Training Plan Questions after 1st A Race

Training Plans
1

Hello,

You’ve probably answered variations of this in different posts, but I had a couple of specific questions around training plans for me. I am 42 and I just about to finish the Resistance + Sweet Spot Training Plan and then I’m jumping into the Road Race Interval Plan. My A Race is Barry Roubaix 36 Mile in Michigan the 3rd week of April and when I initially inquired with you guys before purchasing any plans, it was recommended to go with the Road Race Interval Plan since Barry is more like a Road Race. For reference, I do mostly gravel road and cross country mountain bike races and for reference, I’m looking at the Ice Man race in the beginning of November as a 2nd A Race. I’ve already purchased the Iceman Training Plan and would plan to do that prior to that race. So, my questions are around what training plan(s) I should look to transition to after Barry and before I start the Iceman Training Plan. For additional details, there are some local races in May and June after Barry that I’ll probably do, but then things quiet down in July, August, September. I’ve listened to some of your podcasts and it seems like there are a few different options between some in-season, interval, and/or additional sweet spot plans. Although this isn’t really a race season with points, etc., I didn’t know if it made sense to do one of in-season plans (XC MTB, Road Race, or Gravel) for the couple months that I’ll be racing more frequently. For reference, most of these are gravel races with 1 or 2 XC MTB races included and most of these are around 2 hours or so. And, then switch to some sweet spot training again before getting into the race specific training about 6 weeks out or so. Or, look at doing any of the different interval training at some point in between as well. Any guidance/recommendations around this for training from May to probably mid-September when I start the Iceman Training Plan prior to that race would be greatly appreciated. I would also be open to doing the phone consultation that is noted on your website to review all of this if this is something you think would work better to provide a better defined plan.

Thanks,
Brent

2

@brentzimmerman

So with two peaks in mind that are so spread apart you have some good freedom.

Your path to Barry sounds great. From there its whether or not you have races sprinkled in and how important they are to you. If you do and you care about them then I would do an in season race plan or the MTB or gravel interval plan. Then take a break, then SS plan, then Iceman plan.
If not on the race front midseason, then really plan out your midseason break so that June you are jumping back into a base/SS plan (I would do SS2 and 3) then jump into the ice man plan.
Basically the first option makes the front half of the season longer as you are juggling more races and the other option is all focused on Iceman.
Best of luck!

3

Thanks Isaiah. That is helpful and helps give me good direction on a couple options. One follow-up question on this. If I go the route of the interval or in season race plan, any suggestions on which one(s) would be best. For reference, most of my races are in the two hour range and similar courses to the Barry and Iceman as I’m pretty much either doing gravel road races or cross-country mountain bike races in Michigan without a lot of overall elevation. From listening to podcasts, it seems like the gravel training plans are more directed at long endurance gravel races so would that mean that the road or cross country mtb plans would be better for the types of races I’m doing, and, if so, either that you think is better or either option would be good.

Brent

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I would go for the Intervals for XC mountain biking plan