Training & Nutrition - intervals/threshold work

Was wondering what sort of intervals or threshold work everyone is doing just now who will be racing soon.I usually do my shorter intervals 1~2 minutes once the season has started but was wondering on whether to focus on say 5 min intervals or threshold work say 30~40 mins?

Basically I have had a good winter and managed to clock up the miles and hit the weights but needing to start upping the intensity.The weekend runs are getting a bit pacey now so that keeps care of the weekend and I get out on the road once a week with guys for the club for 90 mins, fairly hard session and use the other day for trainer work, but looking the best way to utilise the work on the trainer.I need to raise my LT back to where is was during last season as it seems a million miles away just now :( .Suppose some early season races will get me up, but wouldnt mind focusing on some work just now.

my intensive phase doesn't start for another 6 or 7 weeks or so...

i'm nearing the end of my base training and weight training phase...
the next 6-7 weeks is my endurance phase

my first race is April 25th (near the end of Intensity phase)


I usually do my shorter intervals 1~2 minutes once the season has started but was wondering on whether to focus on say 5 min intervals or threshold work say 30~40 mins?
sounds good... in my intensity phase i do all three

the next 6-7 weeks is my endurance phase

my first race is April 25th (near the end of Intensity phase)

But... that would only be a 3 or 4 week intensity phase!?? Maybe less depending on how much you taper for the race.

But... that would only be a 3 or 4 week intensity phase!?? Maybe less depending on how much you taper for the race.
oops. i got confused on my dates and meant to say near the end of my first half of my intensity phase (i end my other intensity phase half with a race on May 23)

the race is not a big race for me, so is just a training race for me: it is part of my intensity training. my intensity phase is going to be 2 x 4 weeks or 8 weeks in all.

my first "real" race is May 1st which will basically be the end of the first half of my intensity training. it is a 104km MTB race with 3600meters of vertical (12,000 ft!). after that i will take a week "major" rest and then go into my 2nd intensity phase. and the Lake Garda race is not really important that have to i place well (i finished in 7 hours last year with a broken pedal - climbed the last mountain about 1 hour 15% grade with one pedal and a stub so i COULD NOT STAND!! this year i hope to beat my time and that will be ok)

my BIG event is the 8-day TransAlp challenge which is July 17-24!


Maybe less depending on how much you taper for the race.
oh, yes, since my race in July is 8 DAYS with the "easiest" day being 2500meters vertical, i am considering doing the following (it will hurt my one-day race performance, but hopefully help my endurance training): as opposed to tapering before the race i will have had another race(s) the weekend before and than the 2 days DIRECTLY before the race i will ride not-race-pace but very long (>2000m), then do the race and then the following day again do 2000m+...

what do you guys think? is that good training with the end goal the 8-day race? or am i just beating up my body too soon? that would be 4 days riding in a row (my concern is that i have NEVER ridden HARD more than 3 days back-to-back. i have 3 times ridden long distances 8+ days but not RACING)

and for my first race on April 24/25th, i am considering the 2 following:
1) doing 2 races back-to-back saturday sunday (since i'm preparing not for single-day races, but an 8-day)
2) my girlfriend and i both do our ouwn raced the first day, and the 2nd day we rid "together" (the TransAlp Challenge is a 2-person team race) so in other words i ride only as fast as her - so that a) we can get used to riding together, b) i can maybe give her racing tips as she has less experience racing than me and c) we can better judge where/when i am faster and by how much---- for the TAC we will be using a bungie-rope so that we can both give our maximum and as a team go our fastest (most of the top Mixed teams and many of the men's teams do this). my girlfriend is VERY fit and a very good climber (only 105 lbs), but i am stronger and faster... although her endurance is probably better than mine (i am the sprinter-power type, thus another reason for my wanting to do the multi-day race-training)

thoughts?

oh, yes, since my race in July is 8 DAYS with the "easiest" day being 2500meters vertical, i am considering doing the following (it will hurt my one-day race performance, but hopefully help my endurance training): as opposed to tapering before the race i will have had another race(s) the weekend before and than the 2 days DIRECTLY before the race i will ride not-race-pace but very long (>2000m), then do the race and then the following day again do 2000m+...

what do you guys think? is that good training with the end goal the 8-day race? or am i just beating up my body too soon? that would be 4 days riding in a row (my concern is that i have NEVER ridden HARD more than 3 days back-to-back. i have 3 times ridden long distances 8+ days but not RACING)

[deletia]

thoughts?
Well, my take is that you know a lot more about this stuff than I do. And I'm a roadie, to boot. But this being the internet, I'll offer my opinion as if I were an expert, anyway! ;)

I don't know how you can really train for a multi-day effort, per se. Aside from being in peak condition, the differentiator is probably how well you can recover. I'm a little fuzzy, no, actually I have no idea, how you train day-to-day recovery. But my guess is lots of endurance work. And that, in part, is the rub. It's hard to do serious intensity and endurance at the same time... one or the other (most likely intensity) is going to suffer. So, I'd be inclined to moderate the intensity, and try to keep developing endurance, or at least don't neglect it, during the intensity phase. And the other gotcha is to how to prevent endurance from plateau-ing after a couple months. I'd say to keep changing up the work-outs. So how do you change up endurance work? Beats me.

I'd be interested in others thoughts on the matter, too. Good luck in the TransAlp!

Bikerdave, sorry for hijacking your thread. Hope that Nathank addressed your question satisfactorily. :o :D


Thinking about it, aside from conditioning issues, it would be good to get some experience with multi-day racing/work-outs. Just so you'd have a baseline to guage against during the race, and know what to expect from your body... fatigue, hunger, soreness, etc.

Bikerdave, sorry for hijacking your thread. Hope that Nathank addressed your question satisfactorily.

no bother ;) good to know what everyone else is doing.

no bother ;) good to know what everyone else is doing.
Thanks... going back to your original question, my advice would be that it depends on your key events. If you add too much intensity too soon, and without sufficient foundation and tempo-endurance work, the club will *really* be riding away from you in August (don't ask me how I know this). Don't rush it!

This is probably stuff you already know, and somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but generally, you want to pick key events and work back from that. Plan on 8 weeks per phase (Base/foundation, tempo/endurance, build/power), observing periodization rules within the phases and between the phases as the season goes on. Figure on 2, possibly 3 peaks per year.

this works for me, but i dislike the robot nature of HRM's and set training. so i decided that on interval days we (the group) would sprint for speed limit signs starting when it was called out by any member. this is done in the latter 1/2 of the ride after the structured part is done with.
we reasoned that during races, you need to jump up and accelerate, not at prescribed 'intervals' but at the drop of a dime. this way you're not sure when the next interval will come and rest and pacing (recovery) between efforts becomes even more important.

and what roadbuzz says is true. don't rush it. my ability to recover this year is going to be keyed on how i rode from x-mas till now. this 8 week period has my HR recovering amazingly well.