I usually like to race gravel and MTB all summer but with the uncertainty of races I’ve decided this year to target my A event as a marathon MTB race in mid October, hopefully followed by a full cross season! Fingers crossed! So i’m in week 3 of my strength program, then sweet spot 1, 2, and 3. As of now I have the marathon MTB plan following that, and I designed a 2 week taper at the end because I know 1 week isn’t good for me. The marathon MTB course starts with a full gas 13 minute gravel climb before the singletrack. This is imperative to a good result because it gets bottlenecked on the singletrack because of a technical descent, followed by a creek crossing. If you get into the singletrack too far back, you can end up having to walk if someone in front of you stops. But the rest of the course is short 3-5 minute punchy climbs. My question is should I use the XC intervals plan instead of Sweet Spot Marathon because of all the short punchy climbs? Or implement a little of both of the plans? I have already purchased both plans. Thanks in advance for the help!
I’d do xc mtb intervals 1st followed by your sweet spot marathon plan. Boost your anaerobic power then go long.
One training phase I’d add is to work on your threshold climbing per the 1st 13 minute climb (sounds like Winter Park?!)
I suggest that because you have the time for all three of those training phases:
So what do I remove to fit all 3 of those in? As of now I’m going right up to race day with strength training, Sweet spot 1, 2, and 3 plus marathon MTB plan with 2 week taper.
Not sure would have to look inside your TrainingPeaks to figure it out.
The two biggest things I’d analyze are your PMC chart and the timing of those training phases to your October goal.
Ok. Thanks for the reply
My CTL will actually drop from 71 to 61 during Sweet Spot part 1 after I finish my resistance training, so I’m thinking of ditching part 1 and going straight into Sweet Spot part 2 which would gain me an extra 6 weeks to put in xc intervals before marathon MTB. Plus that would boost my CTL! Sounds like a win win!