Simple question: Is there any real benefit to doing a high volume week 5 weeks out from a gravel event or will it do more damage than good?
Background, I typically ride 10hrs a week with intensity on Tuesday/Saturday with some sweet spot on Thursday if I’m feeling good.
I’m thinking of doing a 20hr+ week during spring break since the wife is at work and the kids are in school. Following that week, I would have 4 weeks prior to my A event for the year. I was thinking one week recovery, 2 weeks intensity, 1 week tapering into the event.
Am I being a little too risky doing something like that? I’m guessing the intensity shouldn’t deviate too far from endurance if I’m doing that high of a volume.
Let me know what you think or if you need more info!
5 weeks out might be a week or two earlier than ideal, but adding in a big volume week just prior to an A event is a great option. I did it regularly when I was doing triathlon and have done it with success before longer gravel events.
Dylan Johnson just did a video recently on it and how it applied to Unbound last year.
I don’t think there is necessarily a “right” or “wrong” answer here, and it might not hurt to get the experience of doing this kind of block if you’ve never done one before…
That said, however, I tend to lean towards the side of caution when it comes to big volume – especially if it’s close to your A event for the year.
Going from 10 hours per week to over 20 would be more than doubling your volume, which would demand a lot of extra recovery. I’d be worried about derailing your coming weeks’ training sessions leading into your goal event. Generally speaking, these sessions will become more and more race-specific to prepare you for your event, and the final weeks of your plan is often when we recommend following the plan as closely as you’re able to.
As a “middle ground” approach, perhaps you could consider adding in a bit of extra volume (think more along the lines of a few extra hours instead of 10+ extra hours) so you can still get in a bigger week without risking pushing yourself too hard.
Ahhh, so maybe try to bump it to like 12hrs a week or something along those lines so I’m not doing a 100% bump in volume…maybe try to bring it closer to like a 70% bump (these are arbitrary numbers I’m throwing out btw).
