"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - training during race season

Do you train during prime racing season?

"prime" as in racing every weekend, and "training" as in interval training.

Or is your fitness ready enough so that you use the weekdays as a taper period before the next weekend's race?

I generally don't train much anymore when I start racing every weekend; just some slow endurance or recovery rides during the weekdays.

I'm guessing you are racing Sat and Sun every week? When I used to race 70-80x a year, there was very little training once the season started. Now and then, you just have to throw a few extra hours in, especially when the races are spread apart, but otherwise if you are racing a lot, recovery is everything.

Most racers these days will say you can't get proper training just racing all the time, but man there wasn't anything better than 2-4x a week racing, with a break now and then for the head.

Are your races hard? Long? Are you recovering quickly? If so, add another day mid-week and do a session of whatever you feel is needed. If tired, recover with short easy rides and a few efforts to open up.

I race both days of the weekend, and then generally do one hard day during the week, with an LT type effort, a couple of short VO2 intervals, and some sprints.

Basically:
30min w/u
20min at or above LT
5min easy
20min at or above LT, or 2x5min
5min easy
5x15s sprints, recover as needed between each
20-30min cool down

Total: 2 hours, or thereabouts

I realize that I might not be hitting max wattages or be "fresh" enough to get the most, numbers wise, out of the workouts, especially with the sprints after the VO2 stuff, following the LT, but I'm never fresh when the ***** hits the fan in a race anyways, so why not train myself to prepare for those kinds of situations. And my 20 and 5MP keep going up, so it's not hurting my form.

Edit: A lot of times I make this a 3hr ride, with a really long warmup and cooldown. Basically a 60mi ride with some efforts in the middle.

Do you think its necessary to train during not just "season", but prime season? or should we be a peak during this time without training.

I would think that it would hurt your performance to train during this time, as you need as much rest as possible.

Well, my legs feel dead if I do nothing but recovery rides, so I'm pretty much forced to do a hard ride to open them up mid-week.

As I taper down to a peak event, sure, I might cut down on the total volume of my intervals, but they still need to be done. If for no other reason than to break the monotony.

Besides, how do you plan on getting stronger if the races just aren't hard enough? I realize this may seem like an odd thing to say, but that's always possible. Last weekend I had a race where I flatted out of the winning break, took my lap and hopped back in, and the teams represented in the break shut down any and all attempts to bridge or pull them back, or make a solo move, even after they caught on to the back of the field. So, instead of wasting energy, and while I MAY have been able to get away later on after a LOT of attempts, I cut my losses and took a last lap flyer. The race was difficult, but if I had my way, it would have been moreso, and I would have been in a break instead of cruising around 5th wheel.

Also, unless you're doing 100km crits both days, every weekend, I very much doubt that you need to recover that "hard". And if you do, you didn't train hard enough in the first place.

I train through almost every race week I can unless its a stage race or something really important IE hometown crit.

Racing week is ususally something like,
Monday - off
Tuesday - 2 hours inc practice crit(hard)
Wednesday endurance 70-90 miles
Thursday - Spin
Friday - 30-45 minutes of intervals
than racing sat and sunday

I dont really like to taper more than 2 days, and intensity no matter how intense as long as its short should not hurt your legs in the days before a race.