Tapering the week before a Century

Bruce L said:

I've been training hard for an upcoming century ride. I know one should taper the training prior to the ride. What would be the best traing plan the week before the race?

It's hard to answer this question without knowing what kind of hours you put in training normally. Are you racing the century or riding the century?

About 75% on hours is usually my rule of thumb in a taper week. But this can vary greatly based on a large number of items. Taper week might usually involve active recovery rides, or rides that are largely comprised of active recovery. Maybe rides which challenge technique more than pace. Cornering, descending, etc...

How many hours do you already spend on the bike each week?

NomadVW said:

It's hard to answer this question without knowing what kind of hours you put in training normally. Are you racing the century or riding the century?

About 75% on hours is usually my rule of thumb in a taper week. But this can vary greatly based on a large number of items. Taper week might usually involve active recovery rides, or rides that are largely comprised of active recovery. Maybe rides which challenge technique more than pace. Cornering, descending, etc...

How many hours do you already spend on the bike each week?

First of all I want to do a personal best that is 5:30 or less. I've been doing about 200 weeks for last three weeks and ride about five days a week. I would say 15-17 hrs a week.

Bruce L said:

First of all I want to do a personal best that is 5:30 or less. I've been doing about 200 weeks for last three weeks and ride about five days a week. I would say 15-17 hrs a week.

That's a pretty good size amount of hours. Figuring 5 1/2 hours for the century, I would have about 5-6 other hours the rest of the week in the schedule. If you're comfortable with 5 days a week, I'd keep the five days and just do rides of 1-2 hours on those days. A couple 1-1 1/2 hour recovery spins, a good tempo day in the middle somewhere of about 2 hours.

YMMV, and I'm not a coach.

NomadVW said:

That's a pretty good size amount of hours. Figuring 5 1/2 hours for the century, I would have about 5-6 other hours the rest of the week in the schedule. If you're comfortable with 5 days a week, I'd keep the five days and just do rides of 1-2 hours on those days. A couple 1-1 1/2 hour recovery spins, a good tempo day in the middle somewhere of about 2 hours.

YMMV, and I'm not a coach.

Thanks