I’ll be taking a 3 week rock climbing/backpacking trip soon. I’m in top racing condition, for me, and wondering how much fitness I can expect to lose after a 12-18hr/wk base, currently training 10-13 hr/wk. Now that I have no more races scheduled until after the trip, I’m finding it hard to put in all the workouts and at the prescribed intensity as when an event is lingering ahead. Will forcing myself to do all the work by my Ultrafit coach shorten the comback time after the trip? Or will doing a less strict regimen for the next 2 1/2 weeks make any difference come August 13th? Thanks.
Fortunately you aren’t talking about total inactivity, since 3 weeks of that would cause almost complete detraining. The best way to maintain fitness with less time is to just do the high intensity work and skip the endurance. Hopefully you can get your HR up with backpacking enough to fulfill that requirement.
With three weeks off unless you ride the TdF what you do before won’t make much difference in how you come out the other side. You sound a bit burned out anyway, so just enjoy yourself and maybe you will find yourself running up all the hills with your backpack by the end and feel more like resuming more intense training when you get back.
Thanks for that info.