Training schedule for 50min Criteriums question

[Indurain]

I am currently a C grade (Cat 3) rider. Where I live I race a 50min Criterium almost every week Year round. Between Aug and Oct I may enter about 4 long distance road events. 3 are about 100 to 120km's with some hilly terrain and the last "Grafton to Inverell" is 228km long with quite a lot of hills and a 18km climb in it (avg abt 4 - 5%).

My question is what sought of training should I be doing for success in the Criteriums, but not harming my chances in the longer events later on (which are my real objectives).

At the moment this is my time limited training schedule after my endurance base training section in the off/early season.
Mon to Fri: 25km undulating/hilly ride to work and back (50km overall). Most days I will go hard up the hills - 1min to 2mins long and might throw in a few sprints or a 1km timetrial.

Mon: 4 laps up this 2km hill (8% - 10% most of the way up). Mix between normal and heavier gears (around 50 - 60rpms), but ride at interval pace each time: Km for day abt 70km's

Tues: Just ride to work and back as described above. 50km's

Wed: Just ride to work and back but more recovery. Might ride a few hills at 95% effort in the morning but recovery pace on way back 50km's

Thurs: 10 to 15sec Sprint training (abt 6 reps), abt 4 - 5 x 2min hill intervals, plus ride home as described above. Km's for the day abt 65 to 70km's.

Fri: Just ride to work and back at total recovery pace. No sprints, efforts, etc.

Sat: Ride 30km warm up to race: 50min Criterium (hopefully sprint/attack and win) ride 30km's back at a nice steady tempo. 95 to 100km's for the day.

Sun: Totally off bike.

Is this okay for the Criteriums? Also how should I change this as I'm getting closer to my road events (but hopefully not kill my chances in the Criteriums in between these events).

Thanks in advance

 

[usedtobefast]

if you can find a weekly training crit/ride. we have them here in socal. that's the only way i got any good at crits. that type of intensity is hard to get any other way, except racing them.

 

[Willy_Voet]

The schedule looks fine to me, if you drop one "hard" day per week or alternate weeks. I would give yourself more flexibility, too, on the days when you go hard. You're riding 200 km for "recovery" or easy pace. Added on top of that, you're doing a hard Mon, maybe Wed hard, then Thu hard, too. Add Sat to that and it's 4 hard days, 2 days easy rides and one day off.

Rule of thumb (whether full time racer or someone who works) is that each day of training requires an easy day or rest day. So 4 hard days should be met with 4 rest days, but we have 7 day weeks. Maybe skip the Monday or Wed workout every other week. Or, go to something like 2 days on/ 2 off.

I am in a similar situation (riding to work 5 days/week) and I only have 2 hard rides per week (Sat group ride plus choice of a Tue, Wed or Thu hard ride). I have to do lots of standing or running around at my job, so if I try to incorporate any more hard days, it prevents me from recovering. If I have an easier week at work (or vacation), I load up on hard rides, then the next week only do recovery rides to work. I take every Sunday off unless I miss the Sat ride.

edit: As far as your chances in the crits, I would make mental adjustments to how you approach a race. Maybe every other crit ride "selfishly" sitting on the group or making short pulls if you're in the breakaway. The other weeks, attack like crazy and/or make long pulls in a breakaway. Worrying about your chances in 52 crits per year is asking a lot. I would narrow your focus to 1/4 to 1/2 of them and consider the rest as training.

---

For long ride preparation: If you've been riding 3 years or more, you can probably do just fine doing 1 long ride per month (skipping the Sat Crit). I would make sure it's 2 to 3 weeks before your long race so that you properly recover.

 

[Indurain]

Thanks for the awesome advice. Just for Clarification: Mon - super hard, Tues - endurance pace with hard efforts, Wed - endurance pace with a few short hard efforts, Thurs - Super hard, Friday - super easy endurance pace, Sat - As hard as the race becomes.

I liked your idea of riding the criteriums as training on alternate weeks, etc. I can see how that would be an awesome training session.

Would it still be recovery if I add another 40km's of endurance pace riding but no hard efforts onto my Wednesdays 90km for the day?

 

[brianf7]

Sun: Totally off bike.

You could go to church on Sundays and paray for super strengh and dont forget the $2 in the offering to keep the Pastor in his one day a week job..

in Summer in Oz we race tuesday night Wednesday morning Thursday night
Saturday afternoon and sunday morning all around 50 mins.
add to that the possibliity of a track meeting

So no time to train untill autumn doing long training rides will rob you of the speed you gain in crits.\
The road season requires a build of base but most races start with shorter spins.so ounce a week a road ride and miss out a coupls of crits if feeling tired take a break.

