Hello everyone,
I wanted to get some feedback on my plan for tackling RideLondon. I had to defer my 2019 entry, but I hope to be extra-prepared to tackle it in 2020. I realize it is about 5,000 ft of climbing.
This year, I am in the middle of a 70.3 triathlon base, build, and race cycle (all MV) that ends in September. I started working backward from the race date and put together the following plan starting in the last week of October 2019:
Traditional Base 1,2,3 LV (LV because I plan to run a 13.1 and other races)
SSB 1 and 2 MV ( I will split SSB1 into 2x3 week blocks)
General Build MV
Rolling Road Race MV
Is there any value of putting the LV Traditional Base before SSB? My goal is to get time on the bike, but I don’t want to use the HIT plans because I need my legs to be in running shape. Perhaps repeating SSB1/2 would be better?
Finally, for the 5k feet of elevation is Rolling Road race the right choice? I’m debating between that and the century plan.
Thanks!
Depending on how you plan to ride it you might also consider sustained power build. Your average elevation gain on the route is only 10m per km or so which is very ‘normal’ IMO.
You could probably also follow a suitable volume from the full or half distance triathlon plans without the swim and runs and get good results too.
Honestly think Traditional Base LV is a bit of a waste of time, especially coming from a fairly high level of fitness which you will have from the 70.3. The place for Traditional Base type training is for those who have plenty of time on their hands and/or are struggling to deal with the workload from a SS plan. If you want to put cycling on the back burner while focusing on running I would cut the hours but maintain the intensity. Either a SS plan, or I’ve had quite a bit of success in the past maintaining cycling fitness with as little as 1-2 threshold workouts per week while training for a marathon (in my case the marathon was Edinburgh in May, then I ramped up the cycling again and did Ride London in August).
Wouldn’t worry too much about the impact on the legs for running, just schedule the bike workouts for days when you’re due to run easy. Even if you dropped the cycling completely then the running will maintain your aerobic engine and a full base/build/specialty plan is plenty of time to get your cycling fitness back.
Re rolling or century plan I would tend towards rolling but add in or substitute a few long (4+ hour) outdoor rides in the months leading up to the race to be sure that endurance isn’t going to be a limiter. Although there is 5000 feet of elevation it really doesn’t feel like it - there are so many riders that you can always get in a group so you get a lot of easy speed on the flats. The best route to a good time (and it’s not a race) is hanging with the fastest groups you are able to, which will mean a lot of easy spinning interspersed by surges of high power to close a gap or get over a short hill. There are 3 longer hills (Newlands, Leith and Box) where you might get dropped from a group, if so your best bet is to take it fairly easy and jump on the back of the next group to come along (or get some nutrition in). It’s very unlike a 70.3 where you’re riding steady power at ~80% of FTP, you need to train the ability to repeatedly go over threshold and then recover.
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