I have a 5-day MTB stage race in November and a 7-day road stage "race" (well, technically not a race, but it ends up being one de-facto) in mid-December - oh yeah, the joys of living in the tropics, where you can ride in winter. Each MTB stage is around 80-100km, and the road stages are 120-150km per day.
However, I also have a personal target of taking a crack at the sub-hour 40k TT in December, and this is probably my "A" priority. The road race is my second priority - the MTB stage race I aspire to being in the middle, that's about it
Right now, I am 4 weeks into an 8-week FTP boosting regimen - lot of sub-LT intervals and tempo rides, and 1 endurance ride of 3 hours of so a week. I get about 10-12 hours of riding in per week. This finishes at the end of Aug.
Any suggestions on a good way to balance developing endurance and also improving my FTP in order to take a go at the TT? I was thinking something along these lines:
Sep - continue to focus on FTP: 1 day of LT intervals, 2 endurance rides (3+ hours), 1 big ring/hill repeats ride
Oct - focus on distance/endurance: plan to take my bike to Bhutan and do 100-120km of riding on hills daily for 2 weeks or so
Nov: MTB race, with focused training depending on what I think I need more
Dec: TT then taper and then the road "race"
My questions:
- Is there a minimum amount of long rides I need to do in a week in order to be able to maintain my endurance?
- Would doing 1 LT interval a week in Nov be enough to maintain my FTP, in case I decide to focus on my endurance?
- Any suggestions on a good way to balance my radically different events?
As way of background - I started riding last year and this is the first year where I have been able to consistently get a lot of miles in without too much interruption. Right now, I can churn out 100km rides back-to-back without too many problems (even in 110F+ temperatures), with no DOMS or soreness. I have done a century ride pretty much without any particular pre-planning (went out planning to do 100km, ended up doing 160km).
However, I have NOT riden 6-7 days in a row covering those kind of distances.
V