CPT Cycling FAQ's

There is more possibility than ever in today’s digital age to work closely with a personal cycling coach, potentially on an almost daily basis via message, phone or video call. Your training data from power, heart rate, cadence and many more metrics can be used by your coach to create a completely custom training plan based on your unique physiology that an expert coach is able to identify. Using advanced software, coach feedback that is simplified to your own level of knowledge, can be given in almost limitless areas such as; effective pacing of intervals, how your unique physiology is adapting, progress updates on specific power improvement, how closely you are following a training plan, managing form and fatigue and suggested improvements to pedalling technique.

You can view the details of what each Coaching Package contains here Or tell us about your story and what you are training for, here. You can purchase a Coaching Package that suits your needs. You can upgrade, downgrade, be put on hold or cancel your monthly subscription at any time.

All coaching packages include full custom plans and there are 3 different levels of Coaching Packages. This is unrelated to your ability as a cyclist. Matching which one is best for you depends on your budget and/ or how much coach feedback you want. The more regularly you are in contact with your coach; the more in tune you can be with your training. However, where you can add your own value back to yourself, even if it may cost a little more of your time, is with regular communication with your coach and you will get back as much as you invest in this. The most effective coach - athlete relationships are as a partnership.

Yes, there are. The first option is Training Plans, that are available in the CPT Cycling shop. These are available for 3 different levels of training load and for a variety of different cycling disciplines. These are a more affordable alternative for ongoing training as they are semi customised to 1 of 3 levels and to your chosen discipline. Although they are not 100% customised to the exact event you are training for and your individual strengths and limiters. They do however offer significantly more customisation than free training plans available elsewhere on the web and are a structured plan (not just individual workouts) over days and weeks, working towards finding your form at the right time. If you need help, you also have contact with the coach that wrote the plan too. The other option that is not ongoing is a Consultation that you can purchase by the hour, where you can get a coach review of your past training and get recommendations for future training. You can book a consultation as a one off, or as regularly as you choose.

Yes, there are. The first option is Training Plans, that are available in the CPT Cycling shop. These are available for 3 different levels of training load and for a variety of different cycling disciplines. These are a more affordable alternative for ongoing training as they are semi customised to 1 of 3 levels and to your chosen discipline. Although they are not 100% customised to the exact event you are training for and your individual strengths and limiters. They do however offer significantly more customisation than free training plans available elsewhere on the web and are a structured plan (not just individual workouts) over days and weeks, working towards finding your form at the right time. If you need help, you also have contact with the coach that wrote the plan too. The other option that is not ongoing is a Consultation that you can purchase by the hour, where you can get a coach review of your past training and get recommendations for future training. You can book a consultation as a one off, or as regularly as you choose.

To pick if you are best suited to Masters, Intermediate or Advanced; you will need to decide if you are able to fit in on average; 6, 8 or 10 hours per week training into your schedule and if you have enough of a training base to lead you into you chosen level of plan Or tell us about your story and what you are training for, here. Then, read through all the cycling disciplines/ events to find the one that is closest to your goal event. There are plans especially designed for use with WKO for 360º individualised targets beyond just FTP. If you do not use WKO, then chose a “Classic Power Zones” plan. If you need further help, email richard@cptcycling.co.uk.

Although it is recommended to follow a CPT Cycling training plan with an accurate power meter to give the most relevant targets to your current fitness and to track your progress. If you only have a heart rate monitor, it is still possible to follow the intervals on the workouts in training plan labeled “Classic Power Zones”. You can go off your heart rate zones from 1-4 and then on RPE from zone 5 up to sprint.

The easiest way to use the workouts from a CPT Cycling training plan with Zwift is to connect to your TrainingPeaks account within your Zwift profile. You should then see the planned workout of each day in the workout section of Zwift under "TrainingPeaks custom workouts". If it's not there, it's likely that the planned workout may need to be moved from the original planned day to the day you want to complete the workout on.

Yes; you can upgrade to a Coaching Package subscription, or you can take out a Coach Consultation to support your training plan as and when you need.

