OK, so I’m thinking maybe I should use Monday for TT training. All the races around here are hilly. At least the Cat 4/5 fields get pretty sprawled out. Climbing is my strongest skill, so as long as I can stick with the front group through the hills, there is a pretty good chance of a top- 5 or 10 finish even though my sprint sucks. Last year I did about 10 Circuit races, a few crits and 5 30-50 mile road races. Other than a 100-mile and a 24-hour race Mountain bike race the year before, that is the extent of my racing experience.
Training for long distance mountain bike races isn’t much different than training for a marathon, which I have also done several times. A day of speed intervals, a day of hills, a few fast but consistent efforts during the week, and long weekend training sessions, incrementally increasing the distance/time until you are somewhat close to the race distance, take it easy for a week, then race. With races where I’m not working up to a given distance or time… I’m at a little bit of a loss.
Also, in my location my preparation time is limited by weather. It has been warmer than usual for the last few weeks, and most of the snow has melted, so I’ve made it out for some rides, but there is a high likelihood that we’ll get dumped with a foot or two of snow within the next month and I’ll be back on the trainer for another month. Whether what I am doing can be considered a plan or not. I just want to do the best I can in the early season races with my limited time to train.