Lowering body weight for climbing event

Training
1

Hi all,

In about 100 days i have a mountain triathlon event, including 2x1300m of climbing and 800m elevation of running.

Obviously weight is an important factor in this event, but not at the cost of performance.

I sit comfortably at around 75-76 kgs, dropping to around 73 when i am “race fit”. However, for this event i am considering going a litt bit further, say perhaps 70-71 kg. What i am wondering about is the timing of the weightloss. Maintaining a low weight over time is stressfull, but on the other hand you dont want to be dropping it all right before the event, as this would likely come at the cost of performance. What are your tips and experiences.

Should i drop it evenly over the 100 days, front load or back load it, or just skip it all together.

FYI i am 178 cm with athletic build, even at 70kg i would likely not be below 8% body fat so we are not talking “dangerously thin” here. I exercise approximately 10 hours a week, with a mix of indoor, outdoor rides and running, averaging about 500 TSS weekly over the last 3 months.

Thanks for any tips

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I’m think weight lose is extremely individual so my only advice is to play it by ear and not set hard targets for yourself. Especially if you haven’t been down that low in a while.

I’m currently 90kg at 191cm, of usually race at 87kg but limited races going ahead here so I’m in no rush to drop the weight. I’ve been working my way down from 93-94 over the past 9-10 months. I hope to be down at 87 by the end of the summer, then put a bit of padding on for the winter - I find it easier to fend off colds etc at 90kg.

87kg is healthy, lean and strong for me. Below that - 86 is touch and go health wise, I fall of a cliff at 85kg. Last time I was down there I didn’t know I was in trouble until I raced and I was just absolutely wiped - had a nightmare of a day.

Take your time and don’t cut aggressively. I tend to let volume take care of it, rather than make much change to my diet (it’s pretty healthy anyway). It’s easy enough in the summer to just extend a workout a bit while the weather is nice.

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