To Race Or Not To Race During Week Before A Priority Race?

[hogut]

Should you do a midweek race before a weekend priority race?
I have an A priority 40k TT race on Saturday and a weekly time trial series (18k) on the Wed before. I was going to use the Wed race as a final tune up but I'm not sure if I would be better off doing more controlled training efforts instead of pushing myself harder in an actual timed event. I also don't see racing the Wed TT and holding back a little-I doubt if I could do it. I'm new to road racing and structured training for events but I've heard others say don't do a full race effort or all out fitness/FTP test a few days (how many? I don't know) before a priority event- save the effort for the event. Any advice welcome. Thanks, H

 

[DJA]

Should you do a midweek race before a weekend priority race?
I have an A priority 40k TT race on Saturday and a weekly time trial series (18k) on the Wed before. I was going to use the Wed race as a final tune up but I'm not sure if I would be better off doing more controlled training efforts instead of pushing myself harder in an actual timed event. I also don't see racing the Wed TT and holding back a little-I doubt if I could do it. I'm new to road racing and structured training for events but I've heard others say don't do a full race effort or all out fitness/FTP test a few days (how many? I don't know) before a priority event- save the effort for the event. Any advice welcome. Thanks, H

Personlly I would hold back to about 80% on the wednesday race. If you feel that you cant hold back don't race on Wednesday just do a training tempo ride. If it were just bunch racing I'd say go for it but TT race you have to lay it all on the line when you finsh you should almost need to hurl. That sort of effort takes time to recover from and 3 to 4 days is not enough.

 

[BILLYHOLMES]

Sorry I am somewhat old school, I often raced my socks off on Wednesday (and Thursday for that matter) and always felt the better for it on Sunday, but thats me, everyone is different.

Bill.

Personlly I would hold back to about 80% on the wednesday race. If you feel that you cant hold back don't race on Wednesday just do a training tempo ride. If it were just bunch racing I'd say go for it but TT race you have to lay it all on the line when you finsh you should almost need to hurl. That sort of effort takes time to recover from and 3 to 4 days is not enough.

 

[hogut]

Thanks for the replies. I normally wouldn't think twice about racing midweek before a weekend race but I'm thinking that this could limit myself from achieving my very best performance for a particular race. As far as giving less than a full effort (especially on a TT), I'm afraid to set a precedent of giving less than full effort in any race (excluding a training/fun "race"). I always like to give a strong/full effort in a race whether I did intervals the day before or not. It's helpful to here your approaches. Thanks, H

 

[dm69]

The last few days preparation before a race are different for everybody itsabout finding out what works for you and what doesnt i have a specific routine i go through in the days leading up to an A race, this works for me but it probably wont work for everybody!I would play it safe and not do the weekday race. weekends are for racing weekdays are for training and recovering unless its a big tour.

 

[Jono L]

Should you do a midweek race before a weekend priority race?
I have an A priority 40k TT race on Saturday and a weekly time trial series (18k) on the Wed before. I was going to use the Wed race as a final tune up but I'm not sure if I would be better off doing more controlled training efforts instead of pushing myself harder in an actual timed event. I also don't see racing the Wed TT and holding back a little-I doubt if I could do it. I'm new to road racing and structured training for events but I've heard others say don't do a full race effort or all out fitness/FTP test a few days (how many? I don't know) before a priority event- save the effort for the event. Any advice welcome. Thanks, H

Race it. 18k is nothing, all out or not.