Road Bike Racing - Pre-Race Prep

Can I still do some light riding for two or three hours the day before a race with no ill effects. It would be a circuit race of 44 miles ... am I supposed to rest? I don't want to take the day off.

Rest on Friday. Thirty to forty very easy miles on Saturday to stay loose. Sunday start warm up an hour before race. Slowly build using various drills until you do a few full effort jumps . Your lactic acid system needs to be fully activted. Get to the start line in a light sweat and kick butt for 80 minutes.

Rest on Friday. Thirty to forty very easy miles on Saturday to stay loose. Sunday start warm up an hour before race. Slowly build using various drills until you do a few full effort jumps . Your lactic acid system needs to be fully activted. Get to the start line in a light sweat and kick butt for 80 minutes.

I believe this man has it nailed! For me it's about an hour or two in zone one the day before a race. My coach has me thinking in time rather than distance.

makes mucho sense. excellent advice, guys. thanks!!!!!

Time > Distance

Just spin and get loose the day before. I would go for a really short ride 10-15 miles. Spin like crazy. Work up to a few short jumps and sprints and try to sprint in a gear thats 2-4 gears smaller than you would normally sprint to really get a spin going.

Go with a buddy and sprint for landmarks (signs, telephone poles, etc) agreeing to use a small gear like a 52/20. The real spinner will win.

i like to get in at least 2 hours in the day before an event. and then right before we start i like to have about 45 mintues to an hour.

The dya before a race I usually do a really hard ride for about 2 hours , then the day of the ride I usually do about a 2 hour warmup at really high spin buld a good sweat.
rest and then race.

Let's say I am racing on saturday. My coach has me do my usual workouts through wednesday. Thursday is completely off the bike. Friday I ride for 1.5 hours, mostly spinning, then 2x6' between 145 and 155 (My LT is ~163). Then I do 2 progressions from 145 to 165. Before a race I generally noodle around for an hour or so, just to stay warm and loose. Then I get on the trainer and so 15 minutes easy. Then ramp up to what feels like a 4 or 5 on a scale of 1-10 on the RPE. Then I do that for 15 minutes or so. Then 2x30" hard efforts. rest for a few minutes then do 2x1' hard efforts and spend the rest of the hour spinning.

Regarding lactic acid system "activation". I know that it works, but I'm not sure physically what is going on. Could someone explain this? I thought that you wanted to get rid of lactic acid?

Im no expert, but on my train right video Chris Carmikel (Sp. ?) says that you need to do some max effort short intervals so you start generating the lactic acid so your body gets used to removing the lactic acid and producing the buffers against it so when you start your race (or the intervals on the video) you are good to go.
FWIW.

Dave T.