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I've been looking at Tapering my training for the transrockies which starts in one and a half weeks. I've never done a seven day event so I'm interested to hear from people who have. My question is, how much time should I spend on the bike between now and the start?
So far I've been putting in around three hours, three times a week at a medium intensity and three hours at a low intensity.
My aim is to finish 😉
The summer issue of the "Health and Fitness for cyclists" mag reckons a taper week would look like:
Monday rest / Tuesday 1hr, split easy/race/brisk / Wednesday rest / Thursday 1hr, inc 10x1min very hard intervals + 2 min easy recoveries / Friday rest / Saturday 1hr in 3x1min hard and 3x30sec very hard / Sunday event
That's against its recommmendations for a "normal" training week of about 13 hours (2 rest days Mon+Fri), sounds like your regime is spot on. Right now I'm doing nowhere near that for TransWales 😳 and tapering is nearly here... Finishing will be good!
Have a great time out there, let us all know how it goes.
Two weeks before its TransWales time and I’m looking at tapering as well. That tapering schedule looks a bit fierce to me considering you’re riding for 7 days the week after. Suggest move it a week back and have v.easy spins the week before and plenty of rest. You’re not going to gain anything in fitness the last week and risk only taking energy out of your legs.
Depends how fit you are, supposedly if your moderately fit youd be better tapering for 3 weeks, the pro's taper for 3 days before the TDF!
Nice one, looks like I'll be dusting off the old road bike for some "Very hard intervals" then!
I think the most important thing is not to knock off the training completely, else your gains in "Rest" are offset by your loss of fitness during the last week...
pro's taper for 3 days before the TDF!
Thats becuase they have [strike]drugs[/strike] other races to ride in otherwise they don't get paid.
else your gains in "Rest" are offset by your loss of fitness during the last week...
You won't lose any fitness in a week, unless you take up 20 fags a day!
I'm just back from doing the Transalp and had the same dilemma in the fortnight before. I got very anxious two weeks before because I felt very run down and only managed about 3 hours on the bike. In the final week I was shiteing myself because I was convinced I was going to come down with a cold but I did manage a couple of easy paced rides and one intervals session (5x5 mins @ 90%).
In the race itself we rode very conservatively for the first couple of days until we got used to the magnitude of the climbs and then gradually upped the pace as the days went on. I really surprised myself that we got stronger as the week went on, despite each successive day feeling like the hardest thing we'd ever done on a bike.
You'll be amazed at what you are capable of and as long as you keep on top of the hydration and recovery and eat little and often you'll get to the end and it will be an amazing feeling.
Don't worry about the last fortnight - if your aim is simply to finish it won't matter what you do provided you do a little and don't overdo things. We aimed for not being last and managed to finish in the top half of the field.
Look forward to it and enjoy it!
Thanks stuartie_c!
That's pretty much how I'm feeling now, I'm desperately trying not to get a cold at the moment. My very good doctor made me come in this week for a full test, the bloodwork came back yesterday and shows I have a low white blood cell count, but apparently this is ok, he say's I'm so fit that my immune system is taking a holiday 😕
I haven't been this excited since the week before Christmas 1983. I even packed my bags last night, one week before my flights!
I must admit, my tapering for TransRockies this week has involved...doing nothing! i did have a couple of sessions planned but didn't fit them in. I plan to do a couple of 1-2 hour rides at the weekend, really gently, and probably nothing until I get to Canada (so not til Friday). I've never trained for a multi day event like this, but my experience of training for marathons is that resting in the last couple of weeks is probably more important than more training - especially if your last couple of weeks have been hard.
you do always feel like sh!t when you're tapering tho! All sorts of new aches and pains come out.....
see you out there!