three weeks to get crit fit... help please

tugger

Hi

The winter has not been overly kind. Having been the fittest and lightest I have been in Jan I now feel very unfit after two months of basically not doing a lot and a two week trip to Eastern Europe.

I am sure "fitness" is all relative but I am pretty sure I could do with shedding half a stone or a bit more and getting strong again. I have 3 weeks till summer crits start and I want to utilise my time the best I can.

I am thinking that a rest day a week with two long rides at weekends (over 3 hours) and 4 hour rides in the week will do the trick plus no booze and careful intake.

Is this a decent enough plan. I will work hard and prob naturally do intervals (hills, strava etc) but would folk recommend specifically heading for a hill once or twice a week and just repping it, i might end up doing that to break it up to be fair.

Any other ideas? I assume this is a common problem this time of year...

thoughts welcome

racingcondor

I tend towards a 'ride lots' mentality because I can't stand the turbo (no longer even own one) so while you should probably ignore me if someone like Sub55 posts I'd probably aim for -

Saturday 60 miles steady
Sunday 50 miles ending with hill/sprint reps to finish
Monday rest
Tuesday 20 miles easy
Wed - Thu 20 fast
Friday 20 easy

I also wouldn't expect to win that first race... Alternatively you could train like you have so far and come to whatever races I'm doing. I won't mind :-D

SBezza

I personally don't see the point in doing so many easy rides, especially only 20 miles, might as well do these as sweetspot/threshold type efforts, and certainly not after a rest day.

Fitness will take time, and 3 weeks isn't really long enough to see much gain, you have had 2 months of doing hardly anything, your first couple of crits are just going to have to be training events I would think. Think of the requirements of what you need for crit racing and try and replicate these as much in some of your training, perhaps don't do a 20 mile easy ride on Tuesday as suggested and do some random street light sprints, and hard accelerations out of corners etc. Crit races are not one by riding easy for 20 miles, in fact no races are won by doing that.

tugger

I agree, not a lot of point in easy rides at this stage unless over 60 miles...

Need to do the time in the saddle to shed the weight

SBezza

tugger wrote:

I agree, not a lot of point in easy rides at this stage unless over 60 miles...

Need to do the time in the saddle to shed the weight

Weight should be managed by diet ideally, no doubt doing longer rides help, but even 2 hours in Z3 is likely to burn more calories than say 3 hours in Z2 and give you a better training ride. I would train for getting quicker for your chosen event, and with a slight calorie deficit you will see the weight come off slowly.

Zoomer37

Think your p*ssing in the wind a bit if you think you'll get race fit in 3 weeks. Not going to happen and dropping weight and doing hill reps are not going to help much if your focus is on racing crits

Get the basics back in place over the next 3 weeks then race often to get your fitness back. Good luck anyway.

mpatts

Honestly, I think that getting back into the habit is the best way. Just resolve to ride every day, even if only for a few minutes. Each to their own, but I think turbo work only works when well into the habit - I use mine when I can't get out but am itching too.

imposter2.0

You are unlikely to be dropped in a crit because the race is too far - you are more likely to be dropped because the pace is too high. On that basis, I think if I only had three weeks I would be focusing on short, hard interval sessions - preferably something you can repeat with a good degree of regularity, like tabata or 1min intervals. Threshold work would be useful too. Long rides of 3 or 4 hours are unlikely to be much use in the interim, tbh.

GiantMike

Your 3 week timeframe is a misleading red herring. Focus on a key race later in the season and train properly for that. You can still do the crits in the meantime, but you will probably get your @rse handed to you if you haven't trained properly. All you can do in the next 3 weeks is get a tiny bit fitter and a lot more tired if you try too hard to make a pointlessly close deadline.

racingcondor

I put the 20 mile rides in there because the OP suggested he's got an hour a night during the week and the easy rides because after 4 nights in a row of hard short rides I wouldn't be able to do a good effort on the hard Saturday ride. Guess it depends on the training load you can manage though.

All that said, if the OP has a turbo then reps on the turbo would make for a better use of weeknight time. Totally agree that 3 weeks is a lot more 'hopefull' than say 6 but there's no reason the first few crits can't be enjoyable (if not ideal) training.

Key overall though I'd suggest is having a plan and sticking to it. Until you start writing it down you're not training.

Toks

tugger wrote:

Hi
I am sure "fitness" is all relative but I am pretty sure I could do with shedding half a stone or a bit more and getting strong again. I have 3 weeks till summer crits start and I want to utilise my time the best I can.

Why exactly do you need to start racing in in May. If you don't have any target races in May why not get 'race fit' first and give yourself a 6-8 week buffer by starting to race in June. A diet of Intervals, Chain Gang rides, 'hour of power' efforts (search forum) should get you in good shape assuming you have some base. Also it depends on the crit. In London getting fit for Hillingdon at 3rd cat Level assuming your bunch skills are quite decent shouldn't be such a hard task but getting fit for Crystal Palace Crit needs some dedicated work if you expect to stay with the bunch

tugger wrote:

I will work hard and prob naturally do intervals (hills, strava etc) but would folk recommend specifically heading for a hill once or twice a week and just repping it, i might end up doing that to break it up to be fair.

