Due to vacation and serious sickness, I have not been able to ride my bike for the last 3 weeks.
I have my A-race coming up in 3 weeks. A 6-day MTB stage race starting september 2nd.
I just resumed riding again this week, no intensity yet but endurance rides felt fine so far but were on the lower side of Z2. I do have a few days of work next week, so I can do a 4-day block with some volume.
How would you guys tackle the next few weeks? I was thinking:
Week 1 (August 12th) - 1 interval session then a 4-day endurance block (with a C-race on sunday) - 12 hours total
Week 2 (August 19th) - 2 interval sessions (Sweet spot or Treshold) and some endurance rides - 8 hours total
Week 3 (August 26th) - Taper
Week 4 (September 2nd) - Race week
My normal volume from January to June was between 6 and 10h per week with some bigger weeks in there. Would this be to much?
If you have been off the bike for 3 weeks, you are going to be better off training up to the race, no need for a taper. Just take it easy for a few days right before the race.
The biggest thing you can do at this point is adjust your goals and expectations. You are not going to be able to perform as you had once hoped / planned. Just accept that going into it. Get in as much volume as you can without creating excess fatigue and just enjoy the race.
Yeah, I know I wonāt be at the same level as before getting sick. Just hoping to regain as much as possible. The goal also isnāt to get a ārace resultā. Just finish each day feeling not completly destroyed.
The reason I did put in a full taper week, is because iām pretty scared of the volume that the race week will be. 6 days on the bike, and Iām estimating 22 hours of ride time in 6 weeks. It will be the biggest week of riding Iāve ever done.
Iām sorry that you were so sick . Iām glad you are starting to feel better now though. Iāll keep my fingers crossed it stays that way .
I suggest that you continue to pay close attention to how you feel. If you donāt feel like you have made a full recovery, listen to your body and take it very easy/consider taking more time off so that you can continue to make progress toward full recovery. This is of the utmost importance. I suggest you avoid any intensity until you feel back to your usual self. Intensity will not improve your fitness if youāre not healthy- it will only set you back.
If you feel like you have fully recovered, let Adaptive Training and Red Light Green Light handle your training leading up to the event. It is designed to adapt around these types of scenarios to prepare you to be as fast as possible for your A event. Red Light Green Light will take into account your recent training history while considering the timeline until your A event. This will remove any second guessing and ensure you are fresh and ready to go for the big dance .
Let me know if you have questions about this approach!
Coming off a pretty crap July myself from 10 days travel followed by a longer-than-usual period of illness, I personally fell into the trap of thinking I should feel fresh and could just dive straight back into a ānormalā bike + strength training week. Make no mistake while it is āoff the bikeā neither travel nor illness contribute to freshness or recovery. Your body is still undergoing a heap of stress during those times, even if itās not exercise stress.
I was on a work trip for a week and then was sick for a week 5 weeks prior to my A race (8/17) so Iām in a similar boat as you.
I did a few relatively low PL workouts and figured out what I could manage as far as intensity vs duration in efforts, and then scheduled a couple of those workouts. Rated them appropriately, and let adaptive do itās thing to ramp me back up to my A race.
I know my power isnāt where it could have been, but I know scientifically it hasnāt dropped off that much, and nailing workouts and seeing the progression has gotten my mental PLās going back in the right direction.
What is the history duration that gets look at with RLGL? I have personally found with short term illnesses that RLGL isnāt great at adapting because (i suspect) that either the duration or the decay rate built in doesnāt catch an illness properly.
Example;
if youāre averaging 18-20hrs/wk and 800-1000TSS, you get a 5-7 day cold.
From a purely data perspective this could look like a rest/recovery week, but in actual fact it was not relaxing and you are quite fatigued from illness and cannot continue to train at prior levels.
Plan on not being competitive at the race, but still do it? You might surprise yourself, but riding either while āsickā, or too soon after recovery could be asking for big time problems. Some illnesses effect the heart causing swelling in the membranes around the heart, or the heart itself, and thatās not good, plus meds taken can change the physiology and cause issues too, and the effects can last a while.
Iād train as well as I can, show up for the race and ride how I feel (being honest with myself!) and not be afraid to DNF, or of being that last guy over the line. Itās just a raceā¦
I have been riding again the last week and a half. Just kept the intensity low so far and getting the hours back on the bike. Only did one harder MTB ride. Iāll try a bit of intensity this week and see how it goes.
Iām definitely still doing the race, weāll see how it goes. A week of MTBāing is still going to be fun!
Do you have an example of this in your Calendar that I could look into?
As I mention above, if the illness is still lingering I suggest that you hold off on returning to intensity until you feel 100% better. Is it possible you returned to intensity too early?
Good information- Iām coming off of a pretty rough COVID spell of about 12 days. Really catching me off guard. While I donāt have a specific A race, my more important event of the year is Sept 14. Happy Trails and best of it to the OP!
. Iām glad you are starting to feel better now though. Iāll keep my fingers crossed it stays that way 
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. Keep up the good work!
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