Base Training Advice is broken, and How to Make it Right with 4–8 Hours a Week

The base training advice coming from social media and indoor riding platforms is just flat out wrong, especially if you've got less than eight hours to train each week. Riding only in zone 2 for your base training is setting you up to fail. And riding hard every ride all winter is also setting you up to fail. And you already know this because you may have done it.

You've trained all winter, you've put in the time, and then in the spring you are still getting jobs. So, it's not really a motivation problem. It's a training strategy problem. And today, I'm going to show you how to build a real aerobic base the right way on just 4 to 8 hours of training per week, indoors or outdoors, and accelerate your improvement.

I'll show you when to do base training, what it actually accomplishes physiologically, where most cyclists get it wrong, and what a base training plan looks like for real people with real schedules. And if you watch all the way to the end, I'll show you how to get a base training plan for free. And I'm also giving away a free year of the Coach Cat app. I'll explain how to enter towards the end.

All right. If we haven't met, I'm Coach Frank Overton. Some call me the big cat. And I've been coaching cyclists for over 20 years.

From amateur riders like you and me all the way up to world tour and tour cyclist. I've seen every base training mistake imaginable. And I've made plenty myself. After spending two years of training in traditional zone 2, I developed sweet spot training into a repeatable, sustainable way to build base fitness without needing prolevel training volume.

And here's the thing that most riders get wrong. Base training is not just a winner thing. Traditionally, a 2 to fourmon base phase follows your strength training phase and preced your harder intervals training phase. It's the physiological foundation that sets up the highintensity peaks later.

So, while there is a traditional base training phase, there's also an ongoing base training where you're going to do base rides year round. But today, we are focusing on that two to four month traditional base training phase because getting this right changes everything that comes after it. Physiologically, base training builds the engine. We're talking about more mitochondria, better fat oxidation, and the ability to avoid fading in longer rides and races.

But you're not here for a physiology lecture. You want to train the right way to ride faster. And that said, if you want to deep dive into the physiology of base training, watch my why sweet spot training is better than zone 2 video from May of 2025 where I go into these five physiological adaptations. increased mitochondrial enzymes, muscle fiber adaptations, greater muscle fiber recruitment, fatigue resistance, and improved glycogen storage. One of the biggest base training mistakes I see comes from riders who don't train consistently through the winter and they put off structured training until the spring.

These days, the riders you want to be, the ones standing on the podium last season, are the ones that are training year round and they've already started building their base this winter. Another huge mistake comes from riders spending all winter on virtual riding platforms, slamming hard intervals, hard group rides, indoor races, often only riding four to five hours per week, but feeling just wrecked. And those rides feel productive, but they are not building your base. They're not long enough to be considered base training, and they're not hard enough to be considered true interval training.

Riders step off the trainer in the spring, they've got no base, they start racing, and they're already fried from too much intensity. I don't recommend it. The real cost of getting base training wrong isn't just slower fitness gains. It's primarily the frustration.

It's showing up to the spring group rides after a winter of highintensity thinking you've trained hard, but fading when the race or the ride lasts longer than 90 minutes. It's doing the work and wondering why it didn't translate. Now, there is a time and a place for group rides during base training, but only at a base training intensity. That's why we host Sweet Spy group rides on Saturdays to ride long and at the right base training pace.

Now, don't get me wrong, indoor riding is incredibly valuable for consistency, and consistency is the training technique that makes base training work. But that means using indoor training wisely with a training plan and an avoiding the trap of too many too hard rods and races and interval sessions during the base training phase. Now before you think this is just my opinion, let's talk about the science. There's been a lot of hype about zone 2 lately, but most of it isn't coming from coaches who actually work with amateur athletes.

A recent paper titled Much Ado About Zone 2 by PhD doctoral candidate Christy Stooschuk in the journal of sports medicine looked at whether lowintensity zone 2 training is truly the best way to improve mitochondrial function and aerobic fitness for everyday athletes. Her three takeaways were zone 2 benefits are largely observed in elite athletes training massive training hours and number two higher intensities matter more when time is limited and number three zone 2 alone is not optimal for improving mitochondrial capacity or V2 max in amateur cyclists that don't have a lot of time to train which confirms what we've been seeing in practice for over 20 years. So, if you've only got four to eight hours per week to train, Sweet Spot training is the most effective way to build your base. Sweet Spot gives you more aerobic adaptations for the limited time you have to train.

We like to say more bang for your buck. You'll get higher mitochondrial stimulus, bigger aerobic gains, fatigue that you can actually recover from, and a maximum return per minute training. And that's exactly what I see from thousands of testimonials from riders who are sweet spot training like Nigel here who's on our 16week of sweet spot plan. He says, "I've already seen a 10% improvement in my FTP for my field test after years of it being fairly stagnant.

Zone 2 training only works best when the volume is high. But if you're limited to 4 to eight hours a week, zone 2 alone becomes a poor use of your most precious resource, which is your time. As you are base training and sweet spotting, it's very important to measure how much base you've been doing. Miles and hours per week don't tell the full story, but using a power meter allows you to track your base training much more accurately with metrics like OTS and level.

