December approaching!!

autobahn

I am in my 3rd of cycling with loads still to learn- I am preparing for next years race season and hoping to be competitive in Cat 4 races . Following the end of season I now have just put in two months of good training including getting some good quality miles in the legs / diet has been good & booze intake has been well below average. I feel my fitness has improved greatly - however we now entering the Xmas period and with work/social commitments my progress is going to be severly disrupted for the next 4 weeks. I defintely won't be able to maintain the level of training I was doing and wonder how my bike fitness will be affected. Will I loose it all?
I reckon I will be able to manage in December one outddoor ride a week (50 miles) and perhaps 2 turbo sessions.
Will that keep things ticking over until January when I can embark on my next bout of training?? A vague question but how do the experienced cyclists cope with an unavoidable layoff??

bigpikle

if you make them quality threshold sessions on the turbo and the 50 miler is a good solid solo or small group ride where you dont spend most of it at recovery pace in a big group, then you should be able to maintain a decent base. You might slip back slightly depending on exactly where you are now, but I found I made a significant leap forward after a quiet month mid-year this year, when I put in a solid month afterwards. I suspect there is something in the importance of rest that is often missed, and how it allows you to mae a breakthrough afterwards. Either way, dont worry and its only December anyway...

Alex_Simmons/RST

Autobahn wrote:

A vague question but how do the experienced cyclists cope with an unavoidable layoff??

By setting realistic expectations.

When you drop training loads a lot over an extended period, fitness will decline. Main thing is to do what you can, as frequently as possible.