Training & Nutrition - How much training is too much before a big ride?

I'm planning on doing a long ride this weekend as a training / trial ride before the triple bypass (http://www.teamevergreen.org/). The ride I'm doing is stage 2 (http://www.usaprocyclingchallenge.com/stages/stage-2) for the proc cycling challenge. Fortunately my wife is driving sag, so I get some support as well :love: I was planning this week to ride M-T, take Friday off. Ride is on Sat. I'm going to ride 30 miles a day, with tues and thurs adding on 20-30 more with a climb. One climb will be deer creek, which is a long one with just one steep section. The other is monarch road which isn't really hard at all. Does this sound like too much? I should I really taper so I don't drain myself before the ride? Thanks for any advice.

When is the ride? I would say take it pretty easy for the week before. You want fresh legs for the event. Hard training during the last week will do more harm than good. Any riding during that week is just to keep your legs loose and the mental benefit of preventing the (false) feeling that you're losing your previous training.

Thanks, that's what I was thinking. Ride is this Saturday, not an event, just doing a long training ride in the mountains with two big passes

Thanks, that's what I was thinking. Ride is this Saturday, not an event, just doing a long training ride in the mountains with two big passes

Got it. How much you do during the week is a matter of your conditioning. Even tho the Saturday ride is a training ride, it is still your most important ride of the week. If you can do the other planned rides without detracting from the Sat ride, go for it. If not, take it a litle easier. Maybe do the longer ride on Tuesday and just a normal ride on Thursday.

Your training ride is harder and nicer than your event.

I would train as usual Tue/Wed, take Thursday off and do a short leg opener on Friday - easy warmup, a few 1 to 5 minute hard efforts, cool down, about 1-1.5 hours.

Can I go with you?

Thanks for the advice!



Can I go with you?

Can u start in gunnison at 6am :)

Eh, idk if it's harder. It's only 2 passes compared to 3 and if I'm by myself I won't feel like I have to try and stick on someone's wheel that looks like Andy Schleck. Plus, I really wanted to try and ride at least one stage of the pro cycling challenge with Liggit's metaphors running through my head.

I'll be doing the *Double Triple Bypass*

I'll continue my normal training until Monday, July 4th. After that I'm resting, carbo loading, and will do a short, very easy, 10 mile ride on Friday, July 8th before the ride.

It really depends.

How fast do you recover? I find that I can ride quite a bit before a big event as long as I don't ride HARD or really LONG the day before. If I have an easy or moderate day before a big ride, I am good to go.

I would suggest that you don't do anything hard for at least several days before the ride.

The week before the last weekend training ride I don't do anything different. Then the weekend before the event, I do a moderate ride, maybe 70 miles, 3500' climbing, no more. Don't go too hard. Then a day off. Then I like to taper with a series of Zone 1 rides on my rollers, punctuated with 1.5 minute speed intervals, one less interval each day, finishing with a half hour and one interval, either on the last day before the event, or leaving one rest day, depending on how the rider recovers. Valygrl's plan is also excellent.

I'll be doing the *Double Triple Bypass*Awesome

Usually a lighter week of riding and then a day off before a big ride is good enough. I've just been more sore and tired lately, but I think it's more due to my crappy sleep schedule thanks to work.

...oh and no HRM, so I'm doing this all on "how I feel"