[FAQ] Openers & Priming Workouts, Prior to Race Day

Racing
61

Read this thread and started wondering why Laurel that’s not mentioned here is my plan Builder opener for B and A races… Any thoughts on that?

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62

Good question for @Bryce or @chad. What’s shown above is a result on pooling the info from the prior podcasts.

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63

The other thing to keep in mind is the feeling of efforts.

I am a firm believer in openers the day before. Learned the need for them over a season long before the TR podcast. Did an opener – legs felt good at the race. Did not do one – legs were flat during the first half of the race.

Having moved into off-road Triathlons, my day prior is normally an easy ride of the course. I incorporate hard efforts into this ride to open things up. When I am just doing a MTB race, the day before (even at home) I will just go outside and ride for a short period (30 min?). Open the legs up and spin easy.

Point being: Learn how your body feels when you do this stuff. Make notes (mental or otherwise) of what you did and how things went. That way when life does its thing, you are not stressed by such and you can still get yourself ready. THEN deal with the headache.

64

I started to use Truulli (30 minute version), followed by Taku towards the middle of the 2019 season. Have to say, I felt ready to go when the flag dropped.

65

Laurel is very similar workout to Truuli -2, in fact, they have the exact same TSS and IF. The main difference is that Laurel has slightly more intense VO2 opening efforts (140% vs 125%) and slightly less intense sustained efforts (95% vs 100%).

Either is a great option, but the team felt that Laurel was a better choice to prepare for intense race day efforts, so we set it as the default in the Plan Builder

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66

I’ve added the related info in the OP above. Thanks for the clarification.

67

Thanks for this @mcneese.chad! Just what I needed. First RR of the season on Saturday. :grimacing:

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68

Good luck and be safe :smiley:

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69

Is a 15km/9 mi (20-25min) TT a good pre-race workout a day prior to a rolling road race (67km - 1300m//41mi-4300ft)?
It is a day-to-day race, which continues into another 10 1-day races every second Sunday.

70

I’m on a recovery interval on truuli at the moment.

i love this opener for long 2-4 hour races.

we’ll see how it does for my road race tomorrow!

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71

I’m going to try openers this season and see if they have a positive affect on me.

72

Can’t find this custom workout in the search.