The Uplevel Road Cycling Course

In this article I will provide a written overview of the Uplevel Road Cycling Course and it’s intended outcome for road cyclists looking to step off a performance plateau and take their cycling to the next level. Additionally, I will share how the overall framework of the course – which includes 20 step-by-step educational video tutorials, a library of proven four and twelve week training programs, including an online support infrastructure – has enabled hundreds of real world amateur and recreational road cyclists transform their strength, speed, and power on the bike.

But first up…

Who’s the Uplevel Road Cycling Course for?

The Uplevel Road Cycling Course is designed for intermediate road cyclists that have plateau’d but are keen to improve.

What’s ‘intermediate’? I hear you ask…

Any road cyclist that’s hit a performance plateau and does not understand how to improve. Some questions you could ask yourself to qualify you in or out of intermediate would include:

1. Do I understand and appreciate how to implement training zones?
2. Do I know how to train with a power meter and a heart rate monitor?
3. Do I know how to train base fitness?
4. Do I know how to effectively implementing a HIIT session?
5. Do I structure my weeks and months to ensure I’m getting enough intensity and enough rest?

If you don’t know the answers to these questions, then I’d consider you to be an intermediate level. Despite how strong you may be!

Using myself as an example, I had been road cycling for close to 5 years when I finally realised I didn’t know how to answer to these basic questions. Despite the fact I’d made it to B Grade in the local club racing scene, I was still at a very basic level of knowledge when it came to cycling performance.

So I got coached, and the rest is history!

So to step away from Intermediate – and step off that cycling performance plateau – here’s what is included in the Uplevel Road Cycling Course.

20 Step-by-Step Video Tutorials

The first major cornerstone of the Uplevel Road Cycling Course is access to 20 step-by-step video tutorials.

While some RCA members get more value out of the training programs and/or the private groups, it would be close to a majority that say they get the most value here.

Each video has been carefully crafted to ensure information is presented in a way that isn’t overwhelming and that is easy to absorb. With each video ranging between 10-18mins in length. Kind of like a YouTube video, although we strongly feel these videos will deliver a lot more than your average YouTube video.

I feel this way, as an average YouTube video takes me 8-10 hrs to produce. These videos took us 30 hrs on average.

To prove that point, here’s a video from the Uplevel Road Cycling we put up on YouTube. Regarding base training.

The video tutorials include:

MODULE ONE (Let’s Get You Set-up For Success)

1. An introduction video
2. The best bike set up for training
3. Training with heart rate and power (or both?)
4. Let’s get your numbers (the FTP test)
5. The cycling weight rack (the 7 cycling training zones)

MODULE TWO (How to Build Your Base Engine)

1. Why build base fitness & why Zone 2?
2. How good is your base fitness (Cardio Drift test)
3. Let’s go for a base training ride together

MODULE THREE (How to Master Structured Training)

1. Learn the Step Ladder Approach to training
2. Learn to respect rest & recovery
3. Learn to respect high intensity & high intensity interval training
4. Learn to respect variability in training

MODULE FOUR (High Intensity Workout Examples)

1. Circuit training (training Zones 4)
2. Hill repeats (training Zones 5 & 6)
3. Sprint work (training Zone 7)

MODULE FIVE (Using The Sufferfest to Your Advantage)

1. How to best use The Sufferfest (Indoor workouts & off bike strength training)

MODULE SIX (Using the Today’s Plan Training Tool)

1. Selecting a program and using Today’s Plan
2. Using analytical training metrics to your advantage
3. Watch coach Jesse Coyle build a 12 week training program from scratch

MODULE SEVEN (Measuring Your Fitness Gains)

1. How you can measure your cycling improvements over time

Access to a Library of Training Plans

In addition to the 20 step-be-step video tutorials the Uplevel Road Cycling course also comes with lifetime access to 4 and 12 week training programs that have been developed within the Today’s Plan training software.

While you can gain access to all these training plans under the ‘RCA’ umbrella using the ‘free’ mode in Today’s Plan, as part of the Uplevel Road Cycling Course you will get you first 12 weeks covered as a premium subscription within Today’s Plan.

This means you will get more analytics; you can drag and drop workouts to suit you weekly schedule, and you can also sync workouts to other devices, such as your head unit (Garmin or Wahoo as an example) or Zwift.

The library of training programs are mostly based on 10hrs average of training per week, and they include:

• 12 week base training (outdoor focus)
• 12 week base training (indoor focus)
• 12 week general speed and strength program (outdoor focus)
• 12 week general speed and strength program (indoor program)
• 12 week hill climbing program
• 12 week criterium program
• 12 week Ironman bike leg program
• 4 week base, moderate HIT, & advanced HIT programs (indoor focused)

Access to a Private Group with LIVE Q&A’s

Twice a month an RCA road cycling coach will facilitate a LIVE Q&A session via a private Facebook group. Now before you turn your nose up as a non Facebook user (there’s more out there than we thought!), each LIVE Q&A session is recorded and sent out to all members over email afterwards.

The fortnightly LIVE Q&A sessions enable members to ask any pertinent questions relating to their training programs and anything top of mind relating to the training techniques that have been presented in the videos tutorials.

If you are on Facebook, the LIVE environment also enables members to feed off each other and share personal stories.

While the private Facebook group was always uintended to be a supportive mechnisim fopr the video tutorials and the training programs, some members find this to be the most valuable compoent to the course. Reason being, as they progress their cycling knowlege base and have further questions to ask, they’ve always got somewhere to go!

In addition to this Facebook group, we also have coaching@roadcyclingacademy.com for direct email support.

Uplevel Road Cycling Course Member Testimonials

So with a unique blend of online learning, off the shelf trainign programs, and private online groups, does this formula actually work?

Rather than me tell you, lets heat directly from some Uplevel Road Cycling Course members:

If you want to read about more member success stories, make sure you check out the RCA Instagram page here