Cx Taper question

Hi all. I’m a first time poster, but I’ve looked ahead at my training plan (which I’ve had to rejig a few times due to races being cancelled and rescheduled etc.)

I spotted what I’m worried might be a problem …

I’m at the end of week 6 (short power build low volume). And my cyclocross a-race is at the end of November on the 28th.

My schedule over the next 4 weeks looks like this:

Week 1: final week short power build
Week 2: Recovery week
Week 3: Taper
Week 2; Taper + A race

My question is this: Is this too much recovery ahead of my cx a race? Will my loss in fitness outweigh my freshness? Or is this absolutely acceptable?

Should I adjust this? And if so, how? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance
Niall

Yes, the taper after a recovery week is too much rest and you’re likely to feel flat at your A race. The obvious answer , it depends, come into play as we’ve no idea how experienced you are and the impact of the short power build.
If your are reaching a plateau , then a full weeks recovery may be required, however depending upon your fitness level, a few days easy may be sufficient.
I would suggest week 3 is the first week of CX speciality, and week 4 is week 2 of CX speciality, but drop volume by 50%, resting 2 days before the race and do an opener the day before.

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I’d agree with @Raythebike, a recovery week into two taper weeks will likely leave you feeling flat.

How much fatigue are you carrying right now? And, are you happy with your fitness level? If you’ve done a full 12 week base cycle and are on week 6 of build (and have been doing a lot of volume), and feel fit (but tired), you’re probably carrying quite a bit. In which case I’d suggest:

Week 1 : take a recovery week this week
Week 2: CX Specialty week 1
Week 3: CX: Specialty week 2 (consider doing a minus version of the weekend workouts)
Week 4: CX Specialty week 8 (I only suggest this because specialty week 8 is essentially a taper, but you can do any taper protocol you prefer)

If you aren’t carrying a lot of fatigue at the moment, or feel there’s more fitness to gain, I’d do something more like this:

Week 1: finish the final week of build (week 7)
Week 2: CX Specialty wk 1
Week 3: CX Specialty wk 2
Week 4: CX wk 8/Taper

Caveat here is I’d mix in 3-4 days of recovery between week 2 and 3… you’ll probably need it. So I’d do CX Specialty Week 1 T&TH workouts, take Friday off, replace both Saturday and Sunday workouts with Pettit or something similar, take Monday off, and then pick up on week 2. You might consider doing a minus version of the CX specialty week 2 workouts too before you head into the taper week.

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Thanks for both replies! That’s really useful advice.

Based on my fitness/fatigue; I think I’ll finish build week 7, take a full recovery week and then use cx speciality week 1 and then week 8 as a taper … perhaps reducing tss on the weekend before my a race (maybe).

Thanks again, (Great forum!)
Niall

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