If you are following any of the British Cycling Training Plans, it is more than likely that, at some point, you will be forced to miss or compromise a week or two of training. The temptation is just to plough on from where you left off but how should you manage a break?

Timing your break

If you know you have a period of time, such as a holiday, when you won’t have full access to your bike, try to plan it to coincide with a recovery week. If this doesn’t quite work out with the plan you are following, you can juggle the weeks slightly to achieve this. In general, most of the plans follow a pattern of three weeks build followed by an easier recovery week. You can add an additional week of build, by repeating the third week in the cycle, to shift the plan but four weeks of build in a row is the limit. Another option is to simply schedule in an extra recovery week, this works well if you have got access to some training facilities.

Keeping it ticking over

Just because you can’t ride, doesn't mean you can’t be doing something that will be beneficial to your cycling fitness. Explore , work on your or pack a . Many hotels will have a gym and, even on the most basic static bike, you can still get a decent workout. Take some of our with you or, even better, try to replicate the sessions that were scheduled in your plan.

Bonus rest

If you have been consistently following one of our plans, a week of extra rest won’t have any significant detrimental effect on your fitness. In fact, after the enforced rest, you may well find you come back stronger.

Back to recovery

If you are completely inactive or only manage sporadic training for more than a week, you should go back to the last recovery week you completed in the plan, repeat it to ease you back into training and re-start your training from this point.

For example, if you were following the Foundation Plan, had just completed Week 6 but were then forced to take a couple of weeks off consistent training. You should go back to Week 4, use this to get you going again and then also repeat Weeks 5 and 6. This will safely bring you back to where you were on the plan and you can then continue.

Illness or injury

If your break from training is enforced by illness or injury, ensure you are fully recovered before restarting training. For a break of up to a couple of weeks, depending on the cause and after receiving sign-off from a medical professional, the advice above of returning to your last completed recovery week should apply. If your break is for longer than two weeks, you should go back to the previous recovery week for each additional week of training missed.

For example, if you were following the Beginners Training Plan and had completed Week 19 but then missed three weeks of training due to injury, you should go back to Week 12. If you were unlucky enough to miss a further week, you should go back another block to Week 8.

Retest Threshold

Don’t forget, if you have missed a significant block of training, you will probably have to retest your Functional Threshold Heart Rate (FTHR) or Functional Threshold Power (FTP) and reset your training zones. Don’t just pick up with your old training zones from before your break. Schedule a re-test for the week after you return to training. You can substitute it for one of the midweek workouts, just ensure you have a day off before it.