Help - my very short Specialty Phase is being ruined by illness!

Training
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Argghhh

Training has been going really well. I had a solid build phase, finished by a perfect recovery week. My RHR had come right back down, I was feeling blummin awesome. Even my dislocated shoulder had healed quickly this time.

I’d even managed to keep on top of the strength-work through the build phase until I did my shoulder.

The only thing I haven’t managed to do is enough long rides, but have managed a few 5-6 hr z2’s to at least test comfort.

However, during recovery week the entire household, except me, came down with a brute of a virus. It started gentle and built into some kind of covid-like disaster. I was so hoping I may not get it…

I only have a short specialty phase - essentially this week (which I planned to be a BIG week) and then a two week taper.

Monday I decided to do the Threshold workout and it was fine. I got 10 minute power PR, the other two intervals were also above target. However, I knew that it would be an answer as to whether I was paranoid about the illness and sure enough by the middle of the afternoon I was starting to feel rough. Not as sick as everyone else here, but throaty, coughing and generally covid-like.

Tuesday I woke up and thought maybe it was shifting. I did have to ride yesterday but not for training, just to take some girls out with their ponies for half an hour, not actually training. Felt rough in the evening.

Today I am definitely not 100 percent - I feel that annoying illness where I am throaty and achy but certainly well enough to work. Obviously won’t be doing the 4 hour night training ride I had planned for this evening. Looking at the passage of the disease it’s at least 5 days until people are starting to feel better so that puts me around Saturday, if I am lucky.

This means since my build phase I will have had a recovery week, my last proper training week lost to illness and then two taper weeks for an event that was already going to be right on my current limit.

I am not quite sure how to handle the training. I really need to get a proper big ride in before the event if I can, more for my mental welfare than anything, but if that isn’t this weekend it’s feeling like it is getting a bit close. The taper is full of short 30 min-type sessions but my event is going to be probably somewhere between 22-27 hours of riding. Without this week being a big week, I feel massively underprepared!

I know it’s only a bike ride, and to be honest, I could do one of the shorter distances, and I have got a lot out of the training etc etc etc

…but it wasn’t until the end of my build phase that I was happy I could reasonably have a go at the event and had absolutely convinced myself I REALLY wanted to do it. So now I am super annoyed at getting sick.

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Hey,

I’m sorry to hear about your illness! These things happen. Those little bugs seem to know when to strike.. :microbe:

I’d take it easy until you feel well enough to start training again. What you don’t want to do is continue to weaken your immune system through more training stress.

You’re not going to benefit much from getting another long ride in before your event. All of that work has already been done, and what’s important now is conserving energy and keeping your fitness sharp with those short taper-specific workouts when you can.

Too much volume, though long duration rides, is the opposite of what you want right now, as they’ll really drain your energy and bring on fatigue. With an event as long as 24 hours, you’ll want to be as rested and recovered as possible, which means ensuring that you’ve completely recovered from this bug. That means resting until it’s safe to train again, even though that might be tough to accept a couple of weeks out from your event.

I’d hold off on any training until Saturday at least. See how you feel then, and if you’re still not 100% better, check back in on Sunday. Worst-case scenario, you can likely get back into things next week, but do your best to follow the plan, and don’t add in any volume that’s not already there. It would probably be wise to reduce this Sunday’s ride by at least half too, but again, see how you feel!

You’ve got this! :raising_hands:

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Agree with @eddiegrinwald

The only thing worse than being sick 3 weeks out from your event is to be sick 3 AND 2 weeks out from your event.

Take several days off the bike, recover, then slowly ramp back in. Maybe consider adjusting that first week of the taper to be just a bit more than planned but not too much. You in that part of training approaching an event where you will be able to gain very, very little fitness but could gain lots of fatigue (more so with being sick).

Also consider that not only can training too much, too early while sick can you extend your sickness but you won’t be getting the same adaptations from the exercise. Since your body will be using lots of resources to recover from illness it will not prioritize your exercise related adaptations.

You’d have to be a bit more specific about your recent and upcoming training for people to give you more specific suggestions though.

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Thank you both. Its always good to have someone else actually tell me what I need to hear. No riding til Saturday :saluting_face:

Erm, I’m not really sure what info would be useful. I could make my calendar public but there are so many personal annotations on there I’m not sure that would be wise.

TSS has been building up and the last 3 weeks I’ve been 500+ TSS but it always varies a lot

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I did a base phase starting January. Build started middle of March and I did a VO2 block followed by a disastrous recovery week because of life, then a more pyramidal 3 week build with some additional VO2 and Threshold and one sweetspot on the turbo cos I had dislocated my shoulder the day before so didnt want to ride out.

Then the last recovery week and now I’m here, waiting impatiently to get better. :rofl:

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I just meant like hours and stuff like that. Just cause any specific recommendations would be different for someone who typically rides 8hr/wk vs 20.

But I think since you’re taking this week easy (sick so not a full rest week but your legs still usually recover some as long as you stay up on fuel) I’d take this weekend (assuming you’re feeling decent by then) chill but ride some low endurance. Then next week have some moderate intensity with maybe a bit more volume than you would have otherwise. Like if your taper week had you do 6 hours and you usually do 12, the maybe do 9 or so.

Then take that second week as essentially what is scheduled at the moment.

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I think it’s TINAT 400km distance you’re going to be riding, end of the month isn’t it? The main thing is to get over your illness. Many years ago I tried carrying on through illness and it didn’t go well, and stuck around much longer than had I just rested. You’re not going to lose much fitness in two weeks. Get over your illness and go for it two weeks on Sat.

Something you could do whilst off the bike is any final fettling you have planned ahead of TINAT. Then when you’ve recovered you can give your setup some final test runs before the event.

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I totally get the mindset (I’d be stressing too), but it’s mostly a mental thing. For those kind of long events, it’s all about having a big aerobic base and that kind of fitness takes a long time to build and doesn’t go away quickly. As the others have said, focus on getting better and don’t rush it. Your fitness isn’t going anywhere over the next week.

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You know what to do… rest.
We all know what people do… train through it.

The cake is baked. To be your best on the day of event means being the most healthy as possible. Why train through but go into something less than your best?

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9

Great, thanks folks. I’m feeling significantly better today after a good night’s sleep which is very positive. So hopefully I’ll be able to get some miles in this weekend and go from there.

Thanks, I’ve been doing all my z2 stuff fully loaded anyway, although I am hoping to cut down a lot of weight. Having recently driven some of the lanes, it was a good reminder that there is vast swathes of countryside with no phone signal and no shops after about 5 pm so I’m going to get my SPOT tracker reactivated I think. I haven’t used it for a number of years but if I have a big mechanical/crash in the middle of nowhere at least I can send a message to the other half to come and rescue me

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