 

[Martin318is]

Yep Brian,
It used to be the same for me before the kids came along:

Tuesday night Crit
Wednesday night track
Thursday night track
Friday light ride for an hour after work
Saturday arvo 30km road handicap
Sunday morning either another road handicap or crit
Sunday afternoon crit
Monday light ride for an hour after work (or crit)

I love this part of the year - no training!

(you'd think I would have won more races really....)

 

[fatandfast]

1.do speed work
2.do more speed work
3. do cornering drills and lots of them. You need to know how to carry speed through any kind of corner.
4. The crit discipline is based on lots of jumping. example. ride in the middle or the back..every corner people squeeze the livin'f-ck out of their brakes.result for you getting out of the saddle and end up doing a 120% effort to get back up to speed with the 20 guys who got a clean line through the corner. Most loops don't involve any selection so there are going to be dozens of guys left at the end. You need to have gas in your tank and speed. 2-3 minutes complete failure drills will help with same period rests in between jumps. Also small 15 second jumps all out with rest in between will show you improvements right away. In the saddle spinning super high R's will help. Small ring in the saddle small gear (17,18,19) depending on your set up and with your hands in the drops..wind the gear up and out for 90 seconds or greater until your legs are at 130 or better( cartoon RPM's are best shoot for 140). If you work on doing 3 minute TT's it can give you good results. Crits have lots of ebb and flow in the lower cats..Guys come to realize that 100 guys will chase them down and sit up right after they are caught. depending on lap distance on a slow down or skinny corner you can jump and find yourself a gap. A crit for the average/beginner racer is 2 races in one.1st race to stay in the first 20 places and then to know if the negativity is high and things bunch up and slow down you need to be able to jump before things get too slow.If things are 5 or 6 abreast in every corner be afraid. Long rides are not as important as speed

 

[rgmerk]

OT: good luck for the Grafton-Inverell

That's going to be a tough day out, particularly if it's warm and humid.

 

[Archibald]

1.do speed work
2.do more speed work
3. do cornering drills and lots of them. You need to know how to carry speed through any kind of corner.
4. The crit discipline is based on lots of jumping. example. ride in the middle or the back..every corner people squeeze the livin'f-ck out of their brakes.result for you getting out of the saddle and end up doing a 120% effort to get back up to speed with the 20 guys who got a clean line through the corner. Most loops don't involve any selection so there are going to be dozens of guys left at the end. You need to have gas in your tank and speed. 2-3 minutes complete failure drills will help with same period rests in between jumps. Also small 15 second jumps all out with rest in between will show you improvements right away. In the saddle spinning super high R's will help. Small ring in the saddle small gear (17,18,19) depending on your set up and with your hands in the drops..wind the gear up and out for 90 seconds or greater until your legs are at 130 or better( cartoon RPM's are best shoot for 140). If you work on doing 3 minute TT's it can give you good results. Crits have lots of ebb and flow in the lower cats..Guys come to realize that 100 guys will chase them down and sit up right after they are caught. depending on lap distance on a slow down or skinny corner you can jump and find yourself a gap. A crit for the average/beginner racer is 2 races in one.1st race to stay in the first 20 places and then to know if the negativity is high and things bunch up and slow down you need to be able to jump before things get too slow.If things are 5 or 6 abreast in every corner be afraid. Long rides are not as important as speed

see the two bits in bold...
what are "complete failure drills"?
and why should you be afraid of the second one?

 

[Indurain]

I'm assuming complete failure drills are 100% to exhaustion and muscle fatigue. Full of lactic acid in the end.

Being afraid of 5 or 6 a breast would probably be due to the dangers involved with high speed cornering with that many riders. One guy takes a corner a bit too wide or wrong line, a whole heap come down. That's my guess.

 

[fatandfast]

I'm assuming complete failure drills are 100% to exhaustion and muscle fatigue. Full of lactic acid in the end.

Being afraid of 5 or 6 a breast would probably be due to the dangers involved with high speed cornering with that many riders. One guy takes a corner a bit too wide or wrong line, a whole heap come down. That's my guess.

This is correct. When racing w 5s,4s,3s if anybody touches wheels or the sound of anything..it"s dominoes. That was the first thing I noticed as I moved up..single file lines are safer. I also like it when race promoters have some prime cash to string things out.The lactic threshold( in my opinion) is more critical than VO2 max or other physical goals. The pursuit of improvement in that single area helped my racing in every other aspect. The other thing is knowing your limitations. Trying to do Pro,1,2 w a job,wife,kids and anything like a normal life can be done but not that much fun.