# Back to back race weekends



## BuenosAires (Apr 3, 2004)

Looking for a little advice for how to taper for back to back race weekends. I have a 50 mile road race Sep 9 and a shorter, but hillier 33 mile road race on Sep 16th. These are my 2 "A" races for the year.

I am a 47 year old Cat 4 whose ridden about 4400 miles this year, with most weeks averaging 8-9 hours. In preparation for these races, i've upped my training the last month to 10-11 hours/week.

Normally, i do a recovery week about every 6 weeks to avoid burnout and overtraining. That would be this week for me, but with these 2 races 4-5 weeks out, i'm wondering if i should skip the recovery week and then try to taper a bit starting the week of the first race. I'm feeling pretty good right now, but don't want to get overtrained. On the other hand, i will need to be at my best to have a shot at a podium.

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.


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## steelbikerider (Feb 7, 2005)

Chappell Hill and Fort Hood? Go back to 8-9 hours/week, 1 longer 3 hour ride and 2 shorter 90-120 min rides with intervals, otherwise do recovery rides. Remember that Chappell Hill will have 2 big efforts of 2-4 minutes on the loop and lots of big efforts on the last 3 miles to the finish with a long uphill sprint. Fort hood has 2 big efforts of 3-5 minutes per lap wth lots of false flats, wind and heat


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## Srode (Aug 19, 2012)

I'm not a coach but this is the way I see it - Full recovery from your first race without losing ground is what you want - You aren't going to move your aerobic capacity any, you just need to keep the power there without adding training load but instead dropping your ATL. 

I would do a day off, then a light spin (zone 1, 40 minutes or so), then a short set of say 5x 3 min power intervals, spin zone 1 again 40 minutes, a short day of Tempo, maybe 1x20 plus warm up and cool down, then a last day of then light spin . Listen to your body on the 5x3s.


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## BuenosAires (Apr 3, 2004)

Yeah, Chappell Hill and Fort Hood. Hopefully it cools off a little before then.


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