Need some advice for upcoming race

sunnysang said:

Hey Everyone,
First off, thanks for taking interest in my post.
Next Sunday i have a criterium (san luis obispo) i want to do real good in. For the first time, my mother will actually watch and i am very excited. It will be my first CAT 4 only race aswell.

I was wondering if someone could suggest a sprint workout (intervals, etc..) for 3 days of next week.

Here is what my schedule looks like for next week.
Sunday: Base miles, soso/fast speed
Monday:Sprint Workout
Tuesday: Group ride, very fast 25+ pace lines
Wednesday:Sprint Workout
Thursday: Group ride, very fast 25+
Friday:Sprint Workout
Saturday:Take day off for packing/traveling to race
Sunday: Crit Day!!

I just watched stage 8 finish with cavendesh wining, thats what i would like to do on Sunday, but without a leadout 😄

Sounds like an awful lot of high end work leading up to an important race. Remember how you do next weekend has a lot to do with what you've done in the last few months and very little to do with what you attempt this week unless you bury yourself in hard training and show up for the race exhausted.

You can't cram for cycling fitness, if you're not in pretty good shape for next weekend's race already then your best bet is to show up relatively fresh and do your best.

How much you taper depends a lot on your accumulated training load to date and whether the workout schedule you posted makes sense depends a lot on what a typical week looks like. It sure looks to me like you're trying to make up for lost time with a lot of high end speed work and that's a lousy strategy.

A couple of general peaking thoughts.

• Taper more for short intense events and less for longer endurance events. The crit sounds like the former so a bit more rest is probably in order.
  
• Taper more if you have more base to give away (higher CTL in powerspeak) and less if your training base isn't all that deep.
  
• Never take the day before a race as a complete rest day. Make sure you get on the bike for a ride that includes some short high end efforts, at least up to VO2 Max and maybe a sprint or two but make the overall ride short and easy enough that you're not hammered on race day. Failure to do an openers ride the day before a big race is a recipe for blocked up legs and poor performance.
  
• Take rest days two or more days out, not the day before.
  
• And lastly don't introduce a lot of specific high end work right before a key race. A few dedicated sprints might be the exception, but if you haven't been doing mutltiple high end days in your normal weeks then this isn't the week to start.
  

And since this is your first race in the higher category your best bet is probably to concentrate on good bike handling, conscious positioning in the pack, smooth cornering with minimum to no braking and basically riding smart. Use your group ride to work on those things if you can or consider a skills day where you find an empty industrial park or other suitable loop and really work on bike skills. You can definitely improve your cornerning, shifting and other on bike skills in the final week before a fast crit but don't expect to gain a lot of fitness during that time period.

Good luck, the SLO crit is a beauty. It's been years since I've ridden that race, but it's a great course.

Have fun and congrats on your upgrade,
-Dave

thanks for the info dave.
No im not craming or making up training. I do the group rides every week and they are always fast (local cat 2-4 racers). Sunday base miles are just a bunch of friends of mine that meet together and ride to a local destination designated humphries station or sky harbor. Just a nice way to start the week, about 35-40 miles. The different thing im doing is i need to do some sprint work on monday and wednesday (i have decided to take friday off and do 3 sprints in a 10 mile loop on saturday). Okay i havent really been doing sprint work for the past, say month or two, and have opted into doing group rides instead (usually at the end of each ride is a sprint finish of which i participate). I was just wondering if anyone had any sprintintervals or sprint workouts that they could recomend for monday and wednesday.

sunnysang said:

Hey Everyone,
First off, thanks for taking interest in my post.
Next Sunday i have a criterium (san luis obispo) i want to do real good in. For the first time, my mother will actually watch and i am very excited. It will be my first CAT 4 only race aswell.

I was wondering if someone could suggest a sprint workout (intervals, etc..) for 3 days of next week.

Here is what my schedule looks like for next week.
Sunday: Base miles, soso/fast speed
Monday:Sprint Workout
Tuesday: Group ride, very fast 25+ pace lines
Wednesday:Sprint Workout
Thursday: Group ride, very fast 25+
Friday:Sprint Workout
Saturday:Take day off for packing/traveling to race
Sunday: Crit Day!!

I just watched stage 8 finish with cavendesh wining, thats what i would like to do on Sunday, but without a leadout 😄

I don't know what your bike handling skills are like but if riding with riders who proclaimed to be CAT 3 and 4 this past weekend and saw what a f$%king debacle their descending skills were (one incident that resulted in my back wheel getting dinged up and ready for the garbage at 50mph coming down a 8300ft mountain pass) then I'd work on getting around most corners without touching the brakes and getting comfortable with riding about 6" off the back of the wheel infront whilst looking forward and not looking down.

Learning to draft and corner will help you more than sticking on an extra 5watts in a couple of weeks. Learn to be comfortable with leaning on the rider next to you and being leaned on mid-corner too - but you'll need the help of fellow riders for that one. Hit up some of the local CAT 1 and 2 guys if possible.

Pretty mad last minute schedule.

A fast group ride, then a sprint workout, then one day's rest / travel then the race and you're going to have crappy legs, I guarantee. your body will be trying to recover, and then you'll be asking a big effort from it.

If the race is really important to you you'd be far better off getting some good quality rest during the days prior, and then warming up with a few sprints the day before, or even better before the race.

Then in the race, start at the front, stay at the front. This means overtake people constantly (where possible and sensible). Crits go real fast for a while, then slow down and bunch up before the next series of attacks. Hold your position when it goes fast (usually single file with everyone at max) then when it bunches up try not to brake and find a line through the bunch towards the front. Do this every time the speed drops. Other guys will be doing this too. Be assertive, but not dangerous.

I just got dropped in 2 elite euro crits cos I was near the back....getting shafted in the corners and having to close gaps at 55km/h on the straights. Not fun.