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Re: training well, racing crap [IamSpartacus] [ In reply to ]
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Sounds like you're racing 10-13 hours a week, not training. "a week of zone 2"?! Zone 2 should be the every-week plan. Racing every or every other week is only sustainable for so long, and certainly not for 3 months straight for most of us before we lose significant fitness. You're likely doing too much intensity (race-pace) during the week plus racing. When you are racing you are not training.

You need, at minimum, a brief off-season/transition and time rebuilding your base. There's no quick fix, the only real fix is some time down (even if its a week of nothing or very low intensity) and then build back up (Don't just return to the same old thing). Pick up hiking (or anything else long-low intensity) and trade it in to your schedule for a while and get lots of Zone 1 for a month to change it up, be able to take a look around and remember why you enjoy this stuff. Then do a month of largely Zone 1/2, at least. Then revisit a training and racing plan.

No more group stuff or very little of it, because most of the time it ends up being a race every training session. You also don't want to rely on the "peer pressure" of training.racing club stuff all the time; find your own motivation to train/race by yourself most if not all the time. Max 1-2 groups per week, cut out racing. Race for yourself, not a club so that you are not racing to someone else's expectations, just yours.

Good luck

Matt Leu, M.S. Kinesiology
San Pedro Fit Works, Los Angeles, CA
Endurance Athlete and Coach
Consistency/time=results
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Re: training well, racing crap [ironmatt85] [ In reply to ]
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ironmatt85 wrote:
Sounds like you're racing 10-13 hours a week, not training. "a week of zone 2"?! Zone 2 should be the every-week plan. Racing every or every other week is only sustainable for so long, and certainly not for 3 months straight for most of us before we lose significant fitness. You're likely doing too much intensity (race-pace) during the week plus racing. When you are racing you are not training.

You need, at minimum, a brief off-season/transition and time rebuilding your base. There's no quick fix, the only real fix is some time down (even if its a week of nothing or very low intensity) and then build back up (Don't just return to the same old thing). Pick up hiking (or anything else long-low intensity) and trade it in to your schedule for a while and get lots of Zone 1 for a month to change it up, be able to take a look around and remember why you enjoy this stuff. Then do a month of largely Zone 1/2, at least. Then revisit a training and racing plan.

No more group stuff or very little of it, because most of the time it ends up being a race every training session. You also don't want to rely on the "peer pressure" of training.racing club stuff all the time; find your own motivation to train/race by yourself most if not all the time. Max 1-2 groups per week, cut out racing. Race for yourself, not a club so that you are not racing to someone else's expectations, just yours.

Good luck

I like that. You are right. I have altered the rest of the season and doing races away from other people and no club stuff. Mentally burnt from that as wel as physically. And reduced the amount of racing a tonne. Thanks for the input
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Re: training well, racing crap [IamSpartacus] [ In reply to ]
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Last time I had a prolonged period where I raced every weekend was back in college, and that was about four months where every weekend was an omnium (ITT, TTT, RR, Crit).

Aside from the racing, during that period I did maximum of one hard day per week. At first it felt weird and felt like too little, bc at least being tired feels reassuring that you’re doing things right. But, by the end of the season I had seen the wisdom of it
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