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
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.