As the title suggests I have 8 weeks to go until a 70.3 which will be the last race of my season.
The problem is that I feel a bit cooked. I’ve been training more or less structured since March. I had another 70.3 at the end of June that I completed the full base/build/speciality for. After that, I took about 2 weeks unstructured (but still did something every day) and then jumped back into training (back to base for 4 weeks and into build.
The problem is that over the past two weeks I have been feeling pretty flat. Legs are sore, and I am just tired. Needless to say, I have been losing motivation and am starting to wonder how I am going to make it another 8 weeks training. I backed things off a bit the last two weeks (dropped 1 intensity workout on the bike for aerobic) but still feel flat.
Honestly, at this point if I could just maintain the fitness I have right now into October, I feel like I could pull off a pretty good result. I am just not sure what the best way is to go about it. Looking for advice on that point.
Currently I’m biking about 3x per week (half plan workouts generally 2x intervals 1x aerobic (this is what I cut back on) running 4x per week with 1 tempo session and swimming 3x per week around 3500-4000m per swim. Total time probably around 9-10 hours. Hoping to go in the neighborhood of 4:30 for the race itself.
Would really appreciate everyone’s thoughts/advice! Thanks!
I am relatively new here. But as much as I have gathered until now, I’d say you need to pull the plug for one week and do “nothing”. What you define as nothing is up to you. In a podcast where they discussed a stage race in mongolia someone asked a similar question and I remember this being the answer from one of the coaches. Do “nothing” for a week and see if you recover physically and mentally to get into it again. good luck
As above, I would take a full week off. You still have 7 weeks to sharpen prior to the race. I would actually take a week off then do 1 week of base “butter burner” rides. That’s 2 weeks of no intensity which should really recharge your legs. From there you’d have 6 weeks to do a solid build/specialty plan of your choosing.
Whatever you for those 6 weeks will be better off if you start fresh.
You mention two weeks unstructured training everyday - might have better to have one day with no training. A lack of recovery days could be an issue.
You won’t really need base again, but training in between a races is always a question mark. If you’re happy with your bike performance and are struggling to build a lower intensity or speciality may work better or as you suggested yourself just maintenance activity.
4:30 is quite a target, how far off that were you in June?
Thanks for the reply. I do feel like a lack of recovery is likely the issue here. I am just wondering how I can get it in now, and not lose too much before October. I usually train 7 days per week and keep the rest day as a swim, but maybe that is too much.
Just over 4:50 in June, but the race had a hilly bike (about 5K of gain) and run. Swim was also 1.4 miles so I think 4:30 is a decent stretch goal, given that the October race is pancake flat.