I have a gravel race in April, and I am taking a 9-day family vacation that ends at the start of the taper week. I am hoping for a suggestion about my last long ride pre-vacation, to minimize the impact of the lost fitness from the vacation and leave me as sharp as possible (and as confident as possible) for the race.
My vacation starts 15 days before the race and finishes 7 days before the race. I can probably get away with scheduling 2 or 3 spin classes during the vacation, but I will lose some fitness just doing ~2 hours of cycling over the nine days of vacation. (And I’m okay prioritizing family time over race performance.) I perform best after a taper week with a very light workload that retains some intensity, and without openers, so I definitely won’t use the week before the race to get back into shape. When I return from vacation I’ll have time for a final multi-hour workout 6 days before the race, but a 5 hour slugfest that close to the race wouldn’t set me up for success.
I can probably take a morning or afternoon off of work just before the vacation to do a long ride. Any recommendations of the timing of that and the focus of it? I think I should I try to do it as late as possible, e.g. one or two days before vacation, so it’s as close as possible to the race. And should I focus on VO2 Max or other high intensity efforts, since that is what gets depleted fastest during time off, or should I focus on endurance, since I will get some high intensity work on vacation from the spin classes? Or should I do a blend, e.g. several hours of endurance, with 45 minutes of VO2 max intervals at the start? Or should I skip structure and instead organize a gravel ride with a teammate, since I haven’t ridden much gravel since December (or much outdoors TBH!)?
I’ve done this race before, and it was 5.5 hours and 340 TSS. I spent about 65 minutes total at or above the threshold zone, 75 minutes spent in tempo or sweet spot, and the rest in z2 or below.
My 6-week average is 311 TSS. So far in 2025, I’ve been averaging about 4-5 hours of cycling per week, plus 2-3 hours of yoga and 2 days/week of strength training. Over the next month or so, I’ll add in more cycling and do a bit less yoga and lifting as the snow recedes. I’ve been working with TrainerRoad for about 4 years (but always with a mix of TR-prescribed structure and group rides).
Thank you for making it through my very detailed question, and thank you in advance for any suggestions you can offer!
) isn’t a lot of time, and many athletes even prefer a 2-week taper over a 1-week taper. While travel/vacations come with their own stressors, try to take it easy if you can and I think you’ll be feeling pretty fresh by the time the vacation is over. Then, with a week left to get a few more “sharpening” workouts in, I think you’ll be in good shape to go for the race! 