UKC

preparing for a 120km (flat) road race

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 Kimono 20 Jan 2014
next sunday.
Never really raced before.

Any advice on how i should play the next 7 days?
Have been riding quite hard the last week or so. Should i do a few more hard rides early this week and then rest for a couple of days?
Maybe ride the whole 120km course?
Or just take it easy all week??

All advice gratefully received! (apart from sarky nonsense!)
 thermal_t 20 Jan 2014
In reply to Kimono: By race do you mean race, or sportive?
OP Kimono 20 Jan 2014
In reply to thermal_t:

race
 thermal_t 20 Jan 2014
In reply to Kimono: Be in bed before 2 am? Ha! Seriously though I've only done 3 Cat4 road races, the first I got brutally spat out the back after about 20 miles and hung on in the other two. I'd agree with the hard rides earlier in the week or it's going to be too much of a shock come the raceday. I didn't totally rest before the races but kept myself gently ticking over with a couple of easy rides. I'm definitely no expert though!
OP Kimono 20 Jan 2014
In reply to Kimono:

hey, its only 10.30!!

Clue: i didn't say it was in the UK…gonna be around 30C+ here
 Enty 20 Jan 2014
In reply to Kimono:

Don't get stressed! I used to get really stressed before a race, to the point where I didn't enjoy it anymore.
I'd watch my diet during the week, no booze, taper down, get my training sopt on. Then on race day I'd be too stressed to concentrate on the race.

Two years ago i gave all that up, If I don't get the miles in the week before I don't care. I'll have a glass of wine the night before - and guess what, my results have never been as good.

Regarding your race - to consider doing 120km in 30 degrees you've obviously done the work. If it's like a French race, try to go with the front group, if you lose them you'll never get back to them unless you're with 1st and 2nd Cats who can get organised, cover any breaks you can and if the pace is too high for you in the first 15 minutes, stick with it because IT WILL calm down.

Good luck.

E
OP Kimono 20 Jan 2014
In reply to Enty:

Ok, sound advice.
The race is here in the Dominican Republic where i live and I'm used to riding hard in these temps.

I guess what I'm looking for is tips for preparation….how much and how hard should i be riding this week preceding the race?
 TimB 20 Jan 2014
In reply to Kimono:

By coincidence I was reading this last night:
http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/article/training-easy-does-it-19160/
and
http://www.trainingbible.com/bkp-all/pdf/Peaking_to_Race.pdf

The advice seems to be to reduce volume but maintain intensity at race level, without doing super-high intensity sessions. I'm probably racing next Sunday too (although not on the road, and not in the Dominican Republic) so I'm trying to taper, although I may have stuffed it up by doing a nearly full race simulation last Friday that I haven't quite recovered from yet.
OP Kimono 20 Jan 2014
In reply to TimB:

ok, i will have a good read of that…thanks!

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