Races are soon coming back where I live.
I’ve never raced before, so I’m planning to start with crits, although I want my main focus to be road races ( though I’ll mostly do what’s available here ).
I was wondering if it was possible to just race every week ( once a week ) for the whole season or if it would build too much fatigue ?
If so, how many weeks of racing would you recommend to do before taking a break from racing ?
I really want to get the most out of them and get as much racing experience as I can.
Pretty normal to race every week. Race hard, treat that like a workout and recover properly. Get one more real workout, maybe a second one during the week. Rest of the week Z1/2.
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Not quite answering your original question but depending on your riding history I would try to sign up for a learn to race program - if they run one in your area.
It depends on your goals.
Some people race for filling up the grid, others race for wins.
I know a bunch of people who are racing once, maybe twice a week. But there are super fit and know how to deal with the stress.
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A nice thing to do is to race once a month. Plan your training so that it comes at the end of a block, allowing for a brief taper, then race and recover.
It gives real motivation for the next block and doesn’t burn you out mentally.
Most people in my experience, start the season with goals of racing every weekend and are husks after 3 months. I find that during the cx season where racing every week is normal, by November I’m sick of the pain and suffering. Usually take a month off racing to recharge for the big January races.
1 road race a week could be a lot, really depends on the dynamics of the race. If you are racing Novice/Cat5 road races you are probably looking at 60-90 minutes of racing. That can be a lot depending on how you race. If you sit in, it might not feel like much until the end but I’ve found the Cat 4/5 races that are short to be more like crits where the pack is moving pretty fast the entire race.
I am racing crits once a week (sounds like that might be what you are considering too) but at 30 minutes a pop, they aren’t really that challenging to recover from. Not sure I would want to road race every week but treat some like a training ride and you will learn and gain a lot from the experience.
If you are looking at 30 minute crits weekly I would say go for it no question.
Since your goal is to gain experience, I’d race as often as possible, even if it leaves you tired. Heck, probably better if it leaves you tired - no chain days are rare, and it helps to know how to get results even when you aren’t firing on all cylinders. In fact, sometimes it is more fun that way.
FWIW, races both weekend days, a mid-week training race, Friday night at the track, and often a Tuesday night group ride pseudo race were season long staples for the crowd I ran with. But, these were people traveling the country and sometimes the world to play bikes.
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you can 100% race every weekend, but I’d more be concerned with mental burn out. The travel takes a toll just as much as the racing.
IMO, To start, do 2-3x a month; give yourself a weekend to be home.
nope, just make sure to count it as one of your VERY hard sessions. SInce you’re new you’ll gain a ton of experience and fitness so it makes sense to race as much as you can.
i’d race July through November then start your out of race season circuit of training.
let me know if other questions arise!!
Good luck and HAVE A BLAST!
Brendan@EVOQ.BIKE
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Sadly don’t have those. I would have prefered to discover racing this way.
Once a month is way too little to gain as much experience as I can I think. But I guess I’ll see if my body can handle more or not.
From what I’ve seen, almost every race ( crits and road races ) is ~70km long.
So yeah, it would be a bit below 2h of racing ( I didn’t expect road races to be this short, I’m training for longer ones like at least 120km ).
I think I’ll mostly sit in since I won’t have the knowledge requiered to know which moves to follow.
Yeah it seems safer, I’ll start doing this.
My weekly plan is to do, at least, 2 interval sessions ( one that build more fatigue being 3x 20m/10m [ 2h30m ride ] and one being harder VO2max hill repeats [ 4x 4m/2m or 6x 4m/2m30 ] ) + 1 long endurance ride ( and besides that I do food deliveries 15h a week )
Which interval session would you get rid off for races ?
I can’t tell since racing will pretty much train both High intensity and threshold.
Thanks for the replies everyone !
do two interval sessions and 1 race and you’ll be crushing it!
So I would do the race after a rest day, but which interval workout would be better after the other rest day ?
Would it be the VO2max workout since it requires more power ?
Depends on how the races go, but for my 60 min crit sessions, I use those to replace an anaerobic or VO2max workout because that’s what the sessions most emulate. As to which workout to put after your other rest day, I would do whichever is hardest for you. Give yourself the best chance to nail it.
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Do openers before the race, not a rest day. 5x30s @ 110-120% ftp, rest 3-5m between, endurance remainder of time, 1h total.
Yes rest before vo2max so u get most watts that day.
Crush it!!!
Brendan John Housler
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er…1 would be nice wouldn’t it? 