Training & Nutrition - So I have this race...

Hey!

I've got an eight hour mountain bike relay race at the end of May. It's supposed to be mostly singletrack with a couple fire roads. 10km track. 3-4 people on my team.

I haven't been able to ride much this season 'cause of school and work. Now the work load is tapering off, so I'll be able to gun it on the bike.

So how do I go pro in three weeks? I can't hit the trails too often due to the wet. I've been riding my road bike every day. Commuting to school on it now. If I have the time and if it's not raining and if i don't have work, I'll put in a 20-30km ride after school.

I have the time to go for about an hour a day... more on the weekends, maybe.

So how do I use this time? I know I can do intervals or just long distance easy rides, or red-lining the entire route. I usually ride hard every time I go unless I'm feeling a bit off, in which case I'll take it a bit slower.

I'm not concerned at all for mountain biking technique. My weakness on the trails is the long flat dirt paths as my bike is kinda slow... I'm fine for technique and climbs. This is why I'm not worried about being restricted to the road bike. I need the umph.

Thanks for any help!

You're right to ride the road bike. It's a little late, as you know. #1 in my mind would be mileage, i.e. hours.

8 hours relay, but you've got, say, 3 people, so 8/3 hours total. 10k or a little over 6 miles/turn? So maybe 20 minutes/turn? So if your turns are only 20 minutes, and your total time is about 160 minutes, you'll do 8 turns. You can't stay at LT for 160 minutes over an 8 hour period, but you can probably stay in your LT or sub-LT zone for 1/2 of that. So that's your focus.

1) Mileage. As much as you can handle/week. At least 8 hours on the bike.

2) Make most of this zone 2.

3) Do a 1/2 hour easy ride before breakfast, every day.

3) Depending on your ability to recover, once or twice a week do LT climbing repeats on a 1000' climb, if you have such a thing. If you don't, 500' is the minimum. If you don't have that, do LT cruise intervals on the flat or rollers.

5) Once a week, for a recovery ride, do a ride that's a mixture of zone 1 and one-legged pedaling intervals. Make the intervals 2-3 minutes long. Do them until your legs won't anymore.

6) The last week before your race, taper. Do the OLP workout, some zone 1 and 2, and 1.5 minute over-LT intervals, 4 the first day, then one fewer each day. Then nothing the last 2 days.

7) Get a really good night's sleep the night before the day before the race.

8) Don't ride hard every time you go out. Save the energy for the intervals. The mantra is when you go easy, go easier than you're used to. When you go hard, go harder than you're used to. Stop the interval series when you think you've still got one more in you.

Thanks for the advice!

I can't fit the early morning ride into my schedule - I need my sleep... and am missing out due to homework already. I'm using my lunch breaks for an hour long ride midday.

I rode with the guy who invited me to join his team. He says I'm in pretty good shape already - that I give him a hard time when I lead. The limit on the team is 4 people and he has a total of 6 people signed up for it... so we're apparently dividing up into two separate teams of three, and he's putting me in the group of fast riders.

You go, dude! It is hard when you have a life . . . Let us know how it goes, and what you wished you'd done differently.