This has probably been covered a million times before but my keyword searching produced little...
I'm following a Joe Friel training plan for Challenge Roth 140.6 on July 9th this year. First time attempting the full distance, though have done a bunch of 70.3 races over the last few years (plus Alpe d'Huez Long Course which probably qualifies as slightly more than a half). Aiming to finish the full distance in somewhere between 11 and 12 hrs.
The training plan gradually increases run and ride distances over the next 20 weeks (with some rest weeks of course) until I am riding 6hrs, running 1.5hrs and swimming 1.5hrs over a w/e about 5 weeks out from the race, but it does not prescribe any warm-up races or 'practice sessions' where I swim-bike-run on one day, and I'm wondering whether there is value in doing a 70.3 in the run-up to the A event?
I get that the zones I'm going to be 'racing' a 70.3 in are inevitably going to be higher than where I will end up wanting to be for the long course, but however much separate riding, running (and I guess swimming) I have done in previous race preps, actually putting it all together on race day always seems so much of a harder effort (mentally as well as physically) that I worry that the actual event is just going to feel a world apart from going for a long run one day and a long ride the next in practice...
In summary, should I just follow the plan and assume that it all comes together on race day, or is there value in doing some warm-up races over the next few months? If the latter, how many weeks before the A race would you schedule the warm-up race(s)?
I'm following a Joe Friel training plan for Challenge Roth 140.6 on July 9th this year. First time attempting the full distance, though have done a bunch of 70.3 races over the last few years (plus Alpe d'Huez Long Course which probably qualifies as slightly more than a half). Aiming to finish the full distance in somewhere between 11 and 12 hrs.
The training plan gradually increases run and ride distances over the next 20 weeks (with some rest weeks of course) until I am riding 6hrs, running 1.5hrs and swimming 1.5hrs over a w/e about 5 weeks out from the race, but it does not prescribe any warm-up races or 'practice sessions' where I swim-bike-run on one day, and I'm wondering whether there is value in doing a 70.3 in the run-up to the A event?
I get that the zones I'm going to be 'racing' a 70.3 in are inevitably going to be higher than where I will end up wanting to be for the long course, but however much separate riding, running (and I guess swimming) I have done in previous race preps, actually putting it all together on race day always seems so much of a harder effort (mentally as well as physically) that I worry that the actual event is just going to feel a world apart from going for a long run one day and a long ride the next in practice...
In summary, should I just follow the plan and assume that it all comes together on race day, or is there value in doing some warm-up races over the next few months? If the latter, how many weeks before the A race would you schedule the warm-up race(s)?