Training to race, racing for training....

milese
milese Posts: 1,233
edited April 2011 in Training, fitness and health
Now the season has started my training routine has taken a bit of a knock. I was basically doing a long ride on a Saturday, turbo session on Tues and Thurs, with a daily commute.

Now I'm going to have a race of some description on pretty much every Sat / Sunday. So if I race on a Saturday should I try and get a long ride in on a Sunday? Or a gentle recovery spin? If racing Sunday I'm not going to want to get much in on a Saturday.

I can keep my midweek routine up ok, but then I'm not doing any training longer than an hour. Now the evenings are getting lighter I think I'll ditch a turbo session for 2/3 hours on the road? Some of the races are 50+ miles.

This week I added in a 43 mile hilly ride on Monday, and slightly extended my Thursday AM commute, but felt heavy on the turbo on Thurs evening. I want to do more to improve my racing, but dont want to be fatigued for racing through too much training.

How do others manage the balance? I'm concious that many say a long steady ride a week is the mainstay of a stable racing season, but how do you fit it in?

Comments

  • mrwibble
    mrwibble Posts: 980
    you can train too much, been there. train hard but rest, your body needs it. if you were struggling on the turbo its because you body is telling you something, get it?
  • Pokerface
    Pokerface Posts: 7,960
    If I had a hard race on a Saturday, I'd be inclined to do some sort of recovery ride on the Sunday. Unless you're über fit and can jump straight back into hard training the next day.
  • amaferanga
    amaferanga Posts: 6,789
    Unless its a very hard race I would do a 2-4 hour endurance ride on the Sunday and then use Monday as a rest/recovery day instead. If the race is on the Sunday though I don't think I'd do a long ride on the Saturday.
    More problems but still living....
  • ozzzyosborn206
    ozzzyosborn206 Posts: 1,340
    what i think ti need to do is decide which races you want to do well in and which your not so fussed about and don't mind training through, that way you may not have so many average results but your best results should be better. I doubt there are many races on a Saturday that are very long? which should mean you could get away with a long rid eon the sunday but be careful not to cook yourself and if you start to feel tired take it easy, better to miss one or two rides than do the extra one and then have to miss a whole week to recover from doing too much
  • shockedsoshocked
    shockedsoshocked Posts: 4,021
    If you race on saturday no reason why you can't do a log steady one on the sunday.
    "A cyclist has nothing to lose but his chain"

    PTP Runner Up 2015
  • cajun_cyclist
    cajun_cyclist Posts: 493
    Fail to prepare, prepare to fail!

    You got anymore like that! :lol:
  • cajun_cyclist
    cajun_cyclist Posts: 493
    Winners never quit and quitters never win,

    In seriousness, they say Mantras can be helpful, so I don't mean to say these lightly.

    Any others??
  • robrauy
    robrauy Posts: 252
    Personally, I think I'd be wary of doing a hard turbo session on Thursday night and racing on Saturday? Maybe it's just my rubbish recovery times though!

    I also find a reasonably long/hard ride on Sunday to be fine after an hour's racing on Saturday (if I can get away with going out twice at the weekend!)
  • milese
    milese Posts: 1,233
    Thanks for the replies.

    I think you might have hit it there robrauy, getting let out twice on a weekend is a bigger battle, especially if I want a lie in!
  • Slimbods
    Slimbods Posts: 321
    I'm also struggling with the transition from winter training to racing in summer.

    Winter was easy, Fri n Sat long rides, rest mon, turbo/ride Tues, Weds & Thurs then rest friday, bosh.

    Now I've often got a race on Sunday, which turns Sat into an easy Cafe run, and there's now most weeks a 10TT on Weds. So Sats a rest, Tuesday should be too if I'm going to put in a decent 10. It's hard to know how much or little to do!
  • amaferanga
    amaferanga Posts: 6,789
    If you have a lot of racing on then you need to decide which races are particularly important and aim to be fresher for those. And I guess a lot depends on how quickly you can recover from a hard ride. My races at the moment are on Sundays, but I'll be racing most Thursdays as well soon. The Thursday races are TLI so I'll be using those for training and not really worrying about being fresh for them. For the Sunday races I'm targeting I'll do my last hard session on the Thursday, but for those that are less important to me I'll do a hard session on the Friday as well.
    More problems but still living....
  • danowat
    danowat Posts: 2,877
    amaferanga wrote:
    If you have a lot of racing on then you need to decide which races are particularly important and aim to be fresher for those

    This is key, focused training is very important (IMO), and this is one of the reasons I got a coach, as I found I was struggling with sorting my own training schedules out.

    Now I don't have to worry about what I am doing when, and how it will impact race x, or race y, as its all done for me, so I can just concentrate on riding and (hopefully!!!) improving.

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