Stopping training before a big trip.

In the next three weeks I’m lucky enough to have two big cycling trips coming up. One is going to be about 300km combined bikepacking/mountain biking over 5 days. The other is 8 days riding in the Alps, uplift assisted.

They’re not super arduous, but both involve a fair amount of cycling, and from previous experience the more training I’ve done, the more fun I’ll have.

Fortunately I’ve done that for the past couple of months. Nothing extreme, but a combination of zone 2 riding, upping the intensity of some of my commutes, and some longer endurance rides, increasing my time on the bike.

My riding starts in 5 days. I’m planning just a gentle shake down ride of my full sus either today or tomorrow, and then resting until Wednesday.

Am I doing the right thing by winding down at this stage, or is it a little bit too soon?

I’d keep up commuting but at a lower level..

I’d say unless you’ve been training like a pro, with high threshold stuff, you’ll be fine with a few ‘normal’ rides this week..

Have fun

DrP

Tapering. It’s a good idea. Recovery makes you fitter.

Yeah I’ve often felt best after a short break, be it voluntary or enforced.

Reduce volume and make your shakedown ride short but punchy mid-week?

Absolutley, rest….you’ll not lose anything in 5 days and will most likely feel better for it.

Rest or, possibly, a short-and-quick ride  3 days before.

Why bother – if you’ve got commutes just carry on but possibly take it easy. Especially if the commutes mean driving or public transport – oh the mental torment.

I’ve got 3 days of commuting between each trip, so that’s a given anyway, and will just do those in zone 2.

Thanks for the answers about tapering over the next five days, I think I’m going to stick with the plan.

The harder you’ve been training, the more you need the time to taper and recover.  Rest is when you do your repairs and get stronger; sleep too, relax.

You don’t want or need to stop altogether, riding commutes at a sensible pace is ideal in this recovery phase and as others have said, you’ll not lose fitness in 5 days.  But a crash on a technical trail could ruin the trips.

To put it into perspective, we’re 8 days out from the West Highland Way race next Saturday and all of the ultra runners will be a week into their taper by now.

I’d have started earlier, I’d do **** all from now!

@cynic-al overall it’s part of a plan to build up to some long distance off road touring next year.

Depends – how old are you? In your 20s, a day is probably enough recovery time. In your 50s, more like five or six…

Agree that a bit of active recovery is a good idea before a big event. If you’re anticipating any intensity in your events then one or two short efforts might be worthwhile but otherwise just keep the legs moving a bit and keep yourself fueled.

I’m a maybe believer in tapering. You don’t have to stop but take it easy

This partly based on reading, the runners in my office who both have sports science degrees and one personal experience. The fastest of my pathetically slow road rides was after a 2 holiday with no cycling.

Is it not the case that for a true taper you need to significantly reduce the volume and frequency but maintain, or possibly even increase, the intensity?

So you’d possibly be better off canning the easy commutes and steady rides and smashing out a couple of short sharp interval sessions.

If you stop cycling completely you’ll feel very sluggish at the start of your first ride due to a change in plasma volume. Not a big deal as you’ll warm into it.

Thump is a powerlifter (British youth champion and off to the Worlds in a few months) – he comes back from 3 weeks away stronger than before. Obviously he can”t use this as the basis of his training, but do less rather than do more.

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Is it not the case that for a true taper you need to significantly reduce the volume and frequency but maintain, or possibly even increase, the intensity?

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Marathon runner work at with drops intensity and some volume. He has a sports science degree and was conditioning coach for the England women’s football team. But maybe he hasn’t got a clue. They’ve done much better since he moved on………,

There’s a big difference between a professional footballer and a MAMIL on a mountain bike.

Footballers will do a high intensity session on the morning of an evening match.

It’s 5 days no intensity with easy commuting, not worth overthinking it!

“Marathon runner work at with drops intensity and some volume. He has a sports science degree and was conditioning coach for the England women’s football team. But maybe he hasn’t got a clue. They’ve done much better since he moved on………,”

Edit – maybe they know a bit more beneath the surface of what’s published on training sites etc but the prevailing opinion definitely seems to suggest that reducing volume but not intensity is the way to go.

As mentioned by others how important this is for the OPs holiday is another question tbh, but carrying on commuting but easier doesn’t match what most cycling training sites seem to say.