# Number of rest days before Mt. Mitchell



## Flexnuphill (May 20, 2013)

Ok so I have survived 8 months of training without burnout or injury, the ride is this Monday. I have two more scheduled training sessions, one tomorrow and one Friday. The question is do I eek out one more noodle ride on Saturday or do I leave well enough alone and enjoy doing absolutely nothing related to cycling for the weekend. 

PS I have met my goal of on the trainer FTP tesing of 200w last week.


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## crit_boy (Aug 6, 2013)

Unfortunately, you are in the best place to answer the question. Everyone responds a bit differently to training and rest. 

After 8 months of training for an event you should have a decent idea of how you feel after rest days, easy rides, etc. Don't overthink everything now. 

I prefer to do very easy rides right before an event. I don't like how I feel after multiple days off the bike. But, if you feel fine after days off, then take a couple days off. 

Also, don't put any new stuff on your bike or in your body (e.g. no new tires, no new electrolyte mix, etc.). I "knew" that advice, but ignored it. Now, I do know better.


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## Flexnuphill (May 20, 2013)

Putting the question on "paper" was what I needed to do. Your right crit_boy, I shouldn't over think it. The fitness I've aquired isn't going away in two days. I've had to get up at 5 am everyday to squeeze in my training, 6am on Sat/Sun is going to feel like a vacation. I'm going to put a second bottle cage on my bike, does that count as new stuff?


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## ericm979 (Jun 26, 2005)

What is a noodle ride?

Endurance fitness lasts longer than fitness for more intense efforts. You can cut back on training stress by cutting out or down on the endurance training and keeping the intervals. But with less than a week off you won't lose much sprint fitness from not doing the intervals (and you don't need it for Mt Mitchell).

What I do when I have an A race that's an endurance sufferfest starting on Saturday is to make the Sunday before shorter or even take it off if my training stress is high. I'll do a shorter easier workout on Tuesday (2 vs 3 hours; sitting in the back of the group ride on the climbs). Wendsday is easier than usual and is when I test the race bike setup. I'll take Thursday off. Friday I'll do a short ~1 hour easy ride. I'll do a couple short hard efforts if the race will have them; for a pure endurance race or ride I'll skip them. 

I prefer to come into an A race with a stress balance that's around zero.

After a day off my legs sometimes feel heavy and slow; the ride the day before is to "open up" the legs.


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## pedalbiker (Nov 23, 2014)

If I rest, I do so two days out from the event so I can do a 1-2 hour ride with some openers the day before. I never go into an event after a full-on rest day as their are physiological issues at play that may leave you with slightly less than your number one best performance. 

I think the more experienced and the more trained you are, though, the more pronounced those issues. If you're a relatively newer rider who typically only rides a few times a week, that probably won't be much of an issue. 


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## Flexnuphill (May 20, 2013)

ericm979 said:


> What is a noodle ride?


Yeah, most people call them recovery rides.


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## MMsRepBike (Apr 1, 2014)

Rest.

Rest now. 

Stop "training."

The work is done, rest is very underrated. Rest is NOT going to harm you or slow you down or cause you to lose anything.


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## Flexnuphill (May 20, 2013)

pedalbiker said:


> I think the more experienced and the more trained you are, though, the more pronounced those issues. If you're a relatively newer rider who typically only rides a few times a week, that probably won't be much of an issue. 


I'm not exactly a new rider but yes I rode/trained 3-6hrs per week. My goal is not to be the first one up the hill in my age group but do the ride in 7-8 hrs.


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## Flexnuphill (May 20, 2013)

You're right, I did my last set of intervals this morning and I'm tired... time to stop.


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## apn (Mar 1, 2012)

Additional "training" now isn't going to make any difference to how you perform next Monday.

Most people use the _taper_ week (prior to an event) for a couple of recovery/noodle rides, just to keep the legs loose etc.

I did a big event last Sun (112 miles, ~13,000') and my last group ride was 8 days before. In the taper week, I did a couple of easy rides on Wed and Thu, then nothing up to the event.

I didn't have time for a recovery ride on Mon, but felt great on Tue morning, so went out on a regular 30 mile loop, and did it hard, securing a PB.

I did Mitchell in 2013 and echo the advice not to try anything new for a long duration ride/event. 

Sure, you can use a new jersey, helmet etc., but absolutely don't change any contact points; pedals, cleats, shoes, bibs, saddle, bars, tape etc. OR food/drink. This is NOT the time to experiment; do that when the stakes are lower. Also setup your bike a few days early and test it on the recovery ride to ensure it's going well.

We had 6 guys out last Sunday. Other than 1 guy cramping up near the end (long history of this), there were no problems and we had only a single flat all day.


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## moose82 (Jun 4, 2012)

apn said:


> Sure, you can use a new jersey, *helmet *etc., but absolutely don't change any contact points; pedals, cleats, shoes, bibs, saddle, bars, tape etc. OR food/drink. This is NOT the time to experiment; do that when the stakes are lower. Also setup your bike a few days early and test it on the recovery ride to ensure it's going well.


Totally agree with your response with the exception of helmet. I've had some helmets, that after 3 or 4 hours, would give me a splitting headache. Personally, I wouldn't want to run that risk. Rides like Mitchell, where I'll be on the bike 5-7 hours, I am doing what I know works/is comfortable/eating what I know my body is cool with.

OP, good luck on Monday.


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