Debusama

Last year was my first year of road racing. I didn’t really have a plan other than just dong the training rides with my club and going to the local Tuesday night races. This year, I really want to do the best I can do in the GC at some stage races. For now as the snow is melting away, I’m just trying to get an hour or two in on the trainer 4 times per week substituting in road or trail rides as weather permits. Starting mid-February, I’ll begin building for four weeks prior to overload. A week of my building phase looks like this:
Mon- Short, consistent ride, (25-45 minutes Z2) + TRX core work
Tue- Team interval ride or hill repeats (1-1.5 hours Z3/5)
Wed- Early morning group ride. (Fairly fast, but not too strenuous) (1.5-2 hours Z3)
Thu- Solo ride W/ some big climbs and speed intervals on flats (2-2.5 hours Z2/4)
Fri- Easy spin @ high RPMs (1 hour Z1-2) + core work
Sat- Long club ride (3-5 hours Z2-3)
Sun- rest
March 11-13th I’ll use my team training camp as my overload; three consecutive days of long/hard rides.
One week recovery (2 easy rides + the weekend club ride)
One week maintenance
One week taper (3 short/easy rides during the week prior to the race.
1st stage race-Apr 2&3- 12mi tt/50mi RR, 1-hour circuit race
One week maintenance
One week taper
2nd stage race- Apr 15-17 (Long RR, TT/crit, short RR (exact distances TBD)
I’ve got a few more stage races I’ll be doing in June/July for which I will basically repeat this process for a second peak.
This is a tweaked version of the plan in “The Cyclist’s training Manual”, which my wife gave me for Christmas (I asked for the “Bible”, she thought they were be the same). Not knowing much about the credibility of the book I read, I’m looking for constructive criticism. The book didn’t say much about maintenance, and how it should be different from the building phase. How would you do a maintenance week with this kind of a plan?

MDcatV

dont take this to mean that I think what you plan wont work, but you really dont have a plan in there, you just have a bunch of riding. again, that's probably OK, but it's not really a plan so it's hard to critique. keep in mind alot of really successful racers do what you have written.

mike868y

Sorry, but I hate these threads.

MDcatV

yeah, there's nothing worse than threads about training for racing a bicycle on a road bike racing forum.

rkwaki

I like the op's enthusiasm though. Try it - if it doesn't work change it. The one thing that I don't see is the effort level you hope to achieve during your training sessions. You want to race fast? Race more often. At this point you don't have enough experience to try and scientifically develop a peak much less 2 times this year - get out, train, race, rest repeat.

I'm not trying to take the wind out of your sail just saying a couple of local crits versus a year long season is very different when it comes to planning.

The most important thing to remember in all of this is your nutrition plan - you should spend some time researching and understanding that.

MDcatV

^i was being sarcastic re: post from mike868y.

Hermes

With the goal of doing well as a GC in an early stage race, IMO, you will need some time trial work in the time trial position. I do not care if you own a TT bike or not. The time trial is where you can differentiate yourself from the field in the GC category unless there is a hilly long road race that will break up the peloton. Sooooooo..... without studying your specific plan, I suggest making sure you get some 2x20 z4 intervals on flat to rolling terrain and a practice time trial or two before the stage races. Good luck.

Edit: If the 2x20 z4s are too tough then do 2-4 x10 minute z4s.

rkwaki

Yeah I know - probably shouldn't have quoted you
IMHO all of us on here can learn something from each other - there is nothing wrong with asking the question.

Debusama

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.