Hi just finished hv sustained build and I’m probably the strongest I’ve ever been, AI ftp coming in 2 days. A very hard ride is coming up in 13 days and would to replicate that post recovery great couple of rides I’ve had since. Thought of just creating a new hv plan but just take 4 prior to hard to treat it as a mini recovery week. Another thought I had was to go heavy on vo2 till recovery as I would imagine I would see more of a benefit from vo2 given the short amount of time. Thanks for any input.
Here’s a summary of some of the TR rides I did in the three weeks leading up to an Everest as programmed by TR.
Wk 1: 6 Week Avg TSS 640. Colosseum -3 (Endurance): Fox (Sweet spot): Mono (Threshold). I did an easy 2hr bunch ride and couple of 20min commutes
Wk2: 6 Week Avg TSS 615. Tyrrell (Endurance): Round Bald -1 (Sweet spot): Beacon -3 (Threshold). Also did two days of hiking, a one hour easy bunch ride and some Teams TT practice, which was more under and overs.
Wk3: 6 Week Avg TSS 646. Myles (VO2): Epaulet (Endurance): Laurel or Cajon (30min primers) the day before the event or ride part of the course to simulate one of those workouts. The Everest was done on the Friday.
Remember that if you are reaching your strongest as you suggest, you need to taper and that less is more as you freshen up for the event. Go well.
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If you have your hard ride as an “A event” or want to be fresh for this ride at least, then typically the TR plans I’ve had usually start tapering 2 weeks out. I definitely don’t think I’d be picking a new HV plan less than 2 weeks out. You’ll have made most of the gains you’re going to make. At most, I would be tempted for one more solid week and give myself a week of lower volume than normal before the event but still with the odd high intensity session.
It’s a different question if you’re wanting use this big ride as part of training though…
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I think the science says within 7 days you can only make yourself tired, you can’t improve. Not sure about that 8-14 window, but as said, TR plans like to back you down in that time frame too, but I don’t know if that’s based on research.
If you rest after the event, that’s that many more days you’ll de-train for in total, but unless you have an event coming up right after, you’ll build back up.
I’ve realised I have a bad habit of following a plan, seeing it’s working, then of course change it, because I’m a moron. If the plan has worked to this point, maybe give them the benefit of the doubt and go with their prescribed taper.
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As others have said - if the event is in 13 days, you’re probably best thinking about a taper. You could spend the next couple of days doing some intense VO2max sessions, followed by a long achievable endurance ride. All conversational pace. Following that you will probably be wanting to pick achievable workouts on TR and reducing the time for each one gradually, leading up to the event. Personally I like to have a couple of days full rest before a big event - but not everyone wants that. I would usually have 2 full days rest and then get a gentle 30 mins in the day before.
You’ve made your gains and feel good. Don’t spoil all that hard work by over doing it in the last few days.
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Thanks for all the advice and info. I’m probably gonna do as some of u have mentioned and ride some vo2 before lightening up before day of hard ride.
Forgot to mention that since recovery was over I sort just rode unstructured with exception of one 5x10 ftp ride(felt great). Had a tss of about 500 that week so I may try to treat that as the first week of a block and then to try recover with 4-5 days before hard ride
The hard is nothing special just a hard group ride but there’s going to a lot of strong riders and a lot of climbing, 68 miles and 6200 feet. Would be a great day to have a great legs. Thanks again!