Listened to the Roadman podcast recently where they interviewed Jay Vine and talked about how JV was likely able to figure out how to beat Pogacar based on the reduction in his training before the TdF due to his broken wrist, they could then take his form to like -90.
I have been watching Intervals.icu but honestly don’t know enough to get the most of it. My A race (a road race) is on Sept 17th (2 and 1/2 weeks) with a TSS estimate for that race of 175 TSS, how much TSS should I be targeting in the last few weeks leading into that race? Or what Form number?
I generally try to take 2 days off the bike leading into a race. Just wondering if there is a target TSS I should be trying to achieve for this week and the next 2 that would make sense.
I do follow an adaptive plan but I also commute by bike so even though its LV I will get a lot more unstructured TSS from my commute and therefore only do 2-3 TR workouts (right now x1 Anr and x1 VO2 and depending on how I’m feeling x1 short Z2).
The week of Aug 14th I was away for my wedding and it was scheduled as a rest week so 354 TSS, last week Aug 21st commuted by bike all 5 days + 3 TR workouts = 519 TSS, any thoughts on what I should target for this week and the next 2 to have me ready for the race?
If I was only riding on TR my plan would do the taper for me but where I have extra TSS from commuting and riding outside I want to ensure I’m in the ballpark.
I can just give my experience, but your volumes leading up to the race shouldn’t be based on the race itself, but your training volume to this point, maintaining race specific intensity. I feel like most people do too much work and load leading up to events personally.
I’ll use myself as an example recently, using intervals data: My Intervals Load peaked with one high week around 785, went back down again (650, 650, 250) then ramped back up again getting closer to the race with 450, 450, 500, 710, 680, 380, 380, Race week 110 before the race on Saturday which was 360. Race went fantastic, finished strong.
So, if you look, there were peaks and rest weeks, but week 3 before the race dropped to 50-60% of peak loads, Week 2 was 50-60%, Race Week was 20% or less. As volume and load dropped, there were still some short Threshold / Sweet Spot intervals to keep freshness (Marathon race, so VO2 / Anaerobic weren’t a focus).
So I guess if last week I did 519 TSS, this week I should shoot for ~415 (80%) of 519 and then the week of the 4th ~332 TSS, the week of the race (week of the 11th) 265 TSS and then race? Does that make sense?
There isn’t a universal answer to your question. Tapering for one day events is highly individual and everyone will respond differently to various approaches.
How much to reduce, how much intensity, how long to taper…these will be individual. The best you can do is try it and see, document it and then try something a little different next time and document that
That said…what you laid out is pretty typical, with the most common strategy to reduce volume but maintain intensity in the week or weeks before an event
As @trpnhntr said, the ideal taper varies from person to person.
We try to give you a good starting point with our training plans by reducing volume while maintaining intensity by default, so you shouldn’t have to worry too much about spending time crunching TSS numbers!
Make sure to keep your commuting nice and easy during this time – or even take a break from the bike commute with alternative means of transportation (if you’re able to) – to make sure you’re well-rested for your race.
Outside of that, stay on top of your nutrition, sleep, and general rest/recovery and you’ll be flying come race day!