A Race Change to BWR

Almost a Happy New Year Coaches!

My A race next year has been cancelled, the decline in road racing hits CA again. So, now the focus is BWR in 17 weeks. The last podcast was a really good one and had some great suggestions, but I thought I would ask a couple of questions here to make sure I got it right.

I’m just finishing the power weeks of the strength training plan which will lead into SS. In the podcast Frank alluded to doing the 6 week gravel plan before BWR. Since BWR is a lot more road oriented than gravel, I have some other choices:

  1. 6 week Gravel Grinder
  2. 6 week Steamboat Plan
  3. 6 week Hill Climb intervals
  4. 6 week road race plan

Once I get a direction on which plan prior to BWR, I’ll apply it. Next question is what to do in the 11 weeks left? I currently have the 32 week plan applied which would have ended right at BWR. I cleared out 6 weeks before BWR for one of the plans above, but may need some help adjusting correctly. I also have my other races ident

Thanks!
Kip

Hi Kip!

I would recommend you doing the 6 week gravel grinder plan. This will include a lot of threshold and sweet spot climbing work. You will also get a few road race like intervals with some Vo2 work mixed in as well. It’s a great plan and will work well. Plus the weekends are built with some gravel simulation workouts. These rides you will want to find roads and climbs similar to what you will find in the BWR.

As far as what you should do now you should continue with the 32 week plan as is! Doing the first 11 weeks of sweet spot work will be great. However you would need a rest week before starting the gravel plan.

I’ll be happy to go into your TrainingPeaks and help you set that up as you are a subscription member!

to quote from the Gravel Plan product description:

This six week periodized training plan is specific to long gravel races like the LandRun100, Belgian Waffle Ride, Lost and Found, the Dirty Kanza, and Gravel Worlds.

Thanks Frank. I read that in the description was just wondering if the Steamboat plan might also be appropriate as it is a newer plan. Just applied the Gravel Plan in TP.

Thanks for the quick reply Coach Jake! I would have gotten back with you sooner but I was in the gym (#FTFP!). I just applied the 6 week Gravel Plan, so feel free to adjust as required. Thank you!

I put in the regeneration week for you! You also won’t need to do the field test that was in the first week of the gravel plan as you will have just done one recently. Your FTP should be still pretty accurate based on the last test.

Also looks like you will have some racing and assuming some group rides so don’t forget sometimes you can use this data to determine if your FTP needs to be adjust. And since you are coaching subscription member you can always ask one of us to take a look!

Have a Happy New Year!

Coach,
After listening to Frank’s latest podcast discussing Sweet Spot training, what are your thoughts on me skipping SS1 and starting at SS2, then SS3, then the 6-week gravel plan prior to BWR? I think I might be ready for SS2 based upon my numbers in the group ride on 4 Jan. Thoughts?

Kip

You easily could handle going straight to sweet spot 2 as opposed to sweet spot 1. But do you have no. You will still get so much sweet spot coming up and longer sweet spot efforts in future training. So to do the most sweet spot now in January when you are 5 months away from your goal event is not necessary. If you are holding back slightly now that is going to give you more in the tank to go hard when you need to closer to the event.

If your group rides are going to be hard like this past weekend that is fine and you will be putting more in than planned, so putting more in during the week might than end up being too much. These first two weeks of sweet spot 1 may seem too easy, but your training will build as you go.

One thing I may recommend for you though is making some of the rides a little longer. Adding in 30 minutes of zone 2, if you have the time. You have a lot of 60 minute rides, but if you have time to extend to 90 minutes you might want to do that. What you’d like to see is your CTL increase a bit now that you are finished with the resistance training phase. Looking at the planned CTL based on workouts in TrainingPeaks you will kind of stay steady for a few weeks. But if your weekend rides are longer and higher TSS like this past weekend that will give it more of a boost which is great!

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Thanks Coach Jake. I will add on the 30 minutes of Z2 during the 60 minute SS work. I can easily make that time work during the week. It’s the Sunday ride times that cause issues, but I usually manage that OK.

The plan is to keep the Saturday rides just like what you analyzed, lots of race efforts thrown in. The guys love me for those :).

Thanks again!