I need help or recommendations/comments on my training plan. I am training at the moment for my B event, short track xc series that will consist of 6 races once a week for 6 weeks. Each race should be sub 40min likely 30min, very short climbs, flat, tight, crowded aggressive field. Starting April 30th ending early June.
My A event is BC Bike Race, July 2nd-10th.
My current plan is:
Just finished Base
Build: Short Power (mid-volume, started today)
Specialty: Short Track XC - ending April 30th (mid-volume, peaking right at XCC series start)
Specialty: Cross County Marathon - ending June 28th (low-volume w/ taper week)
Is this too focused on short track, should I make changes to these blocks to accommodate BC bike race in July? I will have roughly 8 weeks, from the end of Specialty Short Track & start of XCC series, to fit in an almost full specialty cross country marathon series low volume while I race XCC series.
I am usually a cross country rider so XCC is new to me, which is why I feel I am focusing on it too much. I live in CO, I can get quality long days with climbs in during those 8 weeks before BC.
Thoughts on this plan? Any recommendations or thoughts from experience? Should I swap my Build or specialty stages?
I havenât done BC bike race, but given it is a 6(?) day stage race instead of a one day XC marathon, I would think at least a general build would be a better choice. It will help build more aerobic capacity and lasting power.
I race some short track in the summer and CX in the fall and my n=1 experience is if I focus too much on short power efforts too early in the year it gets difficult to maintain volume later in my CX season.
I would have planned it all for BC, and just fit the short track races as intense workouts. General build or even sustained power build with marathon XC speciality.
That sounds better, that is what I have been thinking. I think I am hung up on being unfamiliar with short track. I will switch to General Build. I am curious with my extra 8 Weeks after specialty? Any thoughts on that?
Thanks that is helpful, I am switching to General for my Build. Then I will relook at my specialties when they get closer and see how I am feeling on the bike.
The BC Bike Race is a fantastic choice. However, I donât think you want to do two specialties. I would recommend changing your short-track races to C races. Maybe pick one that you would want as a B race. Essentially, they will replace workouts, but you wonât taper or adjust your plan otherwise. .
Youâre focus needs to be on developing the sustained power needed for the BC Bike Race. Iâve never done it, but I had a friend who did it. He said it was really hard, and this guy is a beast. He said it is like doing the old Test of Metal Race (5 hour race) six days in a row.
@CaptainEndo Thanks for the insight, so helpful. I think youâre right. I am starting to lean maybe switching my build phase to Sustained Power now, I am on my first two days of General build so wouldnât cause issues. If I do XC marathon specialty I will finish that with 8 weeks until BC Bike Race. Any thoughts on what I should fill that time with?
Iâm a Cat 1/Expert XCO and MTB 100s racer. From my experience and after using a power meter on my MTB, I donât think Sustained Power is a good fit for races on singletrack. Sustained power increases your ability to maintain near threshold efforts for a âlongerâ duration. However, these events have very little, less than 15%, in that zone. This is somewhat course dependent, but usually you either need power, lots of it, or you donât (z2). Unless you have plenty of sustained climbs over 15-20 mins in your event, think Leadville, youâre likely better off with General Build. General Build is a nice mix of short and longer demands and has served me well in the past. This allows you to punch and recover over and over again, which is usually how these races go.
The new recommendation with plan builder is to sequence base 1 - build - base 2 - build - ⌠-speciality. So if you have too much time, you could fit in another short base and build block. When I played with it, targeting a âxcmâ event, the build blocks were all the same, so for a xcm event, it gives you ssb1 - sustained pb - ssb2 - sustained pb - xcm speciality. Personally, I think this is way too much âsustainedâ stuff and I wouldnât want to go into any offroad race after only doing near-threshold workouts for over half a year. So Iâd swap to general build for at least one of those blocks.
From racing cx last season (first time with TR), I felt that short power build didnât help me much - I lost my ability to go hard longer and my short power didnât improve (the âshort powerâ in TR is too long for the punches in cx imo). I also found sweetspot and threshold workouts to be much better during the season, than more short stuff.
Iâd do general build, but maybe swap some of the vo2max sessions for the races (or apace them apart in the week).