s SteadyState intensity ranges would come out to 300 x 0.86 = 258 watts. The upper limit of his SteadyState
intensity range would come out to 300 x 0.90 = 270 watts. So Joe should complete SteadyState intervals at a power output between 258 and
270 watts. The table below has been filled out with all of Joe Athlete’s intensity ranges.
Your CTs Training inTensiTies:
workout nAMe priMAry trAining goAl
percent of cts field
test power
cts power intensity
rAnge (wAtts)
endurAnce Miles Basic aerobic development 45–73% 50–91%
teMpo
steAdy stAte
cliMbing repeAt
power
intervAl
workout nAMe priMAry trAining goAl
Improved aerobic
endurance
Increased power at
lactate threshold
Increased power at
lactate threshold
Increased power
at VO2 max
percent of cts field
test power
80–85% 88–90%
86–90% 92–94%
95–100% 95–97%
Max effort (101% at
absolute minimum)
cts power intensity
rAnge (wAtts)
percent of cts field
test heArt rAte
endurAnce Miles Basic aerobic development 45–73% 135-219 50–91% 88–159
teMpo
steAdy stAte
cliMbing repeAt
power intervAl
workout nAMe priMAry trAining goAl percent of cts field test power
endurAnce Miles Basic aerobic development 45–73% 50–91%
teMpo Improved aerobic endurance 80–85% 88–90%
steAdy stAte Increased power at lactate threshold 86–90% 92–94%
cliMbing repeAt Increased power at lactate threshold 95–100% 95–97%
power intervAl Increased power at VO2 max Max effort (101% at absolute minimum) 100%–max
Improved aerobic
endurance
Increased power at
lactate threshold
Increased power at
lactate threshold
Increased power
at VO2 max
80–85% 240–255 88–90% 154–158
86–90% 258–270 92–94% 161–165
95–100% 285–300 95–97% 166–170
Max effort (101% at
absolute minimum)
300+ 100%–max 175–max
percent of cts field
test heArt rAte
100%–max
percent of cts
field test heArt rAte
cts heArt rAte
intensity rAnge
(bpM)
cts heArt rAte
intensity rAnge
(bpM)
© 2009, CarmiChael Training SySTemS, inC. all righTS reServed.

The Comeback Training Plan
pedal speed up into the 85 to 95 RPM range.
Note: When a workout calls for “60 minutes
EM with three 8-minute SteadyState Intervals,”
the 60 minutes is your total ride time.
Your warm-up, SteadyState Intervals, recovery
periods between intervals and cooldown
are all to be included within that 60 minutes.
> rAte of perceived exertion ( =eAsy, 0=As
hArd As you cAn go): hr: 0- % of highest
field test AverAge power: - % of highest
field test AverAge
FastPedal (FP) This workout should be
performed on a relatively flat section of road.
The gearing should be light, with low pedal resistance.
Begin slowly and increase your pedal
speed, starting out with around 15 or 16 pedal
revolutions per 10-second count. This equates
to a cadence of 90 to 96 RPM. While staying
in the saddle, increase your pedal speed,
keeping your hips smooth with no rocking.
Concentrate on pulling through the bottom
of the pedal stroke and over the top. After one
minute of FastPedal, you should be maintaining
18 to 20 pedal revolutions per 10-second
count, or a cadence of 108 to 120 RPM for
the entire amount of time prescribed for the
workout. Your heart rate will climb while doing
this workout, but don’t use it to judge your
training intensity. It is important that you
try to ride the entire length of the FastPedal
workout with as few interruptions as possible,
because it should consist of consecutive riding
at the prescribed training intensity. > rpe:
hr: nA power: nA
Tempo (T) Tempo is an excellent workout
for developing aerobic power and endurance.
The intensity is well below lactate threshold,
but hard enough so that you are generating a
significant amount of lactate and forcing your
body to buffer and process it. The intervals
are long (15 minutes at a minimum, and they
can last as long as two hours for pros), and
you’ll want your gearing to be relatively large,
with a goal of having your cadence come down
to about 70 to 75 RPM. This helps increase
pedal resistance and strengthen leg muscles.
