I am coming back from a cold which had me off the bike 1 week more or less. I rode endurance last tuesday and could feel the cold coming, and had me off untill sunday where i had a small 45 minutes endurance ride and today a 2 hours endurance ride. I felt fine on the bike today.
So i have a 2 hour race very hilly ( up and down hills 2-5 minutes efforts ) on saturday and wondering what i should do about it.
I would like to give my best go, but realize that i problary have lost some form.
How would you prepare? I am thinking i need some sort of intensity next time out? I am more or less free to ride everyday.
(Leading up to event i have been doing the polarized base plan, 2x hard days (vo2max and threshold), 2x easy long days)
Hope to get some advice.
PS. the race is a C/B. ( A race coming in 4 weeks )
I’d do something like Cadillac today (VO2max floats), recovery tomorrow, then Sleeping Beauty the day after that. No threshold work you do this week is going to have a (positive) impact Saturday…but you can get a quick adaptation from VO2 work. Plus it will help increase your blood volume a little.
I’d try to walk away from both workouts wishing I could do a couple more intense intervals.
Sounds like good news that the sickness passed. You’re going to be able to race healthy. Maybe not at the fitness level you’d want…but then again, you might surprise yourself!
Possibly not. At this point, the intensity will yield zero fitness benefits but will help the legs remember what it’s like to go hard. And since it’s not a priority event I wouldn’t invest too much prep or thought into it.
If you’re riding today I would do the following:
Tuesday (today): Short 30-45 full gas efforts to wake the legs up. I like something like 30s full gas every 5 minutes. Shouldn’t be that taxing of a ride.
Wednesday: Easy Aerobic ride
Thursday: Easy Aerobic ride w/ a couple of 30-sec efforts like Tuesday’s ride
Friday: Either off or openers (keep it 30-45 min though)
Main focus for me would be ensuring that the back-end of whatever had kept me off the bike was gone.
Make sure you’re back to fuelling on and off the bike correctly. Did you lose your appetite?
Then as others have said, I’d try and tackle a couple of short (45 minute workout) VO2 efforts. 30/30s like Sleeping Beauty.
Might also be worth mentally giving yourself a free pass for this event. Just roll up to the line and see what happens. I believe Amber has often said that it can be a really useful learning process to race when you’re not 100%. Good luck
