Help with Planning: A Race Cancelled--What to Do?

Training
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Hi All,

I’ve posted once or twice, but have a more serious question this time. I just got word that my A Race, the Cascade Cream Puff Fritter 50, a 50-mile MTB race with 10,000 ft. of climbing, is in danger of being cancelled. I’ve been building my entire training schedule for 2019 around this race. I started with SSBMV I and II, moved into General Build MV, and am now in the second week of XC Marathon. I did about half the course on Sunday and Strava showed I set PRs on 20 of 22 segments, so making good progress.

Here’s my dilemma: there aren’t a lot of comparable races within a week or two and reasonable driving distance from my location in Oregon, USA. There’s a 60-mile epic I did in Bend, OR (Bend Fat Tire Tour with about 6000 ft of climbing over 60 miles) last year that I’d love to do again, but that’s a full two months beyond the CCP. There are also two Gran Fondos, but I’m not much of a road guy (although I’ve done a couple of centuries).

So my questions are these:

  1. Should I shift gears and switch to the road century plan for specialty, knowing I can do one of the Fondos (both of which are on the same weekend as the cancelled CCP)? In this case, I’ll still be trained up for the Bend 60-miler.

  2. Shift my focus to the Bend ride (not a race) and try to maintain by doing the entire XC Marathon specialty plan, followed by a few weeks of Sustained Power or General Build and the last couple of weeks of XC Marathon.

I realize that these are some serious “Cadillac problems,” but I want to put my training to good use! I’ve put in nearly six months leading up to this race and I’d like to see what I can do.

Thanks for your thoughts,

Dave

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You have all this new MTB fitness and it would be a tragedy to waste it on a road/gravel event :wink:. If it were me, I’d want to exploit my passion and find a new MTB “A” event, which it looks like the Bend Fat Tire would fill that need. You’ve just began Specialty, so you’re not all that invested. If you want to peak for Bend, then I’d have my Specialty end with that event and work backwards to fill in the training gap, possibly with a re-Build after a small downturn to refresh the body and mind.

You won’t be able to hold a peak for 2 months, so there’s no reason for Specialty if the Bend Fat Tire is your new A race. Specialty isn’t designed to grow fitness/FTP, so that time is probably better spent elsewhere. I’d use those centuries and/or fondos as training events if you choose to do them, mindful that the recovery from those may impact your training.

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which excites you more, 1 or 2? SOunds like you have a plan for both, so just pick based on which one you’d love to excel at. let us know how it goes!!

Brendan