Training Load during the Season

[joroshiba]

[COLOR= rgb(34, 34, 34)]Getting close to race season, there has been one thing which continues to bug me. I've been training at a much higher volume than I will be racing at early in the season as I have been training to prepare for longer races that will occur after what I hope is a quick upgrade. When races start up, I'll be doing shorter 2-3 hour races instead of the 6 hour training rides I've been doing. Granted it will be higher intensity, but 2hrs of hard tempo is not the equivalent of 6 hrs of L2 in terms of strain on the body. How do people deal with "shorter" races and mainting their overall training load? I imagine this isn't uncommon during "Crit Season" either.

Currently at a CTL of 105, if I follow the plan I'll be at 120 by the time my first race weekend rolls around (first weekend of March). The way my schedule is there isn't room for more volume during the week.[/COLOR]

 

[RapDaddyo]

First, it takes less volume to maintain your race fitness than it does to build it. Second, as you approach the beginning of the season you probably want to shift your mix of training volume in two ways. You will probably begin to add some L5-L7 sessions. And, you will probably want to shorten the durations of your L4 efforts to push your intensity up to 100%FTP (or even a bit higher). Finally, you may want to identify a few target events during the season and ramp down your volume prior to those but keep your volume up to near off-season levels prior to non-target events. Basically, there is a benefit and a cost to tapering for an event. The benefit is that you will be more fresh. The cost is that you reduce training volume and this shows up in reduced fitness later. I ride non-target events with a fair amount of residual training fatigue and just accept this fact.

 

[joroshiba]

I understand periodization, the issue is that my non-target events will be much shorter with less stress than my target events or training I would do otherwise. I That said I need to race because I'm working on an upgrade, can't get those without racing! I don't want to start tapering in March for target races in May. The following is a 'typical' week for me over the past couple months:

M: Off
T: 3x20 L4
W: 4hr L2 w/2x30 min L3/L4
Th:Off
F: 2x30 L4
S: 2.5 hr L3 or 4-5 hr L2
Su: 5-6hr L2 with 2x30min @ L3/L4

For races non-target events I will do openers on Friday instead of the intense work I would normally do, then I lose the long ride on Sunday.

 

[daveryanwyoming]

I agree with all of RDO's points above but I'll add that you still don't want CTL to drop too dramatically or too quickly or you'll basically spend away your base. So from that standpoint you'll want to continue to prop up your CTL in a way that balances your racing either with some longer less intense training days in your week or by stretching race days when you can. The latter is a very good idea if you start racing a lot of crits or short time trials. IOW, think about adding an hour or more of riding after your race, that can be hard to do mentally when you'd rather be hanging out with folks rehashing the event or hanging around to see results or if it's a late afternoon race and you're losing daylight but if you're prepping for some longer events and want to sustain your accumulated base it helps.

In terms of balancing load it can be tougher for someone that's already used more of a volume/LSD approach to build CTL, but for the SST folks race season can be a very good time to stretch some midweek rides, back the intensity down so they're not too hard to recover from and use them to balance the shorter more intense racing days in the week.

Some combination of those methods tends to work for a while but sooner or later you'll spend away too much base and then it's best to back out of racing for a while, regroup, rebuild until you're firing on all cyclinders again and then target another string of races. That can be important for mental as well as physical reasons but what usually doesn't work is trying to push through declining fitness and declining race results and declining enthusiasm for racing when you've been at it too long. Best to regroup, refresh, rebuild before finishing out your season if and when that happens which depends a lot on how much you race and what sort of results you do or don't get in your early racing.

-Dave

 

[joroshiba]

I guess my big problem is that given time constraints I am very reliant on the weekend rides to maintain the load. There aren't enough hours in the day for me to do more during the week and pass my classes. I will certainly benefit from daylight savings time in this regard.

I wouldn't say I've used an LSD approach to my build or base (whatever terminology you want to use). I should say (although it wasn't apparent from my first post) that I am periodizing my training schedule. I have a full plan for the year with 2 peaks and corresponding taper. Lots of volume in upper L2, SST intervals during long rides, and L4 work. Starting L5 next week, first race is the first weekend of March, which is too early to start reducing load! Maybe I'll just do more miles after my C races.