Also, be sure and try to stay in the saddle
when you hit hills during your Tempo workouts.
It is important that you try to ride the
entire length of the Tempo workout with as
few interruptions as possible—tempo workouts
should consist of consecutive riding at
the prescribed intensity to achieve maximum
benefit. > rpe: hr: - % of highest field
test AverAge power: - % of highest field
test AverAge
SteadyState Intervals (SS) These intervals
are great for increasing a cyclist’s maximum
sustainable power because the intensity is
below lactate threshold but relatively close to
it. As you accumulate time at this intensity,
you are forcing your body to deal with a lot
of lactate for a relatively prolonged period of
time. These intervals are best performed on
relatively flat roads and small rolling hills. If
you end up doing them on a sustained climb,
you should really bump the intensity up to
ClimbingRepeat range, which reflects the
grade’s added contribution to your effort. Do
your best to complete these intervals without
interruptions from stoplights, etc. and maintain
a cadence of 85 to 95 RPM. In this case,
maintaining the training zone intensity is
the most important factor, not pedal cadence.
SteadyState intervals are meant to be slightly
below your individual time trial pace, so don’t
make the mistake of riding at your time-trial
pace during the SteadyState intervals. Recovery
time between SteadyState intervals is
typically about half the length of the interval
itself. > rpe: hr: - % of highest field
test AverAge power: - 0% of highest
field test AverAge
ClimbingRepeats (CR) This workout should
be performed on a road with a long, steady
climb. The training intensity is designed to be
similar to that of a SteadyState interval but
reflect the additional workload necessary to
ride uphill. The intensity is just below your
lactate threshold power and/or heart rate and
it’s critical that you maintain this intensity
for the length of the CR. Pedal cadence for CR
intervals while climbing should be 70 to 85
RPM. Maintaining the training intensity is
the most important factor, not pedal cadence.
It is very important to avoid interruptions
while doing these intervals. Recovery time
between intervals is typically about half the
length of the interval itself. > rpe: hr: -
% of highest field test power: - 00% of
highest field test AverAge
OverUnder Intervals (OU) OverUnder Intervals
are a more advanced form of SteadyState
Intervals. The “Under” intensity is your
SteadyState range, and the “Over” intensity
is your ClimbingRepeat range. By alternating
between these two intensity levels during a
sustained interval, you develop the “agility”
to handle changes in pace. This workout can
be performed on a flat road, rolling hills or a
sustained climb that’s relatively gradual (3 to
6% grade). Your gearing should be moderate
and pedal cadence high (100 RPM or higher)
if you’re riding on flat ground or rolling hills.
Pedal cadence should be above 85 RPM if
you’re on a gradual climb.
To complete the interval, bring your
intensity up to your SteadyState range over
the first 45 to 60 seconds. Maintain this
intensity for the prescribed “Under” time and
then increase your intensity to your “Over”
intensity for the prescribed time. At the end
of this “Over” time, return to your “Under”
intensity range and continue riding at this
effort level until it’s once again time to return
to your “Over” intensity. Continue alternating
this way until the end of the interval.
OverUnder Intervals always end with a period
at “Over” intensity. Recovery periods between
intervals are typically about half the length
of the work interval. Note: A more advanced
version of this interval would alternate
between SteadyState and PowerInterval
intensities instead of SteadyState and
ClimbingRepeat intensities. > rpe: hr: -
% of highest field test AverAge (under)
AlternAting with - % (over) power: -
0% of highest field test AverAge (under)
AlternAting with - 00% (over)
PowerIntervals (PI) These short efforts are
the way you’re going to apply the concepts of
high-intensity training to your program in order
to make bigger aerobic gains in less time.
These intervals are maximal efforts and can
be performed on any terrain except sustained
descents. Your gearing should be moderate so
you can maintain a relatively high pedal cadence
(100 or higher is best).
During these intervals you should try to
reach and maintain as high a power output
as possible for the duration of the interval.
Ideally, these efforts should look like flat
plateaus when you view your power files. Take
the first 30 to 45 seconds to gradually bring
your power up and then hold on for the rest of
the interval. The point here is to accumulate
as much time as possible at a relatively
constant and extremely high output.
