Due to illness derailing me a few months back, I’m trying to figure how to best cut down my crit specialty phase. My A race(s) is Tulsa tough in 6 weeks. My idea was to do weeks 1,2,3,4,7,8 and just cut out 5 and 6. This way I get 3 weeks of tss, a recovery week, and two taper weeks. Is there a better way to approach this?
Personally, i’d ditch the 2 taper weeks in favour of 1 recovery week
Week 4 is a recovery week. I figured I’d need the recovery week in there somewhere since I still have 6 weeks
I’m in the same boat as you and doing a modified version of the crit plan before Tulsa. I’m basically putting week 7 or 8 as my last week whatever one that is. I think it’ll be week 6 for me. I’m also doing more SS/long rides though on weekends or racing.
Yea, there are a few races, both weekday and weekend, that I’ll be going to as well. In fact the weekend before Tulsa tough, I’ll probably be racing the okc pro am on Sunday. There is also a good really fast Saturday ride here that is a good race simulation. I like to sub in some outdoor stuff as I get to my “A” races that way I get a better feel for the more dynamic nature of outdoor riding.
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Same. The weather where I live is starting to get nicer so I can go outside. But, the group rides and races are really what gets me dialed. The trainer is nice and all, but I get faster once the weather turns and I basically drop the trainer minus for recovery rides.
I might do OKC as well.
If it were my A race I would ditch week 4 and 5 OR week 4 and 6. I’d think it’s more critical to have the 2 taper weeks to bring my TSB up a bit. I’m not going to get any more CTL gains, nor would I want to, in a specialty plan so why not go into the A race as fresh as possible. I’d only be losing out on a week of possible power gains/adaptations.
So you would actually ditch the recovery week, do 4 weeks of good training load, then do two taper weeks? I’m worried that if I drop the recovery week, I could head into the races that weekend a little fried.
I’d setup 2 work, 1 recover, 1 work, 1 work or taper, 1 taper week to finish.
The “1 work or taper” could be decide based on fatigue. If you feel OK, do it as work. If you feel too fatigued, do it as taper.
Or you could even dona blend with work for the first half and taper for the second half. That almost seems like the best compromise as I think about it more.
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That’s only 5 weeks. Would you add in the other taper week to get to 6?
Correct. My mistake, sorry. I will edit above.
Modified my TrainingPeaks calendar to help out. From what TrainingPeaks tells me you’ll be just fine.
Take out week 4 and 5
Full 8 weeks
I don’t know your training history. I have done SSBMV, Short Power Build MV, and just started Crit Specialty MV. That’s what the calendar shown reflects.
I’m with Chad on this. I just had to do a variation of this leading up to my race this Saturday.
2 weeks of work.
1 recovery
2 weeks of work
week 8 for the taper.
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