There’s a fast semi-pro cycling team in town. Real fast dudes.
There’s a weekly 50 mile group ride every Saturday with four fast sections and the rest of the ride cruises at 20 mph.
Whenever the semi-pro team has a big race on a Sunday, they all show up for the 50 mile group ride Saturday.
I’m curious what the rationale behind it is.
Perhaps after a week of rest and tapering, the group ride is a good way to get the legs moving and the accelerations keep the legs fresh? I’m wondering about my own tapers this season, and if I should experiment doing a 50 mile ride the day before, say, a half ironman. That seems really foolish to me, so I am wondering how these cyclists do it. Any thoughts?
I used to do a similar thing when cycling only. At the time I was riding around 400 miles/week; two rides being training criteriums that often averaged over 30MPH (read - fast, hard, with lots of accelerations). After a few easy days, the legs don’t have that snappy feel like they normally do. One easy ride, with a few strong accelerations, takes care of that. The key is that overall the ride is an easy ride, but with some short intensity bursts. So for them, this is likely good, the ride isn’t too long and the number of accelerations small
For you, you are likely not riding 400 miles/week or more; as a triathlete doing HIM I guess you might be riding 200 miles/week or less. You are also not likely doing the amount of interval work they are doingd. In which case, that ride is going to take a toll on you and leave you flat for the race the next day.
I still do short intensity work in my taper week prior to a race. But now it is something like 3-5 accelerations on the bike lasting 1-3 minutes, and maybe 3 or 4 half miles at race pace.
The easiest way to summarize this: If the workout would normally leave you feeling even moderatly exerted, it is too much the day before a race.