The rest periods between PowerIntervals
are purposely too short to provide complete
recovery, and completing subsequent
intervals in a partially recovered state is a key
part of what makes these efforts effective.
Typically, recovery times are equal to the
interval work time, which is sometimes
referred to as a 1:1 work-to-recovery ratio. >
rpe: 0 hr: 00-MAx power: 0+ of highest
field test AverAge (soMe intervAls MAy be
higher thAn this rAnge)
© 2009, CarmiChael Training SySTemS, inC. all righTS reServed.

The Comeback Training Plan
baCk in The Saddle plan
If you’ve had a layoff, this program will get you back on track
MondAy tuesdAy wednesdAy thursdAy fridAy sAturdAy sundAy
Week 1 60 min EM 60 minutes EM with
3x3min FP, 5 minutes
Rest Between
Intervals (RBI)
Week 2 Rest Day 60 minutes EM with
20 min T
Week 3 Rest Day 75 minutes EM 25
min T
Week 4 Rest Day Rest Day or
45 minutes easy
spinning
Week 5 Rest Day 60-90 minutes EM
with 4x6min SS, 5min
RBI
Week 6 Rest Day 60-90 minutes EM
with 3x8min SS, 5min
RBI
Week 7 Rest Day 60-90 minutes EM
with 3x10min SS, 6min
RBI
Week 8 Rest Day 60 minutes EM with
5x3min FP, 3 minutes
RBI
Week 9 Rest Day 60-90 minutes EM
with 3x6min OU (2
Under, 1 Over), 5min
RBI
Week 10 Rest Day 60-90 minutes EM
with 3 sets of 3x2min
PI, 2min RBI, 5 min
Rest Between Sets
(RBS)
Week 11 Rest Day 60-90 minutes EM
with 3 sets of 4x2min
PI, 2min RBI, 5 min
RBS
Week 12 Rest Day 60 minutes EM with
1x6min SS
Rest Day 60 minutes EM with
3x3min FP, 5 minutes
RBI
Rest Day 60 minutes EM with
3x5min FP, 5 minutes
RBI
Rest Day 75 minutes EM with
25 min T
Rest Day 60 minutes EM with
3x5min FP, 5 minutes
RBI
Rest Day 90 minutes EM with
45 min T
Rest Day 60-90 minutes EM with
3x8min SS, 5min RBI
60-90 minutes
EM with
3x8min SS,
5min RBI
Rest Day 75 minutes EM with
15 min T
Rest Day 75 minutes EM with
20 min T
Rest Day 90 minutes EM with
25 min T
Rest Day 90 minutes EM with
30 min T
Rest Day 90 minutes EM with
4x6min SS, 5min RBI
Rest Day 90 minutes EM in hilly
terrain or Group Ride
Rest Day Rest Day 90-120 minutes EM
with 3x10min SS,
5 minutes RBI
Rest Day 90 minutes EM Rest Day 120 minutes EM with
3x12min SS, 8 minutes
RBI
Rest Day 90 minutes EM Rest Day 120 minutes EM with
4x6min OU (2 Under, 1
Over), 4 minutes RBI
Rest Day 60-90 minutes EM with
4x6min OU (1 Under, 1
Over), 4min RBI
Rest Day 60-90 minutes EM with
3 sets of 3x2min PI,
2min RBI, 5 min RBS
Rest Day 60 minutes EM with
5x3min FP, 3 minutes
RBI
Rest Day 150 minutes EM with
4x6min OU (1 Under, 1
Over), 4 minutes RBI
Rest Day 120-150 minutes EM
with 5x6min OU (1 Under,
1 Over), 4 minutes
RBI
Rest Day
Rest Day
Rest Day
Rest Day
Rest Day
Rest Day
Rest Day
Rest Day
Rest Day
Rest Day
Rest Day
Rest Day Race, Century, Group Ride, Epic mountain bike
ride, you name it—you’re ready for it.
© 2009, CarmiChael Training SySTemS, inC. all righTS reServed.

