Hi everyone,
i got my 1st ever amateur event on 4th June (117 Kms, 2800+).
Im excited for it. I just want to enjoy it and of course give my best, but im far from being able to compete at all, as im quite new to the sport (less than 1 year) and an old guy.
Ive been training with powermeter since January, my numbers are bad, but i enjoy to train with it and improve.
Ive been regularly training 4 times a week since January, been adding more climbing time lately. I have now 2 more weeks of higher training load (around 600), then its 2 weeks of around 350-400 training load, and finally the week of the race around 350 too.
ive been reading about doing a carbohydrates 3 days before race.
My questions are, how should i train those 3 previous weeks where my suggested training load is around 350. Isnt 3 weeks a bit too much to start reducing the load that much? Should i train shorter sessions but threshold sessions? Just cruise (Z2-Z3) so i dont get fatigue for the 3 weeks?
By now ive been able to complete 80% of event distance and climbing some weeks ago.
Keep the volume (duration and number of workouts) low and increase intensity (short, hard efforts, like 15-20 second sprints) on one day, and a recovery ride the next day. Rest, then do another 2 days of similar workouts. Round out your week with a long ride.
The closer you get to the race week, the more your training should be like your race, but 2-3 weeks before is too late to start doing this if you haven’t already started.
If you’re strictly on TSS, you can start with your longest ride (presumably on a weekend) and subtract that from your weekly total. A 2.5 to 3 hour hour ride, in Z2-3, with some short hard efforts, could get you close to 200.
So 350 - 200 = 150.
Divide 150 by 2 = 75 for 2 days.
The short, hard effort could get you 50 TSS followed by active recovery of 25 TSS the next day (60 minutes at 50-55% of FTP). Rest a day then repeat the 2 day block of 75 TSS.
There’s your 350 TSS. If it’s slightly more or slightly less, it’s not the end of the world.
Thanks.
I have started to train like the event weeks ago. Adding distance and climbing time.ive done a couple of 80% distance and 80% climbing, like a 90 kms 2200 mts climb some weeks ago (event is 117 kms 2800 mts+).
What i dont understand is how sprints would help me get ready, as im not doing sprints on event day. Wouldnt it be better to use those hard shorter sessions as in sweet spot or threshold blocks? I dont know, im new to the sport
I’m with @Gerald on this! Low volume but raise intensity, not so much that you fatigue. I would probably do some short Zone 4 intervals. Like you said, you want to be specif to that kinda race. You have 2800m of climbing, so I think you gonna need a lot of zone 3 and 4. But I could be wrong. There is an option to that is you should get zone 3 and 4 the months before your taper starts, then, close to the race, more high and sharp intensity like Gerald was saying.
Agree, race-like simulation is done about 3-6 weeks before the A event in a traditional Periodisation approach.
@David_Gonzalez_Garci mentions 350 TSS in the final weeks. To get that with Sweet Spot and Threshold, would need about 3-4 session per week with each being an hour long. When will he rest?
Lots of L1/2 workouts (I was taught to call them levels, not zones) mixed with short punchy efforts gets enough TSS without as much fatigue.
BTW, @David_Gonzalez_Garci - if you are on about 600 TSS, per week, in the final build phase, and want to drop to 350, that’s inline with an annual TSS of 22500 or about 400-425 hours per annum. Based on your training, how much TSS or time will you get for 12 months?
Here are two examples where TSS is similar (5 point difference) but they are completely different types of workouts.
15x 20sec sprints with the rest in L1 or L2
Only 5 minutes of accumulated high intensity, and 65 minutes of L1/2 work. Edit: looking at the description, I need to edit… it’s not all out effort, but only 150% of FTP.
TSS is 66
@Gerald if i understood correctly, you said that 4 short(around 1 hr) threshold sessions on the final weeks would lead to too much fatigue.
What if i do like 2 sweet spot or threshold 1 hour sessions combined with 2 easy z1/z2 rides of around 1h or 1h30 for those weeks, even if tss is a bit lower around 300 maybe. Would this be better? Being my event mainly climbing i think 20 secs sprinting would be a waste of a time for me, but maybe im wrong. U guys are the experts.
On the event week the training suggests only 2 short sessions and a very low tss, around 150 i think it is
@Xavier_Hipolito_Marg yes i think i mainly need z3 z4 at least for half distance of the event. The event has 2 really separate parts. Lots of climbing to 62 kms, then mainly downhill. You only climb 500-600 mts for the last 65 kms, while u climb 2200 aprox on the first 60 kms.
Last weeks ive been doing more climbing sessions (from 1000 to 1500 mts one or twice a week), i usually add a tenpo session on the flats and a easy endurance session, depending how i feel i push more or less that week, but try and hit 600 tss a week.
Definitely not an expert, but rather someone who has been around long enough to know what works for me, and more importantly what works for the 10-12 different cyclists that I’ve helped/coached, as well as the education received so far in my pathway to becoming a full-time coach when I retire from the corporate world.
Volume is made up of duration and frequency.
Duration = Time
Frequency = No of sessions
So when someone says low volume, it means both time and frequency. You don’t want to undo all your hard base, build and specificity work that you’ve done by doing more volume that what is necessary.
Fitness is the 42 day weighted average of your training load, so to maintain fitness you need to add load. High Intensity and Low Volume gives enough TSS to maintain fitness but also to stay fresh leading into the event.
Anyway, I’m not here to convince you otherwise, but rather to help explain why low volume and high intensity in the final weeks is better than sweet spot/threshold (call it medium volume and medium intensity - that also requires rest/recovery).
*Edit: * One of the best ways to learn it to make mistakes, and then learn from those mistakes. When I moved over to a coach, I stopped making errors as the coach had already learnt from those mistakes and prevent me from going through the same pains. I have the same approach with the 11 guys and 1 female I coach - the only time we try something new is when it won’t have an effect on their season goals.
Gerard, im all ears. Wasnt trying to question your methods, just try to understand why i would want to make sprints instead of thresholds or sweet spots 2 weeks before the event
There may be studies based on the peak and tapering mesocyles, but I’m not aware of any. Will have to search and see if there’s any scientific evidence.
Im not sure Gerald as this is really my 1st year cycling on a road bike. I only started to do regular training (4 days a week) in late December. My plan is to continue like this and train around 4 times a week all year round, doing less intensity (Base) some months and more intensity other months
