I am trying to plan my Season out using Plan Builder and there is one little Section that I’m not sure about.
To give some background I have a season long Series starting in April and ending in September which Consists of 10 rounds including 6 Road Races, 1 Crit, 2 TTs and 1 TTT.
I had a good block of training before Christmas, but because of Flu, Sinisitus and a new born I had 3 weeks off the bike and didn’t Start training again untill the 20th Jan.
With all that out the way, Plan builder has set me (From the 20th Jan)
SSB 1 - 3 weeks
SSB 2 - 4 weeks
General Build - 8 weeks
Rolling Road race - 8 weeks
A Race (28th June)
I have 4 B races spread out through this progression, and have 5 B races after.
Now my question comes down to the few weeks after my A race, there is a 1 week break and then back to back Race weeks after that. Plan builder has set a rest week then two weeks of General build.
I’m wondering about trying to strech my peak across these 4 weeks to emcompass 3 of the races this is something that has been talked about on the Podcast multiple times but doesn’t seem to be taken into account in plan builder.
My thought would be to take 2 or 3 days off after my A Race, then repeat the last few weeks of the rolling road race specialty.
My next races are 5,6 and 8 weeks after this block of 3 races. So I could take a rest week then start Rolling Road Race from the begining again.
What are peoples thoughts about this, and about Plan builder being able to take into account an extended peak?
First - you need to be open to changing whatever plan you’re using to extend a peak in the moment. If you extend it too long (for some people four weeks will be too long) you will run a high chance of killing the rest of your season. Be prepared to listen to your body and bail out early on the extended peak.
As to what approach you use to extend your peak - I’d suggest you grab those taper weeks from prior to your A race and just copy and paste them leading into the two following B races. How much time you take off after the A race will vary a ton, but what you describe could be a viable approach. Basically I’d want to remove a lot of TSS by removing endurance efforts while training to maintain my high end with the spiky taper workouts.
What you’ve described is a great start but remember to pay attention to your body during this extension of peak
Thanks, yes listening to my body will be number one Priority.
I’m currently doing the Low Volume plans + 2x30 min commutes 5 days a week + something at the weekend (this will vary from Nothing to 1 hour sweet spot to 3 hour club ride etc)
Last year I didn’t follow trainer road but was coached and averaged 570TSS /week between Jan and October, so this year will be a drop in Volume to what I am used to. The TSS from Interval sessions is broadly the same, what I’m loosing is 3-5 hours a week of Zone2.
I’m also only planning on racing 10-15 races this year, VS 30 last year.
The Road races (Including the A race) are 2-2.5 hours long so the Fatigue from the race shouldn’t be too great. But as you say I will monitor it.
During the weeks I want to try and maintain fitness I could do many of the shorter taper workouts during my commute reducing volume even more.
As I have mentioned a baby a few times, I thought I’d note, I’m also ready to throw the whole lot in the bin if sleep becomes a big problem, Currently 6 weeks in and still getting 6-8 hours a night.