Over 2 weeks i will ride the GF Schleck in Luxembourg and over 5 weeks i will ride the Marmotte in France. Now iam just finished my second trainingscamp in Calpe Spain. March i was one week in Mallorca.
From now i will taper towards GF Schleck, but what do i need to do between GF Schleck and Marmotte (3 weeks) to maintain my fitness? For Marmotte i will also again taper 1.5 week…so i have 1.5w week left…
10 june is a 15km TT, i call it a A-event, but in this period the GF Schleck and Marmotte are more important.
Hopefully i get some tips for the period in between 2 A-events.
No the maingoal will be GF Schleck and Marmotte. I think it is possible with 3 weeks in between…my basis is big enough to peak 2 times in 3 weeks…
For now i have the idea to do after the TT a big last Z2 ride about 6 hours.
Tuesday after that a 2x45 SST workout before the taper 1.5 week. 17 june a bg 3x30 SST workout with Z2 (last big workout before Marmotte). It is a red line, fine tuning week by week…
Very interested in other peoples approaches to this. I’m in a somewhat similar position. My main goal is the Marmotte, but I also do the Medio Fondo Trois Ballons as well. However I do that ride purely as a preparation in three day big volume block. But still the three weeks till Marmotte are a puzzle. Should I do recovery week after 3Ballons a final big week and a smaller taper week. Or just slowely reduce volume from 15 (3ballins week) - 13 (three weeks to go) - 11 (second to last week) and 7 hours in the final week…
The old me (not the old man which is me now) would have :
1 week of normal recovery stuff.
1 week of a mixture of various rides , long slow, V02, etc…
1 week of taper like before my first event.
I don’t think you will lose much fitness in 3 weeks as long as you keep riding. I dont think you can gain much either.
After your first event is done, start a new plan for your second event. The plan builder will tell you what to do. I did this as I had an A event and then another A event 4 weeks later. It basically gave me a week recovery, 2 weeks of specialty and a week of taper.
you can probably maintain your peak through the 3 weeks though.
How long are these events? I’d keep your taper philosophy going. reduced volume and keep the intensity. Not much will happen in 3 weeks, just make sure you go into your second event fresh.
I think the Marmotte is with the longer climbs more to my advantage than the GF Schleck with shorter hills. So when i have to choice i will peak in the Marmotte.
Last week i was in Calpe and make 25 hours with 10k altimeters. First i have to recover from that week, so thats why i taper 1.5 week to GF Schleck. Between the GF Schleck and Marmotte i need to keep te intensity with low volume? I think i will skip the 6 hours ride on 11th june, my endurance is on point and i will not gain more endurance at this point…
As suggested - 1 week recovery, 1 week normal training, 1 week taper. You shouldn’t need a 1.5 week taper for the second event provided you recovery properly from the first.
As others have indicated you can’t really have to A events so close, you will either be at your best at the first or the second event. Or neither
So there are two possible strategies to my mind:
All out on the 1st, whatever is left on the 2nd
Taper before the first event, go all out in the race. Recovery week, no intensity. Rebuild intensity up to the second event, then pace this race until you have a sense of how strong you are and up the effort as you see fit.
Hold back on the 1st, get a better result for the 2nd
Train through event, no taper, hold back through the race and use it as a training day. Train through the next two weeks then taper for your second event.
I’m not clear if you are on TR and using Plan Builder as @jbakkane suggests. Bottom line up front with TR Adaptive Training you don’t have to think about just follow the plan the machine takes care of it all…It might be worth a try
Here’s my story I had a similar situation:
I finished my MTB stage race Mediterranean EPIC MTB Hor’s Catagorie XCM stage race in Feb 23 and was transitioning to 3 Gran Fondos. on 22 April Desafío 10 Picos de Espadan , 6 May Mediterranean Epic Gran Fondo and Desafio Maestrat Ciutat de Benicarlo 3 June respectivley.
However, the day after the MedEpic MTB got sick flu and lost 10+ then on Good Friday crashed and took 10 days off grade 1 concussion protocol. So I lost a little over 20 training days of a sheduled 60 training days via Plan Builder Gran Fondo Mid Volume going into these three tough GFs. I was not confident due to loss of training days and zero long rides or XL climbing days.
22 April GF of 138km 3200m climbing I bailed and did the short 80k 2200m climbing and I felt good and thought maybe I shoud have done the full GF. Going into the A race 6 May the Mediterranean Gran Fondo which I knew would be super hard based on last year and becuase of loss of training days mentally I was on shakey ground as I had not done any distance or positive climbing.
I again bailed on the A race on 6 May 208km 3400m climbing and opted for the mid distance of 160km 2200m climbing and came thru okay so much so I felt incomplete ergo I signed up for my final GF on 3 June 201km and 3000m climbing mentally I’m okay we will see what happens…
So my point is if you have TR and follow Plan Builder it will take care of you I feel good about the AI thing heck I didn’t even know coach Chad had been let go and I still came out okay.
Shout out to @IvyAudrain made a good point the other day on AACCP 366(I think)and said you can enjoy some races by going with the middle of the back vs the pointy end for this was mid distance vs the longer distance as I was really strong in both races…able to bridge up solo to every groupetta…so she may be on to something…
Whenever possible, I recommend bumping one race down from A to B when the events are less than eight weeks apart. As @cassinonorth mentioned, it’s tricky to stay in peak form for weeks at a time after a taper and race.
What’s awesome about TrainerRoad is being able to use Plan Builder in this situation, which will help to set up your time between the two events productively, regardless of which event becomes your B race. This takes the guesswork out of unique situations such as this one.
As @jbakkane mentioned, you’ll likely end up with some recovery, some specialty, and some form of a taper, again depending on where the A and B events land.
After my trainingscamp by Calpe i need more rest than i thought. I came back on Wednesday 24th may and did that day and 25th 2x 1.5h easy riding. Thursday 26th a restday and friday 2h15min with 6x race winning efforts. (40s sprinting uphill, 2min 100-110% FTP and finishing 30sec uphill) that 6 times. That day the feeling was great. Saturday 3h Z2 but after that day i feel that i need more rest. So monday 2h Z1 and Tuesday rest and yesterday (wednesday) 1h with 3x 1min slightly above FTP. Today rest and tomorrow some openers. Saterday will be the GF Schleck.
The idea is that take recovery after GF Schleck. After saturday i have 3 weeks left before the Marmotte. The first 2 weeks will be some structured work and 1 week before Marmotte i will do a taper.
