Training/Peaking for longer road races vs Crits

[Indurain]

At the moment I'm in the middle of Crits. I'm basically trying to peak for April 25th by doing intervals up to 2 - 3x week (mix of Neuromuscular, Anaerobic, Vo2Max and Threshold and high cadence intervals).

After this, I then wish to start preparing for the longer and hillier road races from July to October. My races are mainly 100km's long. But one in October is 228km's long with a 18km climb and many hills in the 1 to 2km range. I am planning a peak at the end of August.

I know about training according to the terrain I'm racing on and plan to do some longer hillier rides in preparation. But in order to peak, should I be also adjusting my intervals to longer ones (2mins or more) and forget about the other shorter more intense ones? I usually start more concentrated intervals about 2mths from where I wish to peak. How would you guys go about training for the longer road races?

Thanks in advance

 

[ergmonkey]

Have you done any true aerobic threshold-oriented intervals this year (20-30 minute repeats)?

Also, what types of selections do you foresee for your later season road races and what are your own relative weaknesses?

I know a lot more cyclists who are willing to do power and speed work than I know riders who will do the long intervals; but, especially if you've got a road loop that will allow you to ride fairly steadily and uninterrupted for that length of time, the aerobic intervals REALLY work. But, they are very fatiguing, not very fun, and in many ways more painful than the 1-3 minute higher intensity stuff. It helps if you can do them with another rider your level and ride the intervals pursuit-style.

For long racing, I also think there's a lot to be said for doing your hard block of intervals at the end of a long ride. This way, you have to get your nutrition right, your metabolism has to be ready for the volume stress, and your muscles have to be prepared to do the work with so many miles in them. A lot of classics riders will do their motorpacing for 1-2 hours after they have been on the road for a few hours already. I haven't heard of top guys doing it the other way around.

Lastly, even when training for long distances, try to stay fresh. Getting in a few really high quality, long sessions mixed with less strenuous rides in between can be a lot more productive than always getting in lots of 3 hour sessions when you're tired and performing sub-optimally for each and every one of them.

 

[brianf7]

Just go out and ride as much as you can as many 100 km rides as possible without burning your self out as the road season gets going you will get enough long races to start to build a good base. it will fall into place

 

[forty four]

Have you done any true aerobic threshold-oriented intervals this year (20-30 minute repeats)?

Also, what types of selections do you foresee for your later season road races and what are your own relative weaknesses?

I know a lot more cyclists who are willing to do power and speed work than I know riders who will do the long intervals; but, especially if you've got a road loop that will allow you to ride fairly steadily and uninterrupted for that length of time, the aerobic intervals REALLY work. But, they are very fatiguing, not very fun, and in many ways more painful than the 1-3 minute higher intensity stuff. It helps if you can do them with another rider your level and ride the intervals pursuit-style.

For long racing, I also think there's a lot to be said for doing your hard block of intervals at the end of a long ride. This way, you have to get your nutrition right, your metabolism has to be ready for the volume stress, and your muscles have to be prepared to do the work with so many miles in them. A lot of classics riders will do their motorpacing for 1-2 hours after they have been on the road for a few hours already. I haven't heard of top guys doing it the other way around.

Lastly, even when training for long distances, try to stay fresh. Getting in a few really high quality, long sessions mixed with less strenuous rides in between can be a lot more productive than always getting in lots of 3 hour sessions when you're tired and performing sub-optimally for each and every one of them.

i agree with this.

 

[JayKosta]

I think that your past history on road races would be a good guide for what would give better results.

e.g.
Do you fad at the end - get dropped by the bunch a few K from the finish?
Do you get dropped on hills?
Can you catch the group if you've gotten behind?
Final sprint?
Technical riding - fast downhills, tight corners, shoulder-to-shoulder bunches?
Where are you typically located in the group - front / middle / rear / etc.?
Strategy & support - do you have teammates (who work as a TEAM)? Do you miss critical breaks? Do you get boxed-in?

Jay Kosta
Endwell NY USA

 

[fatandfast]

I have had mixed results with trying to have 2 or 3 peaks in a short racing season. If you are doing crits now because that is what's available, lactic thresholds are about the best you can do ,super hard efforts for 1-3 minutes depending on where you are at personally.

Try and keep your body fat as low as possible and train ALONE as much as you can. Use your cyclometer to get lap times on known distances..like 5k or 10k ITT's always trying to improve your times and technique. Late season road races will be easier for general reasons but the ability to being close to blown or just settling down after super hard efforts will make you a better roller or climber depending on what race you do.

If you want to go low tech take a rubber band,chunk of a paper and one of those little lotto pencils put it in your pocket or at the end of the handlebars. Roll out on an empty stretch of road and warm up on an out and back 5-10 k. Then do the ITT efforts and write down the times..do 2 or 3. once you have done this kind of training 2 or 3 times..take the best times.t1,t2 .t3 and again write them on a small paper and tape them next to your computer. Then do the ITT's again and see how much you can beat your best times by..always keep in mind you are not trying to be world class TT guy but learning how to do long hard efforts alone will make you way better than squirting around people by 50 ft at the wed or thurs training crit. Any time you can sign up for a TT do it. It will help you mentally. You will finish, look at the posted results and see the guys who beat you and who you bested. When you see that if you were 8 seconds faster you could have been top 3 or top five. You will review your ride in your mind and say..oh yea I remember sitting up..or soft pedaling..or going from the drops to the tops..taking a looong drink..whatever..you will think of where you left the 8 seconds and can work on improving it..The main mistake in training and peaking is to rely on group rides to know how fast you can go.

 

[Indurain]

Thanks for the tips guys. Long rides mixed with Long intervals/timetrials sound good. I haven't been in a long road race for 20yrs now. But have been quite successful in the criteriums lately, mainly due to having short term power and a medium sprint. I can however climb okay too with climbs up to 10mins. So need to be work on climbing well for close to 1hr for one of the races.