There will always be some small difference as the 2 are not the exact same set of circumstances with a side to side locked in position being one such example. Good modern trainers generally do not have this issue. The key is to look at the manufacturer specified fly wheel size. If it is a larger flywheel weight, or a “virtual flywheel”, then normally your power will read very close to what it would be out on the road. For low flywheel weight trainers, the most effective solution currently is to give your trainer workout a tag of “trainer”, which will generate 2 seperate power duration curves (PDC) in WKO, one for trainer and one for all rides. If the difference is significant enough, your coach will use a seperate trainer FTP, modelled from the trainer PDC and give you a second set of lower power zones to follow on your trainer workouts.

Yes; you can upgrade to a Coaching Package subscription, or you can take out a Coach Consultation to support your training plan as and when you need.

Yes it is. The majority of CPT Cycling coached riders have very busy work and family schedules that can be prioritised with an optimised training plan built around anything outside of training that takes priority. The key to this working well is keeping in close communication with your coach as to what your regular schedule is and when it changes.

As the name suggests, road cycling is the coached sport. Our expertise is also very much in mountain biking. We are also experienced in coaching cyclo cross and track cycling and these disciplines can be incorporated into a full custom plan. There are crossover principles in the endurance coaching world that help when planning cross training, but anything larger volume, going into complete multi sport training is not covered.

With a coaching package, check the amount of coach amendments you can call upon each month and use those at the most effective times for you. Once you have used those up until the following month, you can move workouts, but be aware that the timing of each workout is placed in an optimal day and swapping workouts over may or may not affect this balance. That's why it is recommended that you let your coach know what workouts you plan on swapping, before you do it. This also helps to keep track of how relevant and effective your training plan has been, so that future plans can be more relevant and effective.

When you feel ready enough, when you return on your first ride back, do not ride longer than 1 hour and for no higher than zone 2 power and heart rate. Keep doing this for the days in your calendar when you have a workout and when this starts to feel as easy as it used to and when your average heart rate zone is down to the same as your average power zone, then attempt your first interval ride back and notify your coach once you have completed your first interval workout back.

Cycling specific nutritional guidance can be given by CPT Cycling coaches with up to date effective strategies on nutrition and hydration based on extensive racing experience through coaching a large data pool of riders and nutrition training within coaching qualifications. It is recommended that you seek advice from a nutritionist for a full nutrition plan.

Currently, if you have access to some or all of these sensors; these can be used to analyse past training to form more accurate and relevant training plans for the future:

Power meters enable a training plan to offer individualised targets towards your specific goals, current form, strength and limiters. They are able to display the most metrics of any sensor, both during and after each ride, including pedalling technique and Vo2 max. Heart rate and muscle oxygen shows aerobic form when combined with power analysis. Speed and Cda sensors will allow analysis of aerodynamics to improve position and technique to optimise in combination with power and/ or motion sensors. Temperature sensors allow identification of extreme hot or cold weather conditions to improve hydration and nutrition strategies. Weight and body composition metrics help to form weight loss goals and identify your ideal weight without compromising your power output. See CPT Cycling shop for all recommended training products that will add greater value to the coaching you receive and your training.

The main thing to look for in a power meter is the consistency of it’s readings. Having a power meter where readings drift over time will restrict the view of your progress over time. Of course a dual sided power meter will offer more accurate and relevant numbers, but if your budget does not stretch to this, then a consistently reading single sided power meter is a more useful tool than an inconsistent reading dual sided power meter, as a good single sided meter will still allow you and your coach to track your progress. The most relevant and accessible way to test power meter accuracy is to record 2 seperate power files on the same ride on a smart trainer to upload for coach analysis. Recommended power meters can be found in the CPT Cycling shop.

TrainingPeaks is the online planning software used by CPT Cycling. We also use Training Peaks offline software WKO5 for ride data analysis and Best Bike Split for race planning. Coach Richard uses the TrainingPeaks coach match program for additional athlete leads and contributes to TrainingPeaks articles. Aside from this, CPT Cycling is run completely independently.

Quite simply, CPT stands for Cycling Personal Trainer.