Hey all, I’m currently in specialty phase targeting a 50 mile MTB event in June. It’s a fund raiser not a race and my goal is more about completing the ride feeling good than a specific time goal.
I’ve been a regular rider most of my life and raced occasionally. I’m new to structured training though and started with TR last fall and trained through the winter using plan builder. I missed some weeks in the Spring for travel but have otherwise been fairly consistent.
Last weekend I competed in our local XC race series and finished further back in the pack than I did last year. I know that there’s a lot that goes in to race performance, I wasn’t peaking for this race, the field can be different every year, etc. but I guess I was hoping to improve in the field compared to last year more than I did. Also the race was on the Sunday before my deload week, so maybe carrying some more fatigue than normal.
My question is a little nebulous but my race performance rattled my confidence a little bit. I guess I’m just looking for reassurance from people with more training experience that I’ll be on track for my A event in 4 weeks. Is it common to underperform at this stage of training? Will my fitness start to come together in the lead up to event day?
Appreciate the help.
I’m guessing you built up too much training load without any taper before the event.
If you had fresh legs you would have killed it instead of it killing you.
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I think this is the most likely culprit. Were you finishing Build? If so, build is very difficult and fatiguing, especially the last week of it.
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Yeah, looking back, my TSS for the three weeks before was a jump up from my 6 week average (weather is getting better so going on some longer group rides on the weekend in addition to weekday workouts). I thought a rest day or two would do it but I’m still getting use to how the legs feel at different stages of the training cycles and with a chronic load, more used to just going out for a ride and seeing what happens. I will trust the process and see if I can nail the taper and show up ready to go on my A day.
Appreciate the comments! Pretty basic stuff but very helpful to get some perspective as I’m getting used to a more structured approach to training. Sometimes the brain wants to compare how you’re doing to everyone else instead of just enjoying the ride lol
Was it the same course as last year? If so, what was your time this year vs last year?
You can’t control who shows up or how they ride, but your time and your power are often better comparisons year over year. Conditions/temp also play a big factor in that.
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The course was changed due to muddy conditions from rains the previous few days and they added a hard uphill rock garden so difficult to compare to last year. I actually PR’d my 1 minute power which is cool but makes me think my pacing strategy was not the best since I faded later. Pacing for my 50 miler will be totally different of course but a good reminder to start out conservative:).
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I would take that as a descent indicator of where your fitness is. If you can PR your 1 min and actually keep racing after then you’re definitely fitter. Right now if I PR’d that I’d have to lay on the side of the road for 3 min and then soft pedal for 5+ more.
But as others said. I wouldn’t expect to feel amazing after 3 weeks of above average training volume and going into a rest week. And an XCO race might be about the hardest race you could have done in that scenario lol
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I agree with everything said on this thread already.
Showing new power PRs is a good sign, and it’s hard to compare yourself to the rest of the group since they are living completely different lives, likely with different goals than you.
Since the course was different this year, it’s also hard to compare this effort to your past ones.
What I can see, though, is that you’re in your second Build phase of the year, and you didn’t taper for this event (we only schedule tapers for A races), which could be why you didn’t feel or perform at 100%.
Additionally, you’re really close to your highest recorded FTP (at least in TR), which tells me that you’re in pretty good shape.
I’d do your best to follow the plan to ensure that you’re able to keep consistently training, and once you’re tapered in August, you’ll likely be in top-notch shape!
Keep up the good work, and enjoy those spring WI rides! I recently lived in Waterloo and worked in Madison. There’s good riding down there! 
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Thanks all, that’s great perspective. Appreciate everyone’s thoughts and encouragement!