timmhaan

okay - it's time to focus. i have exactly 3 weeks to prepare for a short (17 mile) race. i have some serious constraints on my time however. but, i joined a gym and can spin on the stationary bike everyday during the week and can ride my real bike 3 times per week at the most. can anyone give me some suggestions on how to train best for this race? at this point, should it be all cycling movements, or should i try to incorporate some light weight training as well. should i ramp up my miles and then taper off a bit during the last week, or should i just ride as much as possible?

Guest

With three weeks to go, there's not much you can do. You could focus on just riding the 17 miles in simulated rides. First, just focus on DOING the miles. If you know where the course is, go out and ride it. Time yourself and see how you do, and each day, try to see if you can better your results, and see if you can familiarize yourself with the course. Every little bit will help you. You'll want to taper your mileage about 3 days before your race and get a good night's sleep the night before the race and carbo load the night before the race so you'll have those extra carbs for energy for the race.

The right time to focus for training is months before the race, not weeks. With so little time to go, there's not a lot you can do.

Forget about the weights. Weights should be emphasized off season, and then used for maintenance during your race season. If you're doing weights now, great... you should be in the maintenance phase, but if you're just picking up weights for the first time, you're not going to build any substantial amount of muscle this close to the race.

Good luck, dood!

Koffee

Hitchy

g'day,

assuming that you have very little training 'base', then I agree with Koffee, there's not a lot you can do now...keep riding up until the race. Don't do to much that your body isn't used to, in the last week,it will be counter productive. As Koffee mentioned, the time for training is months ahead of your goal races, rather than weeks. As an example, I am an experienced racer who normally trains around 10,000 km per year (6,250 mile). This gives me a 'base' upon which to buld for races.At the moment I am training for a 300km race in October....I am in whats called the 'build' phase of my training. My last 4 weeks before the race, i will be peaking & 'tapering' my training. Although the distances may vary for you...the principles don't .....Base+Build+Peak+taper= good result. anyway, I hope you go well, make sure you let us know,

cheers,

Hitchy

timmhaan

thanks for the advice. i do have a fairly good base so far this season. i've done one race already and have several longer distance rides logged in. in the past 2 weeks i've only been able to get out on the bike a handful of times and my performance has suffered greatly because of this. but, i hope to rebound quickly and hopefully gain a little too. i'll not worry about the weights then, you're right KB...that seems like wasted effort at this point.

pacesetter

1st Carbo loading should be 2-3 days before a race, 2nd carbo loading for a 30 minute race isnt going to be of benifit.