My two stages B event for next weekend was just canceled due to bad weather forescast. I have my first A race coming in 2 weeks (150km MTB ultramarathon) after next weekend. What should I do on the sheduled B event for next weekend, delete them? What will deleting them impact on my training plan? What else?
If there are things you wanted out of that race to prep for your A race, just try to replicate them the best you can. It’s tough to replicate racing, but do something reasonably close with a focus on the type efforts you wanted to work on. For me, 2 weeks out is ideal timing for a B race or big training day that hit’s ~75% of the A race effort/duration.
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I’d start by deleting them from the plan and see how it adapts (assuming you’re using a TR plan). If you’re not (but even if you are), then I would think about what you were going to get out of the B event and how it might have negatively impacted you.
If you really wanted the B event to practice pacing, nutrition, etc and you don’t think the extra fatigue would have negatively impacted your A race then you can try to set up your own solo simulation type ride(s) for this weekend.
However, if you think you’ve got your race setup and everything dialed and the B event was part of a series or other thing that you felt obligated to do even though it might have negatively affected your training or recovery then I would aim for a more ideal training lead in to your A race.
TLDR: look at the B event, think of pros and cons of doing it, then plan this weekend to maximize the pros while minimizing the cons.
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You had a B race only a week before your A race, and that B race was a 2-stage event?
That seems like a lot of work / training stress so close to an A event…I think I’d be glad it was cancelled, personally.
If there specific aspects that you were looking to test during the cancelled event (nutrition, kit, etc), you can still test those aspects in training. I don’t think you will find yourself gaining or losing fitness as a result of the cancellation, however. The hay is in the barn at this point.
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No. B event was next weekend (2 MTB stages around 70kms each) and A race is only two weeks after next weekend but its a long 150km ultra MTB marathon.
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Like @mwglow15 said, can you simulate the B race to get all the same experiences, load, etc?
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Tks to the comments above.
About what I was expecting on that B event… To get some general fatigue/stress on all the body and work on technical off road skills. Not only on the legs.
Unfortunatly since december almost every weekend has been raining here and I miss some long MTB days on the saddle to get used to whats coming on my A race.
I was looking at my plan calendar for those two weeks before the A race and after the B event and was thinking they were very low on time going from the usual 1h30 on tuesday and thursday to 45 minutes on the 1st week and then 30 minutes on 2nd week just before the A race.
Deleting the B event I guess it wont be possible to simulate anything close to it inside (it will be rainy and windy for sure next weekend) and even if I do some long indoor rides ill be missing that technical MTB work and overall body stress to replicate A race day conditions.
Yeah from what I remember, IMO TR’s A event taper is always a bit too aggressive. I understand that they are probably erring on the side of too fresh rather than too fatigued but I think they really risk losing some fitness for people used to a bit higher volume.
Ahh that’s definitely tough. 2 weeks out I’d still keep the volume and intensity pretty decent. Like 80% of usual weekend training at a minimum. But the MTB specific stuff is hard to replicate with bad weather. Maybe a little bit of weights, KB, or calisthenics to make sure you’re maintaining some upper body strength?
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Bummer!
Deleting the canceled races shouldn’t have a negative impact on your training plan, so no need to leave them on there unless you’d like to.
We like the idea posted by other athletes here about trying to find a workout (or even just a ride) that would simulate some of the demands you would have faced in the race.
It sounds like there will be crummy weather where you are… But if it’s possible to get out of town a ways to somewhere where there might not be as much wind/rain, perhaps that would be worth a go…
If that isn’t possible though, and the next best thing you can do is a trainer session, you could check out the TR Workout Library and search “race” or “race simulation” and you should get a lot of good workouts to choose from. Something “Productive” (or even “Achievable” this close to your A event – for the sake of building confidence 
) should do.
It looks like you’ve been on Zwift lately as well, so you could also check out what races/events are going on in Zwift on the weekend of your canceled races. Those should get you some hard, race-like efforts! 
Hope that helps point you in the right direction – feel free to let us know if you have any other questions!
