@FergalK I did the race this year having used a TR custom plan for the preceding (approx) 12 months. My plan as laid out by plan builder, having added BCBR as an MTB Marathon Stage ‘A’ Race, was as follows:
- Sweet Spot Base 1 - Low volume - 6 weeks
- Sweet Spot Base 2 - Low volume - 6 weeks
- Sustained Power Build - Low volume - 8 weeks
- Cross-Country Marathon Speciality - Low Volume - 3 weeks
- Sweet Spot Base - Low Volume II - 3 weeks
- Sustained Power Build - Low Volume - 8 weeks
- Cross-Country Marathon Speciality - Low Volume - 8 weeks
I started at the beginning of November 2021 for the race starting 16th September 2022. I only did low volume plans. In the early sweet spot base periods I added a 30 or 45 minute endurance ride once a week if I could, but time didn’t allow for this later on in the plans. I also did strength training sessions 1-2 times per week throughout almost all of the plan (excepting the last block due to time constraints).
This combination (in my opinion) got me to a super strong position come race time. I was able to climb well and was still able to be consistent throughout the 7 days.
I would just use plan builder and let it do its thing, follow Adaptive training and let it make the changes. Having done that for almost the whole of my plan it really does work well.