@ryan
Hope you don’t mind me asking here, as a future event that popped onto our race calendar is similar to the 4-day tour we’ve discussed in this topic. Us fellas in the southern hemisphere end our summer racing season at the end of April, before things slow down for our winter. As a result my ATP that I use runs from mid-May to mid-April rather than Jan to Dec like you guys do. Calendar week 20 is my week 01, as the first A-event is 27 weeks later.
Below is the original annual training plan (top image), which is/was geared towards the spring A-event in mid November. The 7 club riders I’m coaching have identified a 4-day race in some of the hilliest terrain we have (4-hour drive by car) which is at the end of Base2, and start of Base3. It’s a 2-man team event, of which I am the 8th person to complete the 4x 2-man teams. I know that it will be racing, rather than base training, which is why I’m thinking of changing the ATP to suit. COVID has forced some organisers to stage events at a different time of the year, when the “infection waves” were low; this happens to be one of those events.
So, here’s the question:
Would you think a “4-5 day, block training” style-plan, with 3 weeks of low intensity following the Tour (with the single HIIT session each week) would be better than rearranging the annual plan (below image, v1) to make this an A-event? The tour is as follows:
- Stage 1: 112Km | 2,397m elevation
- Stage 2: 72Km | 1,546m elevation
- Stage 3: 104Km | 2,109m elevation
- Stage 4: 32Km TT | 606m elevation
If ATP v1 is better, it would mean having 2 weeks of rest, 2 weeks of preparation, then straight into the 3rd week of Base, followed by two blocks of Build before Race prep for the original A-event in mid-November.
What are your, and anyone else for that matter, thoughts and ideas?
The weekly hours/planned TSS is also showing, to give an idea of the progression required.
Current plan
Revised plan