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I guess you were doing Algarve BC as well then! It was my first A event of the year 
Thinking I’ll follow some of the suggestions above too - delete the event but maybe try and do some long rides and skills work instead.
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If its really bad and I dont get at keast a viable MTB 3/4h ride next weekend then ill look in too Z races for something to pull my engine a bit. Tks.
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Yes it was ABC 
Was taking the family down to Algarve next weekend. Usually in march there are already some nice sunny warm days for the beach but not this year. 
Lets see the new date this year or if its gonna be skipped entirely 
Well about deleting the B race event… It made a mess on my plan
Ill try to explain this simply.
Deleting both stages on the calendar triggered the plan and I saw all events in order and that B event was still there. I deleted it on the plan too but ended with the usual plan beeing completly modified.
Usual Shedule:
- tuesday 1h30 VO2
- wednesday 45’ Endurance/Recovery
- wednesday 1h30 Endurance
- saturday 2h00 Thereshold
- sunday 3h30 Outdoor group ride (Endurance)
New plan shedule:
- tuesday 1h00 VO2
- wednesday 1h00 Endurance/Recovery
- wednesday 1h30 Endurance
- saturday 1h30 Thereshold
- sunday 1h30 Outdoor group ride (Endurance)
I only deleted that event and didnt want any change on my sheduled days/time.
So I went to my current phase and changed the load/time on all days to correspond to what I had before. After doing so I kept on getting adaptation suggestions.
I guess deleting the event wasnt the best way or at least maybe I should have created some similar in time and TSS outdoor group rides or set a similar tss workout in those days prior to deleting the event.
Felt a little lost there on why this changed my weekly routine and if it didnt completly messed my preparation for the incoming A race.
Thinking a bit it would be more understandable if AI would give two workouts to replace those deleted stages and keep all the rest similar to before.
Sounds like most plan builder and strategy stuff is covered already (despite the adjustment issues).
One thought on race simulation: if that weekend looks particularly bad in terms of weather, are there any days either side of the weekend that look nicer? Do you have the flexibility with work to swap some hours around (or a whole day) and do a race simulation ride in better weather on Thurs/Fri/Mon/Tues instead?
Even if it only works out to be one outdoor simulation day, that might be worthwhile for the real world conditions practice. And you can still replace the other stage with an indoor simulation for the training stimulus if you really want both days.
Obviously you’ll need to shuffle other workouts around to get a good balance of recovery/rest days etc. but that might be worth the life/training disruption as a one-off?
Sorry for the trouble on that – we took a look at your plan and it seems like the dip in volume there is because of the taper leading into your A race. The taper looked like it was less evident when the B race was still on your Calendar, but now it’s easier to see it on there with the B race removed and the full “taper logic” applied to the next couple of weeks of your plan.
It sounds like you got things moved around to how you’d like them to be now… Is that correct? Let us know if not so we can help get things sorted properly for you!
This weekend was the only available time for large outdoor rides. Next weekend is too close to the A race to do those kind of rides and from monday to friday theres not enought time on the work/family shedule.
Yes with 2x 4h MTB races saturday ans sunday I understood the tapper logic for the next two weeks prior to the A race. After deleting them was hopping some more demanding load on the weekend or the following days once there is no more that huge stress two weeks before the A race.
But I get why the AI dont load up on those deleted days or after them. But what I dont get is doing changes on my weekly schedule beyond tapper weeks.
And yes I did some changes after restauring the long endurance group ride on sundays and some more little adjustments.
Tks!
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Yeah - we decided to move to 2026 now they released the dates as we already have another trip planned on the new 2025 weekend. Oh well!
Good luck for your A race and I hope you get some riding in this weekend anyway!
Ill skip to 2026 too or sell to a friend for this year because I have another event already payed on the new weekend set for ABC.
If skipped to 2026 ill try to remember you are coming too. Maybe we can do some after race recovery 
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About the changes made after deleting those two B stages. Last night I had to bend my arm and accept the AI adaptation suggestions. Every day they were popping up and so I convinced myself to accept them and go day by day.
Now my plan without the next weekend B event stress seems a huge tapper until the A race.