I would like to buy a set of trainingplans from base to race
I’m 42 years old and I do 6 mtb marathons a year
22/04 La Hallonienne (Grand-Halleux) - 75 km
19/05 La Rockalienne (Baraque de Fraiture) - 90 km
30/05 Cimes de Waimes (Waimes) - 85 km
10/06 Ardennes Trophy (La Reid) - 95 km
23/06 Raid des Hautes-Fagnes (Malmedy) - 90 km
18/08 Chouffe Marathon (Achouffe) - 95 km
08/09 Grand Raid Godefroy (Bouillon) - 90 km
These marathons are typically 90 km met +/- 2500 vertical meters.
I race them using my power meter and I would like to ride as much sweetspot as possible. Sometimes going into zone 5 for the steeper / technical sections.
Below you can find a typical race from last season. You can see that I ride more zone 3 then zone 4 and would like to change that. In essence, I want to get faster :-). I try to avoid zone 6 and 7 not to burn myself. Maybe this is not a good strategy, but this is what I do for the moment.
My FTP is now around 345 and I do mostly
sweetspot (with accent on endurance - up to 70 min without pauzes)
Longer Tan Tempo on MTB trails (2.5 to 3 hours)
max Aerobic intervals - VO2max (based on WKO optimized intervals)
occasional zone 2 rides but not that often
I ride around 10 to 12 hours during training weeks and around 6 hours during my restweeks.
Can you suggest plans from base to race and what to do in summer as there are almost 2 months without marathons.
do you think it’s ok to take the 8-12 hours plan being 42 years old (this is more or less the amount I’m doing now)
Can I also start with the sweetspot marathon plan next year after the winterstop? Or should I add an additional plan in front of it. I normally do a 12 week base period, but I can be wrong.
Just finished all three SS plans, and now i have a mix of MTB races(3 - 4hour marathons, and 1:30h XCO races) with XCO nationals on 21.July so about 12 weeks of time.
My current CTL is 91.
I saw that xc SS marathon plans first two weeks have lower TSS then SS part 3 ?
i have purchased both XC intervals and SS marathon and now questioning how to proceed , should i get some intervals now or keep doing SS ?
Racing in masters category(36y)
There focus on your raw power output and not CTL (that’s why total weekly TSS’s are lower)
Short answer to your Q: do your sweet spot marathon plan for 4 weeks then your xc intervals plan for 6 weeks, and then work in a rest week leading into the July 21st race! Good luck -
Hi
Just finished the first workout of the marathon plan. It was great fun!
Just wondering why you use a mesocycle of 6 weeks instead of 4? (Even heard that 3 weeks is advised for masters)
Regards
We want you to get your money’s worth Seriously, tho - our six week plans are not six week mesocycles. If you want to design in our your own 2-3 week mesocycles with rest weeks, here’s how to edit your plan:
@frank you mentioned at one time (podcast or email?) that you would be putting together a training plan for the Masters National RR at the AFA. The 11 mile circuit course has a 12-minute climb in it, and I think we do it 5 times? Would the Hill Climbing intervals be appropriate to prep for this? If you do create a special plan for this event, will it be reusable in TP?
It looks like a 12 minute climb but it is really not - I have raced at Air Force many times myself and coaching the CU Buffs cycling team - VO2 climbing power is the key for this race course and we are recommending our straight up road intervals plan for Masters Nationals:
Begin this plan 7 weeks prior to your race and then use the final week beforehand as a rest week. As part of our new coaching subscriptions becoming available in a week or two we can design in that week for you if you want.
Just wondering, if I do the full 6 weeks of XC intervals, wont I loose to much fatigue resistance when I stop those extensive sweetspot workouts? Or how does that work?
I’m just a bit afraid I will get stronger and better for shorter events (1 to 2 hours) but not in 5 hours events.
I’m just asking because I saw your podcast on CTL for masters.
And there you drew a performance management curve that tapered only 2 weeks after Sweespot training. At first you said this is also for mtb marathons, but you corrected that you wanted to leave marathons out of it because of needed AC power (if I remember well)
So that’s where my last question came from. Should I concentrate on power above FTP and maybe loose some FTP and Fatigue resistance. Maybe I’m totally wrong and I can have both, but this is more less what I understood from a webinar of Tim Cusick. If one goes up, the other goes down. This is a questions that has been bothering me for a while
I really can’t answer unless I were to do a coaching consultation with you, sorry. What you are training for, your CTL, when your goal events are, so many many factors.
You have a great plan, I’d encourage you to follow the plan and trust the process. Don’t overthink it. Training really is simply, especially if you just follow the plan.
If you would like to hire a coach and have that conversation and get a custom plan designed specifically for you, please fill out our new athlete questionnaire here and from there we can set up a coaching consultation on the phone:
Looking for the best plan to prepare for a flat 5k TT and and flat 10k TT, each a day apart, and about 6 weeks from now. Do I go with the short Strava KOM plan or something else?
, should i get some intervals now or keep doing SS ?
Seriously, tho - our six week plans are not six week mesocycles. If you want to design in our your own 2-3 week mesocycles with rest weeks, here’s how to edit your plan:
