Week off before "A" race?

I am signed up for a weekend Omnium May 25-26 and the week prior, 15-21 I am Headed to Ottawa for a Barmitzvah so I won’t be able to ride. I am really concerned about losing fitness for that week. What are your thoughts?

Right now I am doing the Low Volume Base Phase as I am still quite new to TR and I am also riding outside and based on the TSS score I change my third ride to a shorter active recovery ride but find myself changing the days a lot.

On the May 25 Weekend my A races are a 16km TT and 13km Crit both in the same day just a few hours between and the following day is a 36km RR which I marked as a C race. I am racing Cat 5/D.

Being off and not riding from May 15th to the 21st, how will this affect my training? Is there anything I can do? maybe 2-5km Runs instead? Maybe weightless lunges or Squats?

Thanks all!

Jeff

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Hey Jeff,

Thanks for being active in the forum!

I just wanted to drop a couple links to some blog posts that may help give you a good idea about how to make the most of your week away:

I hope that helps. :smile: Good luck with those races when you get back! :biking_man:

Happy Training!

I personally do not like time off before races. However you may have different results.

Thank you everyone. I don’t like taking time off either. but I don’t think I will have a choice. I should be able to get two-three days when I get back. I will see how a VO2 workout feels when I get back. Most of the time off is driving so biking is out of the question.

If biking is totally out of the question (no exercise bike at the hotel? No option to hire or borrow a bike?) then I would run since at least it’s stretching the legs out and getting the heart pumping which should help maintain fitness even if it’s not very specific. With the caveat to take it pretty easy if you don’t run somewhat regularly - last thing you need is to use your bike fitness to go hammer your legs in an activity they’re not accustomed to and give yourself an injury or severe DOMS as a result!

Three suggestions:

  1. Prior to departing, you can load up. [note: I’m going on a 2 week vacation starting Saturday that will only include 1 day of biking so it’s what I will be doing]

  2. Don’t sweat it. Take advantage of the physical and mental downtime. Get as much rest as you can (e.g. enjoy the Bar Mitzvah, but minimize the alcohol consumption and get to bed at a reasonable hour). While you will loose some level of fitness, it won’t be large and you will return mentally ready to crush your events.

  3. When you do get back, don’t try to cram in fitness. It will just leave you physically and mentally fatigued. Some endurance and/or sweet spot is about all you should do, plus pre-race day warmup and openers.

ps. running isn’t going to replace biking. but, you can do some light running followed by stretching to keep muscles and joints limber. and yes, if you have been doing a strength training program (highly recommend), you can do weightless work (if you haven’t, its probably not a good time to start).

Yeah no hotel, other than the night after driving forever :slight_smile: Might just do walks with my son to get the legs moving

Thank you. I will look into loading up and what I should do there. I am driving most of the trip only spending 2-3 days not driving lol. I will take it easy, maybe walking. I will enjoy the week off and maybe when I get back, Thursday I will do a quick 30m VO2 and Friday a 1hr VO2 and take Saturday off and race on Sunday. I excel at Short fast races, Crits and TTs.

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If you’ve built up well going into the 15th the time off will probably be the best thing for you. I might do something different when you get back Thursday, Friday and Saturday with a hard hour Thursday an easy spin Friday and openers on Saturday. Enjoy the week!