OTS quantifies how much training stress you've generated in a single ride and level is a rolling 42-day average of that training stress. It's our version of CTL and training load. One of the biggest mistakes I see amateur cyclists make is driving their level up with a few weeks of dedicated training, but then let it drop when life gets busy or weather sucks or motivation declines or when fatigue arises. That inconsistency is what prevents base training from compounding.

And compounding is the key to consistency. And this is where having a training plan and a coach really helps. But let's save that for another video. Okay, as promised, here's what a month of base training actually looks like.

These are weeks 5 through 8 of our 16 weeks of sweet spot training plan. Notice the sweet spot workouts on Tuesdays as well as the slightly longer sweet spot rides and workouts on Saturdays. Tuesdays are the key workout day and Saturdays are the long ride day for this athlete. That is the day this athlete can ride long, but you can move the long ride day to a day that works best for you.

There's a 3-week build followed by one recovery week. Week one has 6.75 hours. Week two has 7.5 hours and week three has 8.75 hours. It's a little over the eight hour count, but you can adjust the hours of the workouts for how much time you have to train.

Across these three build weeks, training time progresses as well as time spent in the sweet spot zone. And as you can see, there aren't that many long rides like the ones you see on social media and Strava, but rather good old-fashioned short structured interval workouts. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, a little bit longer on Saturdays, and an endurance ride on Sunday. Remember, consistent training over time is the best way to build base.

So, wrapping up, base training isn't about riding in zone 2. That's not enough physiological stimulus. If you have eight hours a week or less to train, follow these four guidelines to build your base the right way. Number one, two to three sweet spot sessions per week.

Number two, one long endurance ride per week, oftentimes with sweet spot. Number three, concentrate on total weekly hours and time spent in the sweet spot zone. And number four, measure how much base you've done with your OTS and level. Avoid the indoor training platform trap, which is going too hard every ride with races and group rides and hard structured intervals, especially in the zone four, five, and six intensities.

Do this work consistently for 8 to 16 weeks and when it's time to add the intensity later, I guarantee you will be flying. Now, if you want this exact month of base training, I'll give it to you for free. Go to fastcatcoaching.com. Start a free 30-day trial of the Coachcat app.

You can build a personalized training plan that applies this type of base training the right way using our proven sweet spot-based training plans. You can use the AI to personalize your plan even further to schedule your group rides, track your progress, and get help from your AI coach to adjust your training as life happens. You're going to get some curve balls and you're going to need a coach to help you. And that's what the Coach Cat app will do you.

If you build your base the right way this winter, I guarantee you you'll be riding with 20 to 50 more watts this spring. And finally, here's how to win a free year of the Coach Cat app. comment coachcat below plus any questions or thoughts you have about your base training. Then start a free 30-day trial using the link in the description and I'll randomly select one winner and I'll announce it here in the YouTube comments 5 days after this video has been live. Even if you don't win, you'll still get full access to this month of bass training for free.

Go to fastcatcoaching.com to start your free trial and build your base the right way. Thanks so so much for watching. I'd love to hear what's worked or hasn't worked for your base training in the comments below. And until next time, work hard, ride fast, have fun, and as always, FTFP.

The base training advice you’ve been getting from social media and indoor riding platforms is wrong. Win a Year of the CoachCat App by starting a Free Trial here → /app

Riding only Zone 2 all winter doesn’t work for cyclists with less than 8 hours a week to train. Riding hard indoors doesn’t work either.

In this video, Coach Frank Overton (aka BigCat) breaks down how to build a REAL aerobic base on just 4–8 hours per week, using the Sweet Spot training methodology he has pioneered for the past 20 years.

You’ll learn:

1️⃣ Where base training actually fits in your annual plan

2️⃣ Why Zone 2-only training fails when volume is low

3️⃣ The biggest base-training mistakes cyclists make indoors

4️⃣ Why Sweet Spot delivers more aerobic gains per minute

5️⃣ How to measure base fitness using OTS & Level

6️⃣ What a real month of base training looks like (calendar example)

This is the same approach we’ve used for over 20 years to help time-crunched amateur cyclists get stronger, more durable, and faster without burning out.

🎁 FREE BASE TRAINING + GIVEAWAY

If you watch to the end, you can get ✅ A full month of base training for free ✅ A chance to win a FREE YEAR of the CoachCat app

How to enter the giveaway:

Start a free 30-day trial using the link below

Comment “CoachCat” on this video (plus any questions or thoughts)

No purchase necessary. One winner will be randomly selected and announced in the comments 5 days after this video goes live.

Even if you don’t win, you’ll still get full access to this month of base training for free.

👉 Start your free trial here: https://www.FasCatCoaching.com 00:00 The Biggest Base Training Mistakes 04:43 The Science: Zone 2 v Sweet Spot 07:35 Example Base Training Plan 09:01 4 Base Training Guidelines 10:22 Win a Year of the CoachCat APP ‼️