Specialty phase ~ Cross-Country Marathon or Climbing Road Race for the 6 day Breck Epic MTB stage races. I’ve read though both and I’m leaning towards the Climbing Road Race. I would like to hear what others have to say.
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Looking at the two, I think I would lean towards XC marathon as there is emphasis on endurance which one would think would pay off come the latter half of the race.
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XCM is more about punch and recovery with some sustained efforts as well. Typically with MTB you’re forced to put out power due to terrain and you can’t remain steady state. I’d recommend XCM Specialty for that reason.
I’m just finishing up XCM Specialty leading into my A event, a MTB 100 that is expected to last 12-14 hours. I’ll be trying to stay z2 during the race, but punchy hills, rocks and roots will dictate more power at times.
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I did bcbr this year
I had been training for about a year with unstructured volume until January then tr plans after. I did ssb hv one and two and high vol general power build. Then the xcm plan. My fitness improved a lot
I think the thing I would have done differently would have been to have more day after day workouts
I was quite consistent through the days and had a few days with learning optimal fluid and nutrition.
I wasn’t sure how hard to push as I had never exploded (probably a good thing) and didn’t want to do that in the race. I am left not knowing if I could have gone harder.
Not sure if that helps
For your race I would look at the elevation profile and talk to people who have done it before that finish in a similar time and try to reproduce those demands during the training
Matt