Periodization Question

noonievut said:

Can someone remind me what sort of rides (distance & effort) one should do say within 5 or 6 days before a race (or in my case a long 4-day charity ride)?

The longest day of this event, which is the first day (Thursday the 10th), is 180km, and I'll be riding with a group pacing at around 25-27km/h.

Thanks.

The advice RD gave me before my 100miler last June went as follows:

Quoted post said:

As to how much rest, I think this varies a lot from individual to individual. Personally, I would do a fairly normal week until ~3 days before the event, then an easy hour or two on Friday and take Saturday completely off the bike. But, that's me. Go back and look at your best road rides of the last couple of months. How many days off the bike did you have before the ride? One? Two? Probably not four.

But that was just for 1 days ride. It would probably be better to start tapering 5 or 6 before your event. Having said that, you won't be hammering it and possibly doing a lot of drafting, so maybe RDs advice is not far off the mark. Also my course was very mountainous. If yours is fairly flat, then perhaps a long taper period is not necessary - just treat each day as a training ride. Best of luck with it and don't forget to give us a report on how it went.😉 TYSON