Hello. I started a training plan for Unbound 200 this week. I’m also planning to do two B races, both gravel events, one in March and one in April. As things stand now, both races fall on rest weeks, which would mean I’d only have two rest weeks total between now and my A event at the end of May. I’m not sure that’s ideal, especially since I’d be going straight from each B race into a training block carrying fatigue from big rides.
I also noticed that the second block of my plan only has two weeks of training before a rest week. Would it make sense to increase that block to three weeks so that both B races fall on training weeks instead? If so, is there a way to do this in Plan Builder?
You won’t be reducing training the week of the race?
And nothing says a rest week needs to be Monday thru Sunday. You can modify the start of your rest week to Friday the week before the race (or even a couple days sooner).
Personally I don’t like racing at the end of a rest week, I prefer them the week before so I go in with a bit of fatigue (but not overly so) as on full rest I can feel flat. If this is you as well, can you shift your schedule up a week?
You shouldn’t need to update anything. If you put the events on your calendar and build an event-based plan, your training should all align with your events perfectly.
@eddie Don’t want to assume… but I think the OP originally had rest weeks assigned on weeks they also had a B race, but prefer the rest week to be the week prior (the week before the race). As a “fix” they pre-dated the plan a week earlier.
I also don’t like a race on a rest week as I can feel a bit flat. It would be cool if you could give the new AI a prompt when designing the plan.
@eddie, unfortunately that was not happening. Both B races I entered in Plan Builder landed on rest weeks. I’ve updated my plan start date again so you can take another look. Thanks!
In your case, those rest weeks serve somewhat similarly as a taper after all of your key workouts.
There are some upsides to this format – you still get to keep all of your key workouts and have the most productive “on” weeks as possible (no opener workouts, no extra recovery day afterward), and you get two little test races at the end of your recovery weeks leading up to your main event. I think I’d actually prefer it this way myself.
With that being said, I can see why you’d rather have those B races take the place of your hard workouts and keep recovery weeks 100% dedicated to recovery.
It can be hard to make this work perfectly as everyone would like, but I think the idea of changing the start date of your plan is a good one to get things in place as you’d like them.
I’m just wondering whether it makes sense in my case, given that these gravel races are fairly long (6–9 hours) and would push my weekly TSS at or above my current average.
Are there any red flags I should be thinking about with that approach?
Since they’re at the very end of your recovery weeks, I wouldn’t worry too much. Just make sure to respect your plan leading up to them and don’t do anything more than what’s prescribed during those rest weeks.
Then take as much time as you need afterward to recover.
The biggest thing you can do here is to stay on top of nutrition before, during, and after those events. Studies are showing that metabolic rates remain elevated much longer than what was previously thought after long endurance events. Keep eating well into that week following each race!
Getting enough carbohydrates in week after week really can have an immense effect on your ability to perform and then adapt.
I’m working on increasing my weekly training volume to around 8–9 hours. With my current plan, I have three intensity days per week. I’ve managed that in the past at lower volume, but looking at my calendar now, many of my weekday workouts (limited to about 1:15–1:30 max) end up being long sweet spot intervals, essentially an hour or more at sweet spot, which can be taxing.
Given that, I’m wondering whether it would make more sense to switch to a Masters plan with two intensity days per week. Would I get better results with 3 days of intensity?
Do you have a recommendation on how best to balance this? For example, would it make sense to prioritize endurance rides during weeks when I’m feeling more fatigued, and lean into intensity when I’m feeling good?
I typically recommend athletes to stick to the three hard workouts a week unless they’re really upping the volume. I definitely think that cutting one key workout and increasing volume to 9 hours a week will leave some gains on the table.
In terms of easy volume, keeping one long ride a week could be a good idea. That, alongside the three hard workouts, is a great lower-volume plan. If you can fit short recovery spins in between the harder rides, that’s a bonus.
Ultimately, it’s about priorities, though. If the plan you’re going to enjoy is one with less intensity and more easy pedaling, go that route as long as you’re achieving what you want.
