I am about to do something silly

I’m currently on the “on-season/off season” training plan. right now I am about to enter the hypertrophy phase of weight training on the medium volume plan. I am not able to go to the gym due to covid and have not been able to set up a home gym like i planned. Also, I am having a hard time keeping up with all the workouts every day (riding, weights, Nino workouts, etc). I feel like I should scale back to the low volume plan. That being said I have committed to do something silly. In April I am planning on doing a massive ride, 331 miles and 30k climbing in a push. Based on this I feel like I should bag the weights for this year and focus on on-the-bike training. I would like to continue to work on getting stronger/faster with improvements in FTP while training for this big undertaking.

  1. would you recommend bagging the weights and focus on sweet spot training, sticking with the program and continue to attempt at weight training, or change plans altogether.
  2. would reducing my program to low volume and add in long zone 2 rides where I can be beneficial?

background - cycling for 2 years. 1st year trained on my own with pure volume to complete the Death Ride near Tahoe (130miles, 15k climbing). 5k miles/year over the last two years but likely would have been able to get 6-7K miles had I not had knee surgery. I have focused on structured training since May 2020 and have seen significant improvements.

Hi @michael.chaffin - not ‘silly’ at all; rather a ‘big audacious goal’ to quote Ray Dalio.

If you can’t lift and don’t have the at home equipment, fast forward to the 18 weeks of sweet spot in your plan. Ride ride ride - as much as your life & legs will allow - that is the best way to train for such a long race.

Do a simulation ride or two 2-3 weeks out from your big ride:

Edit your plan per this tip (cut the weights - you can do them next off season) and raise your CTL using the Performance Manager Chart with your sweet spot plan. Easy peasy - happy new year!

2 Likes