ridethecliche

I'm going in for the next plastic surgery in mid-november, and so I'm probably going to miss around 2ish weeks of riding after that. During the time I'm not riding, I'm going to see if I can lift a little, or do anything on the trainer (doubt it).

With that nice little break in the base period, I'm wondering what kind of structure my base training should have right now.

I can do 3ish hr rides 3-4 times a week, I'm guessing I should just work on the longer efforts since that's a little bit of a weakness of mine. I can start doing intensity in mid/late december without being too much at a loss when the spring series start up in march.

I'm 'targeting' the spring series to a certain extent. I.e., I want to beast the races that I can do then because I'm not sure how things will be then with thesis deadlines in April.

Thanks for the input.

I've been racing cross for a month, and I'm done my little honey moon with it. I'll go ride my bike in the woods when I don't feel like riding on the road, but I'm about ready to start training again.

Lithuania

haha what happened in cross?

ridethecliche

Hm?

I was just doing it for fun. I enjoy it, love it even. That being said, I like longer rides more so I do it around once every now and then for some fun intensity in my riding.

I've done all the local weds night series (month long), and I'll do a few of the local races if I feel like it. I just wanted to try my hand at it, and I enjoyed it. It was great for the month where I just did not want to ride my road bike much.

I didn't hurt myself racing cross. This is follow up surgery for my accident last year.

Lithuania

oh i took your statement about the honeymoon being over meaning something happened to make you not like cross anymore.

botto 

do what you enjoy, and don't sweat the 2 weeks missed due to the surgery.

Jynx

no need to change anything. 2 weeks is really not that much time anyway. A lot of people recommend taking 2 - 4 weeks off after racing season and before base to unwind, relax and not get burnt out. Winter is long enough to get enough volume in and not have 2 weeks off effect you.

txvintage

I'm with boto. It's a perfect time for JRA, throw in some tempo, whatever.

Enthalpic

+1

2 weeks is nothing.

Shimagnolo

I had an unplanned two weeks off last spring due to pulled muscles in my back going into spasms.
I wound up taking pain killers for a week, then going into PT for a month.

The first day back on the bike, I was cruising at a HR 10 points higher than I normally can do,
and did my fastest ride in a couple years.

D*mn, I wish I could ride that fast every day.

YMCA

agreed, 2 weeks is nothing, especially in Nov

was not long ago that most of us took 6 weeks completely off after the last race

now that was a break

Apus^2

2 week break--don't worry about it. I took 4+ months off and am coming back nicely (at least on 1.5 hour-ish rides).

NomadVW 

The thing that's nice about time like that coming - planned time off - especially this time of year when it's not crazy intense intervals, you can absolutely bury yourself until then.

I have two forced weeks off starting this Monday, and I am absolutely pouring on hours and hours right now, and loving riding at levels of fatigue I can't survive at during race season.

botto 

depends.

this time last year, i knew that i'd be off the bike for at least 3 weeks in november/december. i was also completely burnt from the season.

i rode a it. mostly easy. not very regularly. got fat. lost a ton of condition. started riding regularly in the new year. got killed at the early races in february. came around in late april/early may. flying by may/june/july...

ymmv.

NomadVW 

^^^^
Definitely depends on your burn out level, for sure. I had a short second half of the season and so I'm carrying a bit more fitness now than I had planned. So I'm still a bit motivated to go out and "get some."

I'm also trying to sorta "prime the pump" for training after my two weeks off with intentions of hitting the March/April racing hard - I'll probably be moving in late June, so May/June could be really unpredictable, but March/April should be a lock.