How do you plan a full 6-month winter training using Coach Jack or TrainerDay plans?

Training and Performance Fundamentals
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Hi everyone :wave:

I’m planning a solid 6-month winter training block (October–March) using Coach Jack or other plans on TrainerDay. I really like how each Jack plan (Base, Base+, Build, etc.) is structured — but they seem to work best for short phases, not an entire season.

My challenge is this:

How do you structure an entire 6-month period using these plans without hitting VO2Max in October and without losing progression?

Also — each plan is limited to either 4 or 8 weeks, but what if I want a proper 6-week Base, or mix and match slightly?

Questions:

  • Do you manually stack 2x 4-week plans?
  • Do you customize them using Coach Jack’s filters (duration, workout types)?
  • Anyone built a fully periodized plan this way (Base → Build → Peak)?

Would love to hear:

  • How you handle full-season structure
  • Any creative setups with Jack
  • Workarounds for the 4/8 week plan length limits

Thanks in advance!

3 Likes
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Hi Peter,

What a good way to approach your training. I would even take it a step further and create a plan for a year.

So here is how I do this for my clients. I select 3 major goals with them. These goals can be anything from riding a Gran Fondo to just getting fitter. Preferably, these goals are spread over 6 months.

Next, we start with a base period. I always use hiit training all year round. Only in rest weeks is there no interval training.
I like to use 3 blocks and spend 4 weeks in each block. This makes it easy to follow, since each block will be one month. After 12 weeks you ride a goal (or subgoal), followed by a rest week.
Then you start the whole cycle again.

Every cycle starts with what I’d like to call a relative rest week. You are training, doing hiit, but the total volume is lower than week 4. It is a periodisation within your periodisation that prevents you from overtraining, stimulating proper rest and growth.

I’ve added one of the plans I wrote for a client. It is one month in a build phase, but the base and peak look similar, with a few differences specific to that phase.
You can see the tss building up and going down in week 5.

Hitting Vo2max is not a big problem, and neither is the loss of progression. In a rest week you might lose a little fitness, but you gain back form. As long as you train consistently throughout the year, over the years to come, these slight changes are not important, but natural. Most cyclist focus to much on their progression for this month instead of the bigger picture. Building true fitness takes time. Learn to love and it will be your friend forever.

I would just play around and try to build and follow some blocks now, in order to be prepared for October.

A last, but important tip is to keep your plan flexible. The first draft of your plan is like a red wire through your season, but it shouldn’t be written in stone. When you are sick, you take a week off. No problem. Adjust the plan if you need to.

Have fun, Coach Robert

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ps: the weekend training seems like tempo, but they are really zone 2. That is also the mission for the client. Ride zone 2 in the weekend.

2 Likes
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Thanks and I agree with Robert sounds great. You can always create your own 16 week blocks and just schedule them one after another. Any of these standard blocks are good.

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You also can click on that custom button and design your own 16 week block. Which can be exactly the same as one of the standard blocks with a little more control. It’s very easy.

The main thing as Robert suggests is around your goals. If you like a hard indoor winter and feeling strong in the spring for outdoors that could be the driver that everything revolves around. Frequently around this time of year it’s more about just holding on to the fitness you gained for the next 3-6 months and then repeat the cycle trying to get to a new high… But it’s about matching the training with you and your preferences and goals. The main thing is not to just try to push harder and harder for ever, have some ups and downs. That could be rotated blocks like Robert does of about 3 months each, or that could longer full yearly periodization that many racers do. But 6 month plans are in between those two or something that cyclocross racers follow frequently for example.

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I wanted to comment on a concept using the 6-month training plan with Coach Jack that uses reverse periodization.

I live in northern Illinois USA. There is enough cold and snow here that we have 4 distinct seasons. Starting the beginning of November until about the middle of March there is a lack of daylight and enough cold that it is tough to ride outside. I personally draw the line at 40F/5C for temperature, any colder than that and the ride isn’t very fun.

I’ve previously commented that I’m a fan of self-coaching, but truthfully I have a lot of second doubts about what I propose for myself and it is easier to put my trust into an “authority”, specifically here Coach Jack. I hope this helps build some accountability, I stick with it, and finish the plan :slight_smile:

My high level concept is to have a pair of 6-month plans. One for the outdoor riding season and one for the winter.

The CJ 6-month plans are formatted as: 8 weeks base, 12 weeks build, 6 weeks plan.

How I’m personally planning to go about the winter phase:

September 22, 2025 through March 21, 2026 with intensity levels changed to match my preferences. The goal is to “peak” for next March and be primed and ready to go for the outside riding season, but not be fatigued. This is the reverse periodization part.

Base - Base++ (10-15) – #15 is where 30/30s stop and it transitions into 30/15s, 30/30s are good enough for me, no need to go harder.
Build - Polarized (6-14) – The Polarized workouts after #14 start to get really hard, 8x3-minutes at 115% for the last one should be plenty hard enough.
Peak - Big Climbs (10-13) – Threshold Blocks #10 starts 8x3-minute intervals and #13 finishes with 6x6-minute intervals. I recently did a 45 minute FTP test so these are good enough to shake the rust off before going back outside.

How I’m personally planning to go about the outdoor phase:

Starting next March 22, 2026 then with 6-month duration. The idea here is prioritize outside riding, but have the one weekly interval session done on the indoor trainer. The basic plan is that I’m doing HIIT A style 20/40s which are not super hard, but keep at least some level of targeted intensity and shouldn’t get in the way of outdoor riding.

Base - Base++ intensity 1
Build - Custom plan that matches Base++, again start intensity 1
Peak - Custom plan that matches Base++, probably intensity 7

It is still basically a polarized plan, but one that progresses per Coach Jack’s help. Maybe it is too fancy, but I know what I want.

Dave

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How do you plan to track progress over all six months so you don’t burn out on VO2Max at the start of the season?

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Good question! I think the honest answer is you listen to your body and don’t know until you do it.

However, I’m highly confident the 20-40s and 30-30s once a week won’t cook me and I have some experience with the harder 3 minute intervals and think those will be fine once a week too.

This isn’t like a TR plan where you are flying close to the sun all of the time. There’s some margin. Vo2 #14 will be the hardest one, but there’s several weeks that build to that point.

Dave