6 Weeks before first race
 

Hi All!!

I am scheduled to do my first race in early May and I am currently doing Base miles only. When is a good time to start working on more up tempo workouts? I am brand new to racing so I am not sure what a good training schedule should be.

Thanks in advance!

Good time to start working on more up tempo workouts???? How much base do you have?


To be honest I would already be past tempo paced workouts and doing tons of LTHR work right now.

More info please:
You do any group rides?
Are you comfortable drafting others closely - less than 2-3 feet away?
What kind of race (length, course, Category)?
Distance you can ride comfortably - i.e. you're not sore when you get off the bike?
Avg speed on typical ride - fastest as well as a "typical" ride?
Max speed in sprint effort?

cdr

I agree, I'm in Ohio and have moved out of base and am mixing Tempo and LT work right now. I would say start the Tempo today. :D

Dude, there are so many schools of thought on this and so many variations depending on your body and your goals... I hope it's not going to be information overload...

Anyways, assuming you've been group riding and have some basic pack riding skills, I would start mixing in harder efforts right away.

The details would depend on your details...

Three months ago. Or, if you've been riding since last summer, tempo should have been done all along.

A month or two for LT work.

Sorry to say this, but prepare to get shelled.

Agreed. Assuming you now have some base, next 3 weeks do 2 days of LT intervals, and one hard group ride.

4 weeks from now do a little bit easier week.

5 weeks from now do some speed intervals, and a couple of hard group rides.

You're behind the curve to be really in top form 6 weeks from now. So just view your first races as part of the training process for later races. But it is time to start doing some heavy lifting.

Yesterday !

Thanks for the answsers all. I guess I was just trying to be careful because I hit the wall hard core last year around July and I had done a load of early season work. My first race (of 14 I have targeted) is the second week of may. So, I wanted to ramp up for the first race with the idea of having strong legs all year.

I feel very comfortable on group rides and not scared of being close to others. So, if I get spit out the back on my first race I will at least know what I need to do going forward.

Thanks for the input and I will start really bringing up the tempo!!!

About one month ago.

Yeah, first tempo ride today, bordering on threshold. Start doing some VO2Max intervals every week (5x5m, w/5m rest). Do either sprints or 1m intervals (WRI ;)) each week.

Don't overdo the volume. Just bump the intensity, and keep the hours flat or dial them back a bit.

I typically *start* my season about 6 weeks before my first race. I do some inside trainer work, get in at least one or two 2 hour rides, and then do some volume (3-4-5+ hours a day). This year was different but for the last few years I went into my first race barely doing a few sprints during training.

This is for someone who understands race speed.

If I were in your shoes I'd mentally schedule three or four "training camps" which last 3 days each, maybe one every week for 4 weeks. Ride hard (do intervals or big gear rolls or sprints or whatever you need to do to elevate your heartrate and your perceived effort) until you deplete your glycogen (i.e. you have to eat or drink calories), maybe 2.5-3 hours min, each day of the training camp. Force your body out of using stored muscle, fatigue yourself. Personally when I go hard I try and average over 155 bpm. 158-159 bpm is pretty hard for me - my first race in 2008 I averaged 152 bpm.

If you are doing group rides, make them part of your "camp" days. Do an extra hour or two after each ride (maybe do the group ride loop backwards). The idea is to wear down the body, use your fat/protein reserves (lean out the muscles you don't want or need).

Recover for a day then do some normal base miles. For me this is 135-ish bpm.

Mentally you can steel yourself for the "camp", and really only the second or third days will be the hard ones. Physically I think you'll find that once you get going, those days aren't bad, your sore and tired legs warm up nicely.

Doing more than 2 days in a row will shock your system and force it to break down more than normal. You will feel better once you've recovered from 3 "on" days. When in shape I used to do 4 days hard in a row virtually every week - race or group ride Sat-Sun, go long Monday, and do sprints Tuesday. I'd take the rest of the week off (occasionally doing a Thu ride), warm up for 60-90 minutes on Friday, then repeat. I was racing well from March to October for three or four years, mentally fresh, always enthusiastic.

Taper for a week - max ride is 2.5 hours, i.e. you shouldn't quite *need* to eat although you may want to. Keep doing efforts earlier in the week (Tue-Thu at latest for a Sunday race), take the second day before race day off, and then go for 60-90 minutes on the day before race.

For some reason if I ride until I get hungry, it takes either tons of food or a day or two to feel totally topped off. So I try not to do that right before a race. I want to start the race feeling topped off.

Eat lots of good food.

I'm no trainer, no doctor, don't understand how the human body works. All this is from hearsay, myths, legends, and things like that. I also believe thunder is the sound clouds make when they kiss and that if I cancel a race it won't snow on that day.

hope this helps,
cdr

So far 1:1 on that one.