I’m looking for insights into training specifics for a hard week long event. I will be doing 6 hard gravel days in a unknown area, about 300 miles with 60000ft of total climbing. I have about 12 weeks left. I have questions regarding:
How to manage load ?
Is a 2 week taper better. ?
How many big weeks of training?. How close to the event?
I don’t necessarily want to “peak” for this event, but I want to have sufficient training to be able to finish it without feeling dead.
If you are there just to finish it will be just an aerobic effort and that engine needs years to build… so focus on the equipement and plan everything. After two days you will not be able to rise the HR and your body will find the pace but be carefull on the first two days…
But after this event you will be much better rider in so many ways….
Progressive load still applies. Increase the loads for 3 weeks, drop load to recover and absorb training in 4th week, increase the loads again, starting at a higher load in the first week of second 3 weeks than the first week of the first 3 weeks etc.
6 days of 5x(2k’ per 10mi) is pretty intense, or more like awesome and brutal. I’m not sure how you won’t feel dead after that, even if there’s a day or two of nothing but (or mostly) flat, especially if this is good gravel (i.e., trail) with 40+ tires highly recommended. If the route is in Europe, I’d love to know it.
As for managing the load, my $0.02 that’s worth less than half that is to make sure you have your sense of what you’re capable of doing over consecutive training days with 2k’ per 10mi of climbing. The consecutive days will be necessary though they don’t need to be 50mi. This loading will be your hard “days.”
The taper will depend on you. Some people need less, some people suffer with more. Twelve weeks out, minus, say, 10 days, and you have about 10 weeks. Programming in 2 or, better, 3 hard “days” of 2, then 3, and then maybe 4 days of 2k/10mi, with probably low intensity between for endurance. Just a thought… Regardless, I don’t think there’s a chance you’ll not finish “feeling dead.”
You want to be fresh, and given it’s the Andes I presume you’ll be going over 4,000m most days? In which case you’ll want to try and get there early to acclimatise unless you already live at altitude.
I did three weeks off road in Tibet over 4,000m max 5,800m when in my mid 30s a couple of decades back. Didn’t do any training for it, as was in middle of a trip round the world. But I’d been active every day for 12 months at the time, even if mostly on foot.
Your ability to recover each day will be key. I never had to think about it in my mid 30’s. Heading into late 50s I have to think about it, though 7-10 days back to back is still fine compared to the 21 days of that trip.
Durability is built on the back the long multi hour Z2 outings you do every week.
Base for this is made during previous years.
Progressive build and two weeks taper me thinks.
There is enough climbing and days that accumulates lots of load, so tsb clearly positive when starting. If this is racing for results from day one, then it’s maybe bit complicated and depends how well one knows his/her own body from fitness/freshness perspective.
