Cycling- Help me build an effective bike focus week

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2011-02-26 7:38 AM

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Ohio
Subject: Cycling- Help me build an effective bike focus week
I looking for some guidance on putting together a bike focused week during the middle of June. My wife is going out of town and taking the kids so I'll have an entire week to myself. I decided it can best be spent in the saddle. Here's a little background. I'm training for IMKY. I've finished two IM's in the past (2009 season) with bike splits of 6:07 (on a hilly course) and 5:49 (on a fairly flat course). By the time June 11th rolls around I'll have 2 century rides in for the year and have completed TTT in Ohio. I'll have 8 days all to myself, so time is not an issue. Here's what my plan calls for but I'm willing to change it:

Sat June 11- R 2:15
June 12- B 7 hrs
June 13- Off or light strength
June 14- R 45 min sprints
June 15- B 90 min, 90+ cadence
June 16- S 45 min, R 30 min
June 17- Off
June 18- S- 1:15 (Form), R- 60 min
June 19- B- 2 hrs

June 13th to 19th is supposed to be a recovery week for me. I'm more than willing to cut my total training time the week before to accommodate a heaver bike week during the 13-19 and of course I'll amend the training for the week following to turn that into a rest week. But I'm looking for suggestions. Speed work on the bike? Go and hammer out 60-70 miles five of the 8 days? What do you say cycling gurus?

Thanks!

Edited by David tri's 2011-02-26 7:39 AM

2011-02-27 3:44 AM
in reply to: #3373402


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Subject: RE: Cycling- Help me build an effective bike focus week

I am by no means a cycling guru, but here's two observations.  If you went under 6 hours in an IM, I don't think there is a need for a 7 hour bike.  Second, the best part about a solo week like this is the extra time to recover and rest after tough workouts.  This means you can probably tolerate more training stress, and I think the best bang for your buck there would be 4 or 5 pretty tough rides of 3-5 hours in length. 

2011-02-27 10:19 AM
in reply to: #3374053

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Subject: RE: Cycling- Help me build an effective bike focus week
I personally, am a big fan of treating a week like that like a training camp and going for more workouts (assuming it fits with anything else you might have going on). get out in the morning, an EASY midday one, nap, then go for the afternoon/evening workout.

and agreed, you can tolerate more training for a week if you have the time to recover and its only for a short period of time.
Think about spring break training trips a lot of high school and college teams make to kick start their seasons.
2011-02-27 10:42 AM
in reply to: #3373402

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Subject: RE: Cycling- Help me build an effective bike focus week
I'm not a bike guru, so take this FWIW.

If it were me, I'd bike twice a day, every day.  Once relatively easy for an hour or so, once pretty hard for a couple of hours.  Swim at lunch.  Run easy off of the easy bike just to maintain run fitness -- no hard running this week.  I'd ditch the 7 hour ride and turn it into a 5 hour hammer-fest.  You want that to be real quality, so I'd move it back a day so that you're recovered from the long run, but not (yet!) shelled from all of the biking.  Second ride that day is an evening spin on the trainer for just 30 minutes, easy all the way.

If you are determined to take a day off, why not the day after your long run?

Obviously what I described is very far from a recovery week!  You'd likely need to back off the following week.

Have fun with your personal training camp!
2011-02-27 2:13 PM
in reply to: #3374245

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Subject: RE: Cycling- Help me build an effective bike focus week
Experior - 2011-02-27 9:42 AM

I'm not a bike guru, so take this FWIW.

If it were me, I'd bike twice a day, every day. Once relatively easy for an hour or so, once pretty hard for a couple of hours. Swim at lunch. Run easy off of the easy bike just to maintain run fitness -- no hard running this week. I'd ditch the 7 hour ride and turn it into a 5 hour hammer-fest. You want that to be real quality, so I'd move it back a day so that you're recovered from the long run, but not (yet!) shelled from all of the biking. Second ride that day is an evening spin on the trainer for just 30 minutes, easy all the way.

If you are determined to take a day off, why not the day after your long run?

Obviously what I described is very far from a recovery week! You'd likely need to back off the following week.

Have fun with your personal training camp!


Yeah something like this,

Or like we over spring break, hit a hard morning ride, some climbs or something, and then in the afternoon find local ggroup rides to do.


I'd also personally throw this week ad the end of a few harder weeks so you can back off a bit after and not have it wreck the overall plan
2011-02-27 6:08 PM
in reply to: #3373402

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Subject: RE: Cycling- Help me build an effective bike focus week
Thanks guys, you've given me something to chew on. Dave, I think I need to call you and bounce a few ideas off you.

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