The Comeback Training Plan
MondAy tuesdAy wednesdAy thursdAy fridAy sAturdAy sundAy
Week 1 60 min EM 60 minutes EM with
3x3min FP, 5 minutes
Rest Between
Intervals (RBI)
Week 2 Rest Day 60 minutes EM with
20 min T
Week 3 Rest Day 75 minutes EM with
25 min T
Week 4 Rest Day Rest Day or
45 minutes
easy spinning
Week 5 Rest Day 60-90 minutes EM
with 4x6min SS, 5min
RBI
Week 6 Rest Day 60-90 minutes EM
with 3x8min SS, 5min
RBI
Week 7 Rest Day 60-90 minutes EM
with 3x10min SS, 6min
RBI
Week 8 Rest Day 60 minutes EM with
5x3min FP, 3 minutes
RBI
Week 9 Rest Day 60-90 minutes EM
with 3x6min OU (2
Under, 1 Over), 5min
RBI
Week 10 Rest Day 60-90 minutes EM
with 3 sets of 3x2min
PI, 2min RBI, 5 min
Rest Between Sets
(RBS)
Week 11 Rest Day 60-90 minutes EM
with 3 sets of 4x2min
PI, 2min RBI, 5 min
RBS
Week 12 Rest Day 60 minutes EM with
1x6min SS
performanCe plan
Don’t just finish your goal event—crush it
Rest Day 60 minutes EM with
3x3min FP, 5 minutes
RBI
Rest Day
or 60-90
minutes EM
Rest Day
or 60-90
minutes EM
Rest Day
or 60-90
minutes EM
Rest Day
or 60-90
minutes EM
Rest Day
or 60-90
minutes EM
60-90 minutes
EM with
3x8min SS,
5min RBI
Rest Day
or 60-90
minutes EM
Rest Day
or 60-90
minutes EM
Rest Day
or 60-90
minutes EM
Rest Day
or 60-90
minutes EM
60 minutes EM with
3x5min FP, 5 minutes
RBI
75 minutes EM with
25 min T
60 minutes EM with
3x5min FP, 5 minutes
RBI
90 minutes EM with
45 min T
60-90 minutes EM with
3x8min SS, 5min RBI
Rest Day 90 minutes EM with
15 min T
Rest Day 90 minutes EM with
20 min T
Rest Day 90-120 minutes EM
with 30 min T
Rest Day 90-120 minutes EM
with 40 min T
Rest Day 90-120 minutes EM
with 3x8min SS,
6 minutes RBI
Rest Day 90-150 minutes EM in
hilly terrain
Rest Day Rest Day 90-150 minutes EM
with 3x12min SS,
8 minutes RBI
90 minutes EM Rest Day 120-150 minutes EM
with 3x12min SS,
8 minutes RBI
90 minutes EM Rest Day 120-150 minutes
EM with 4x6min OU
(2 Under, 1 Over), 4
minutes RBI
60-90 minutes EM with
4x6min OU (1 Under, 1
Over), 4min RBI
60-90 minutes EM with
3 sets of 3x2min PI,
2min RBI, 5 min RBS
Rest Day 60 minutes EM with
5x3min FP, 3 minutes
RBI
Rest Day 120-150 minutes EM
with 5x6min OU
(1 Under, 1 Over),
4 minutes RBI
Rest Day 120-150 minutes EM
with 6x6min OU
(1 Under, 1 Over),
4 minutes RBI
90-120 minutes EM in
hilly terrain
90-120 minutes EM or
Group Ride
90-120 minutes EM
120-150 minutes EM or
Group Ride
90-150 minutes EM or
Group Ride
90-150 minutes EM or
Group Ride
90-150 minutes EM or
Group Ride
90-150 minutes EM or
Group Ride
90-150 minutes EM
with 3x10min SS,
6 minutes RBI
90-150 minutes EM or
Group Ride
90-150 minutes EM or
Group Ride
Rest Day Race, Century, Group Ride, Epic mountain bike
ride, you name it—you’re ready for it.
© 2009, CarmiChael Training SySTemS, inC. all righTS reServed.