Haute Route Ventoux with 3 week break beforehand

Training
1

Hi all. I’m doing Haute Route Ventoux in October and have just finished my rest week following SSBMVII. I’ve decided on an overall plan, however a few things are tripping me up in regards to my approach. My cycling is for 3 days, 3 weeks into a 6 week European holiday

  1. As it stands right now I’ll finish my specialty at the beginning of August, which leaves about 5 weeks or so before we fly out. What would you recommend I do in those 5 weeks before leaving? Should I simply start a new base phase or possibly repeat the build or specialty phase?

  2. What could I be doing in those 3 weeks of traveling to maintain my fitness as much as possible? I figured my best bet was to find a gym in whatever city it is that I’m in and do an ad-hoc trainer road workout every 3 days or so.

  3. Seeing as I have a 3 week gap between flying out and doing the actual event, should I go as hard as possible in those 5 weeks before I fly out and then simply rest as best I can for the 3 weeks while traveling?

Any advice is welcome.

2

What is your current level of fitness and what are your goals for the event?

3

I’m currently sitting at 216FTP while weighing 63kg, so about 3.4w/kg. I’m not particularly worried about the distance in the event, I’m fairly confident I’ll be able to complete it. My main goal is simply not to be the worst rider there, I’m not looking to place high or anything like that. Just a good solid pace throughout which is why I chose to do the sustained power build and century specialty.

4

I am not a coach, but here’s what I think: I would remove week 7 from specialty and then repeat last 4 weeks of the same plan. If this is not possible, at the very least I would focus on long aerobic rides in the 2 weeks and taper on the 3rd week prior to the event.

This way you would maintain consistency, frequency and volume while adjusting intensity to your circumstances.

5

  1. It is probably best to pad out your existing training plan so that it finishes closer to the event date. https://support.trainerroad.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005942606-Too-Much-Time-
    Given the long demands of Haute Route, the more base you can get in, the better.

  2. If you are in Europe, I assume you will be taking your bike with you? In which case, what outside riding can you do?

  3. One of those weeks would be a taper week anyway. Squeezing in some sweet spot and VO2Max workouts where you can.

6

  1. That’s a great link, thanks for that. I’ll look at the timings and see how adjusting after this build phase could work for me.

  2. I won;t be taking my bike unfortunately, it’s just not practical to lug it around with me for 6 weeks when it won’t be used for a lot of that time. It could have been an option had we not had an 18 month old that we need to take around with us also, which necessitates a pram etc.

  3. This is sort of what I was thinking, just on a gym bike.

Thanks!