Are there gonna be hills in the crits? if yes, do hill work. If not, and with time not on your side make your training more race specific. Grinding up 12% hills at 40-60RPMsmight not be the best prep for fast flat crits where cadence tends to be 85-110RPM. On the other hand VO2max intervals on a flat stretch of road might serve you better in such situation and is more specific to the race

tugger

thanks for the responses guys. helpful

I am not naive enough to think I am actually going to compete in three weeks time but i just want to get close. a relitive beginner i have always been active and "fit" but the last couple of months have been a bit freakish and i just wanted a few tips. thanks guys. if your in the east london essex area ill be the guy holding your wheel'!

bahzob

It may be worth giving the time crunched cyclist plan a go. I know the author is dickhead but the training plans are pretty good and include ones specifically designed for crits.

They get you going pretty hard from the outset which is the sort of thing you will need

Tom Dean

bahzob wrote:

the author is dickhead but the training plans are pretty good

How can we decide which dickheads to take training advice from?

racingcondor

I've was thinking about this a little this morning and I'm wondering what people's thoughts are.

If we assume that one of the main problems here is a lack of base then by focussing on short hard repeats isn't there a risk that while his ability to dig deep and recover (i.e. deal with lactate) will improve he's still going to be relatively weak compared to the average rider in the bunch. Doesn't most of this just set him up to be competent pack fodder (unless he's a tactical genius)?

Even in crits it's not your ability to survive repeated accellerations that allows you to control the race (stay front 6, bridge, close down or break away) and assuming the OP is riding Hog Hill and Cyclopark rather than Palace (assuming he's coming towards circuits I know) the accellerations aren't that much of a problem anyway.

Obviously there's a problem that long miles would take more than 3-4 weeks and should then be followed by another few weeks of targetted training but I'd be interested to know what people think about the OP's chances to develop as the season continues vs being limited by his lack of base and general 'got the miles in' strength.

imposter2.0

Like I said before, you won't get dropped in a crit because the race is 'too long' - but you may get dropped because it is 'too fast'. Base miles are there for muscular conditioning and aerobic prep. Assuming he has at least 'some' of that, then I doubt if that will be his downfall in a race situation.

tugger

thanks for your input guys. I have settled on doing 4 hour long/25 mile tts a week and two long rides at the weekend, prob a mix of mtb and road, but prob mtb mostly. which should increase strength over time, not 3 weeks. just did first ride of 24 miles at ave hr of 84% maxhr according to garmin (which isnt exact granted but the best i have). I cant really do more than that and if I use that as a standard I should get back to a decent standard reasonably quickly

Tom Dean

That sounds hard, but a good start to build an aerobic base. It depends what level you are at, but I would suggest doing some anaerobic intervals for the next 3 weeks. The gains could come quicker and it will help with the accelerations in crits. Then do your first race and reassess.

Toks

racingcondor wrote:

I've was thinking about this a little this morning and I'm wondering what people's thoughts are.

If we assume that one of the main problems here is a lack of base then by focussing on short hard repeats isn't there a risk that while his ability to dig deep and recover (i.e. deal with lactate) will improve he's still going to be relatively weak compared to the average rider in the bunch. Doesn't most of this just set him up to be competent pack fodder (unless he's a tactical genius)?

To be fair the OP hasn't given us a lot to go on in terms of training history. For example, any average 3rd cat (me!) who has trained and raced for a few years and is coming back after a year or two off could get themselves ready to race in 8-10 weeks. Now, you'll probably just be a pack fodder but you could race in most circuits assuming you hadn't lost any race craft.

racingcondor wrote:

Even in crits it's not your ability to survive repeated accelerations that allows you to control the race (stay front 6, bridge, close down or break away) and assuming the OP is riding Hog Hill and Cyclopark rather than Palace (assuming he's coming towards circuits I know) the accelerations aren't that much of a problem anyway.

I kinda disagree, it absolutely is you're ability to survive those repeated acceleration sometimes at double or triple your FT power that determine how well you'll do in most crits. At Palace (one of the hardest), for example, if you're at the front cracking the whip with a succession of anaerobic jumps up that horrible little drag, forty paces behind you folk will be popping off the back due to a whole host limiting factors: not anticipating moves, not recovering from previous laps, not on the right wheels, less of a bunch to shelter in, weak anaerobic power, weak FT power etc. So at beginner friendly circuits such as Hillingdon or Goodwood those aformentioned factors are reduced but its the still attacks/accelerations that cause problems for most noob racers in my opinion

racingcondor wrote:

Obviously there's a problem that long miles would take more than 3-4 weeks and should then be followed by another few weeks of targeted training but I'd be interested to know what people think about the OP's chances to develop as the season continues vs being limited by his lack of base and general 'got the miles in' strength.

Without a decent base (CTL) its clearly not the ideal prep and I doubt very much you'd be in good shape from April to October. But could you do a ten-dozen crit races in the summer without the much vaunted winter base? Of course! You could ride up Box Hill breathing only through your nose if you wanted to, but I wouldn't recommend it.

tugger

as some background I am doing Hog Hill and the TLI races at North Weald. I managed to finish in the main bunch last year most of the time at NW last year and came second once. Massively a novice though and still have to improve and not think that I can boss the front without it catching up with me at the end and not handliong the pace at the end. I have a good aerobic base I think and am very active regularly doing 100 mile plus weeks, just recently I have slipped. I have ridden MTB for ages, not competitively, but still regularly so am quite strong from that. I tried crit racing last year and absolutely loved it so want to have a good season this year (I am late into the sport (31) so i have no idea about cats and such) but worried its not going to start well!! It very interesting reading the responses, thanks.