Ok so I am now setting PR’s and top 10’s all time on Strava routinely during my Tue-Thursday training rides on this SS 18 plan so something is working (it helps too that I’m not working 16+ hours a day and flying all over N. America for business meetings) so at home zoom calls make for better training. Looking forward to a real test in two weekends at Wild West Gravel - 100 miles/8,000 ft. climbing and then two weeks later the 100 mile CO2UT Gravel race (need to beat my younger brother).
A few questions for you so that I can get this right and then transition to my June Oregon Trail 5 day gravel race and then start to get ready for Steamboat GRVL and fall events like Mammoth Tuff and Bike Monkey (Levi Leipheimer) Hammer Rally.
My current SS 18 plan runs thru June 30th. So a few questions:
- What should I do next week? My race is on Saturday and this is not an A race - I just want to finish top 20 and have fun. I’m assuming you can see my actual plan online in Training Peaks - I have off/AR Monday/Friday and Tue-Thu is as follows: Threshold Intervals 2 x20 on Tue, Wed: SS Bursts 5 x 10, Thu: SS 3x8.
Is their a specific PREP ride that I should do on FRIDAY/day before the race?
Am I supposed to follow the plan for my Monday-Thursday rides?
- I will probably take off on Sunday or do a recovery ride and then could ride 2-3 hours on Monday as a solo ‘group ride’ as my Sunday ride would have been 4.5 hours free style SS. Do I then jump back into my program for the rest of the week and the week following and then what shoud I do the week of CO2UT?
CO2UT is May 22nd/Saturday - that week I see I have Monday/Friday: Off/AR and Tue-Thursday: Tue: SS 20 min 2 tempo, Wed: Endurance zone 2~45 TSS, Thu: Criss Cross Tempo/Sweet Spot: 3x15 min.
So my question is:
- Do I modify anything Monday-Thursday that week leading up to the Saturday race and is there a particular PREP ride that I should do on Friday instead of using that as OFF/AR?
a. Do you have a standard warm-up that you recommend for long/hilly gravel races ‘the morning of’ - at most I’ll have 30-45 minutes to warm up given the start times and I don’t have a trainer so it would be on the pavement and all the races I’m doing are 100 miles w typically 6-10,000+ feet of climbing.
Thanks - this will really help me out with what to do ‘the week of’ a race as I will be encountering this as I go thru other plans that I bought from you guys leading up to Steamboat GRVL in Aug and then my Fall races.
I really appreciate your help and hope all is well in Boulder. 80+ here in Napa today so sweating on rides w/o wearing arms and knees feels good again:)
Cheers,
Mark