Hi everyone,
I’m in the middle of mid volume XCM specialty and want to do a 100km race on the coming Saturday (May 4th). It’s a C(?) race and I want to go as hard as possible without killing myself. 5 or so hours.
I need to plan my week and would like some advice on how to approach this event?
The end of my specialty plan will taper into a similar 2 day event (25th May) that is really just a practice race as well.
I went for a 50km ride today on a known course and managed to get a couple of PR’s at the beginning (13kms of sustained climbing). The rest of the ride left me feeling flat and unable to grind up the steep stuff.
I washed out on a fast hairpin and corked my right quad a little, but there was no real damage. The effect on my ability to ride was minimal and the last time I rode this course I was in the middle of Short Power Build and the times were even worse.
For all the hard work I’ve been putting in I feel like I should be faster, but I’m aware that the training stress has something to do wth the crappy times.
PS. I had lots of time to kill before my A race in October. I’ll be back into SSB2 after the 2 day race.
Use your non-A races to figure out the right taper. For me, I find it works out pretty well if I do a very light week before a big event. Probably 30-40% of normal volume - a short VO2 max ride, and some general riding around. Nothing for 2 days before.
For XCM I think it’s more important to be rested than “sharp”. Maybe different for XCO.
Thanks Dave. I only have these 2 races to go off. Maybe one other if I find one that fits the bill.
I figured that I should be dropping the hours on the trainer this week instead of following the prescribed plan.
Most of what I’ve listened to on the podcast suggested that I should crack on as per normal and just sub out the race for a workout. That didn’t feel right in this situation.
5+ hours on the bike is a long day.
Fun fact! I was looking at the TR page for my workout and it gave me ‘All time x 642’ for my PR’s. All in the endurance range.
That makes me feel a little better.
Yeah - 5 hrs on the bike is a lot of TSS. I think the guidance of “train through a C race” is good for short races like crits, but not for long races like XCM.
I have three 5-6 hour races/rides before Leadville this year, and am in a similar situation of having to adjust my build and specialty plans to fit them in.
Success! The results aren’t official just yet, but I’m pretty sure I missed my target time by a couple of minutes at the most. Pretty good over 5.5 hrs.
Thanks for the advice. It worked a treat.
I ended up ditching the trainer all together and hit a short local loop that had similar terrain. I sprinted up the hills and picked the most technical lines. Nothing over an hour.
A full day of nothing on Friday and my legs were feeling strong again. Yippee!