On a race xcm, a day before it was postponed for a week due to weather conditions. I just moved the plan on on my calendar but it TR only repeated the same was for the next week. Normally last week before a race is a fine tunning to be in optimal condition, but extending the same for another week is really the option here?
I am not sure about it, because despite strictly consistent training this was my worst race of this xcm in the last 3 years. I feel with good aerobic condition but my legs were struggling after couple of laps. I feel my body like when you got flu, but I was not sick. I maintained my usual diet and pre race diet. So, something is definitely wrong with this not so smart workouts.
What workouts did you do leading up to the race? Were you setting power records in the last week or two, or feeling a lot of fatigue?
If I’m understanding you right, you ended up with two weeks of very low volume tapering?
I wouldn’t have thought an extended taper would leave you flat. The extra week isn’t really enough to lose any fitness.
What did you do on the original race weekend?
Hey there,
Bummer to hear that the race got postponed for a week right when you were finishing your taper. It sounds like it was a case of bad timing here.
It’s tough because your taper got stretched out from being 2 weeks long to 3 weeks long instead – which likely contributed to the crummy sensations you had in your legs. The taper may have been stretched just a bit too long than was ideal for you.
If this kind of situation comes up again, it might be a good idea to get a little extra riding in during the extra week before the race. Nothing too big, though, since you still want to go into your A race feeling strong and rested. Ideally, you want enough volume to “keep the motor running” while not overdoing things and entering your race fatigued. It’s a balance that takes some experimentation on your part so you can know what works best for your own needs.
I also noticed you went for a couple of runs in the week before your race. It doesn’t look like you have any other runs recorded on your TR Calendar for as long as I can see – were those the first couple of runs you had done in a long time? If so, I’d avoid adding in those extra activities before your A race as well. Running uses different muscles than cycling does, which could have had a major impact on how your legs were feeling.
Hope this advice helps – and feel free to let us know if you have any further questions!
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What did you do on the day that the original race was scheduled for? If I were faced with that situation, I would have used the original race day as a fairly heavy/intense day. Nothing crazy, but at least a few hours with some intervals in the mix. For me, the longer the race, the less I want a volume reduction in my taper.
And +1 on the running comments. For some serious runners, they can run at a pace that is basically the physiological equivalent of walking for them, but running the week of an xcm would be a bad move for me.
Thanks for the heads up! It describes well the situation and the feelings! Yes, i probably would like to add a ride with more time the day of the canceled race day, but the adjusted plan suggested a 1:45 wk, so clicking on alternatives only a 2 hrs option was available.
This was a race with a lemar start, meaning we have to run like 150 mts to the bikes and then start riding. This year i wanted to improve on the running, so on the extra tapping week i ran 2 days, just 20 minutes each day at zone 2 and 3. Last years i never ran anything at all in preparation for that race, so my thinking was that 2 slow impact running sessions may work. Looking at my garmin 7d avg hrv on the original race week, it was unbalanced meaning i still had accumulated fatigue. So on the extended tapping week i ran but still my hrv still was on the unbalanced area similar to the original tapping week. Tried some extra naps to see if that hrv improved but couldn’t made it to the balanced area. Probably taking an extra rest day could help, but didn’t want to mess with the tapping sessions from my tr program.
I was so much sticked to the tr program that i preferred to do the training of the day before the race instead of going to the trails. My friend who won the race and uses also tr for training, went instead a couple of laps that day before the race and killed it on the race. This trail is without elevations or technical features just several of turns so i sacrificed to practice the fast turn technique in favor of the tr planned wks. You know, if turn technique is not efficient you expended so much effort braking and accelerating.
It would be nice for tr plans to adjust not only based on wk efforts but also on hrv metric to adapt and calculate if it is better a day off instead of a recovery ride. And my error could be also to trust so much on the apparently AI algorithms of TR instead of me taking into account other external variables and enjoy rides with friends instead of being to strict on following tr planned wks who are still not that smart to adapt according to my physiology and accumulated fatigue.
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