# Intervals before racing?



## OutOfBreath (Aug 29, 2007)

I recently picked up "The Time Crunched Cyclist" by Chris Carmichael, the basis of this program is to make the most out of the limited time I have on the bike. For this reason, the program is designed with lots of intervals of different lengths and intensities.

My racing schedule consists of racing cross on Sundays. But, the program has some type of intervals every Saturday. This seems to not work with my racing schedule. It doesn't seem that I would want to build that amount of lactic acid in my legs the day before a race. 

My thought is to continue to follow the program during the week and flipflop the prescribed workouts on the weekend days, essentially making Saturdays a 90 min group ride day and using cross racing as my weekend day of interval training. 

What do you think?


----------



## tomk96 (Sep 24, 2007)

depending on what the intervals are, you may want to move them up in the week, such as thurs.


----------



## Alex_Simmons/RST (Jan 12, 2008)

Lactic acid (well blood lactate really) is almost all dissipated within an hour of ceasing exercise, so that's not likely to be your problem (not that BL is a problem any way - that in itself isa myth). But you may well be fatigued after a hard day.

How high a priority are the races? Why not try two hard days in a row? Sometimes you go better on the 2nd of two hard days.

Or perhaps get a plan that does actually suit the racing you do?


----------



## OutOfBreath (Aug 29, 2007)

tomk96 said:


> depending on what the intervals are, you may want to move them up in the week, such as thurs.


Yeah, I am already doing intervals on Thursdays as well.


----------



## OutOfBreath (Aug 29, 2007)

Alex_Simmons/RST said:


> How high a priority are the races? Why not try two hard days in a row? Sometimes you go better on the 2nd of two hard days.
> 
> Or perhaps get a plan that does actually suit the racing you do?


Races are always a priority, nobody shows up to bring anything but their "A" game. 

I may try an experiment with the 2 hard days in a row. I guess I don't know until I try.

I would love to get a rider specific plan, but unfortunately the funds don't allow this. So for now, the books and random questions will have to do.

Thanks for the help!


----------



## Creakyknees (Sep 21, 2003)

I'm a fan of 2 hard days in a row, and 3 when life permits - google up on "block training"

For the typical racer, 2-days are good training for the big race weekend, and it's a big morale bonus to know on Sunday that you can go hard again.


----------



## iliveonnitro (Feb 19, 2006)

OutOfBreath said:


> Races are always a priority, nobody shows up to bring anything but their "A" game.
> 
> I may try an experiment with the 2 hard days in a row. I guess I don't know until I try.
> 
> ...


You missed Alex's point. You cannot be 100% for every race and still have enough fitness to win them all. In other words, you cannot taper for every race of the year and expect to do well in all of them.

You have to sacrifice less important races ("train through them") in order to be fast for the ones that you care more about. Sometimes that involves doing intervals the day before/after a race.


----------



## pretender (Sep 18, 2007)

OutOfBreath said:


> Races are always a priority, nobody shows up to bring anything but their "A" game.


You can't be rested for every race and expect to keep your fitness over a two or three month season.

It's pretty typical for guys to be all pumped and raring to go for the early season cross races, then when the important ones (state champs, etc) come around they have let their fitness drop. That's when the smart racer is peaking and starts beating guys that were beating him earlier in the season.


----------

