Reaching the Plateau

By Michael Renardson

Cycling is pretty tough – there’s no two ways about it. We put countless hours of our lives into training, nutrition, bike fit tweaks, equipment changes and, of course, riding itself.

Cycling training is not an overnight process. Getting fitter, stronger and more efficient takes a considerable amount of effort, with each training session accounting for only a small improvement. Avoiding reaching the training danger zone – known as the plateau – is therefore more important in cycling than almost any other sport.

A plateau, in its figurative meaning, describes a period of little to no change or progress after a period of activity or growth. In other words, progress levels off and you do not improve despite putting in multiple hours a week both on and off the bike.

In the context of cycling, this is dangerous. You could be putting in anywhere from 8 to 15 hours a week on the bike and potentially not improving. This leads to mental and physical burnout – that feeling of trying so hard but having little or nothing to show for it.

Yet, with some careful planning and by following some basic training principles, we can push past a plateau and start to make meaningful improvements.

The burning question

What causes a plateau and how can I move forwards with my training after experiencing one? Here are some of the causes I see on almost a daily basis:

Lack of progressive overload

Commonly, riders will have a lack of progressive overload in their training. For example, they might be riding 10 or 12 hours every week but riding the same week over and over again. There is no increase in the intensity, duration or frequency of their key training sessions.

If you don’t build overload into your training plan, your body will adapt to the sessions you are riding and won’t make further gains.

Lack of polarity

If you can’t keep the easy days easy, you will not be able to ride the hard days as hard as you should.

Commonly, riders will train too hard on recovery days and Z2 endurance days. As a result, they end up fatigued for their key sessions. This makes it harder to reach the aforementioned overload. Your body is simply too tired to push hard enough to make the gains. Keep the easy days easy and the key sessions will become much more effective.

Lack of consistency

How many times have you heard a coach say ‘consistency is key’? Coaches say it because it’s completely true.

If you find that your training duration varies massively from week to week, it can be a major cause of a plateau.

Think of training like building a skyscraper, with each training week being a floor. If there are holes in the training plan, then your building will only reach so high before it comes crashing down.

If you can train effectively each week, you will keep adding solid floors to the building and build much higher.

Overtraining

We’ve all ridden with that rider who turns every session into a smashfest and can’t help riding every single day.

Rest days, easy days and the polarity mentioned earlier are all massively important to a rider who wants to keep progressing with their training. Rest days are arguably more important than any other training day. These are when you will consolidate your training gains and adapt. Leave these out and you will be going backwards and finding it almost impossible to improve.

Breaking through the plateau

These are just a few of the most common reasons for reaching the plateau that I see. If some of the points resonate with you, don’t panic. The key takeaway here is to identify when you are not improving and then work backwards to understand why that might be.

If we are putting hundreds of hours a year into training, then planning and structuring that training to be as effective as possible is a great use of time. And, of course, if you are struggling, a chat with a coach can be invaluable.