Hello everyone, I have learned a lot on the forum and now I would like to ask for your help.
I have planned one of my “A” road races for a sunday. I have correctly followed the training calendar but I will not have access to the bike from Saturday of the week before the race until Friday of the race week. I will only be able to train on the bike the day before the race, after 7 days without a bike.
The race is a 5% gradient road bike climb that takes just over an hour at a very intense pace.
I would like to know your opinions or advice in order to handle this situation to avoid losing what I’ve gained, to lose as little as possible, or to arrive in the best possible shape. Currently, in addition to my 5 days of cycling training, I do two strength training sessions per week. Should I maintain my strength training sessions, increase them during those seven days, or what other activities do you recommend to replace the cycling sessions during race week?
One of my best races is when I came back from vacation. 1week without the bike prior to the race. I don’t think 1 week is going to alter your level of fitness. What I do suggest is you do an opener the day before. It will wake up those rested legs .
Whatever you do, don’t increase your strength work. Do your “normal” weight stuff if it’s not an A race, otherwise I wouldn’t do that either.
We’re all different machines, but I’d be totally good if I could get on the bike on Friday and do some hard opener efforts. If you had access to a gym with a stationary bike, maybe some 30 minute easy spins during the week, but not much else. Get some good sleep and don’t eat like crap. Fitness doesn’t go away that quickly, I’d bet you will be fine with a single day to prime the engine the day before the race.
You could consider to do some jogging or other forms of cardio available to you, but try very hard to keep the intensity very low if you are not used to it. Especially with cyclists picking up running, we tend to overdo it immediately due to the big engine developed from our training, which the legs can’t handle.
I was considering something similar, just the openers of the previous day according to the trainerroad calendar, the doubt with this is what duration to give it, considering that I normally train 5 or 6 days a week.