Recovery and training two weeks between 600K and 1200K

[Christian]

Hi everyone

I rode my club's 600k this weekend; in less than two weeks I will be riding (and hopefully even finishing) the Cascade 1200.  I've done the full series this spring, a fleche, and an extra 300k in addition to my routine riding.  I won't be able to do any more long rides before the 1200, nor do I really want to, to tell the truth. 

So, I am looking for advice/suggestions/what have you on how to combine a training with recovery and rest b/w now and June 23.  I do know that what works for some won't work for others but I am ready to listen to any and all advice and then perhaps the thread will be of value to others as well. 

Thanks in advance.

Christian

[Jan Heine]

My answer is simple: Don't train. You are done with training. Rest
and get excited about riding your bike again.

If you feel the need, go for a few short spins with friends. If you
feel even more need, do a few short (30 second max) sprints.

The best thing you can do now is be well rested and excited about
riding your bike when you line up at the start. See you there.

Jan Heine
Editor
Bicycle Quarterly
http://www.bikequarterly.com

Follow our blog at http://janheine.wordpress.com/

[Jim Logan]

Ditto what Jan said. But if you stiffen up as you recover from the 600, do stretches or recovery yoga to regain flexibility. For me, that would happen perhaps twice in the 2 weeks. Otherwise taper and recover.

Jim Logan

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[Taylor]

As others have stated, you shouldn't do any real training. This is your taper period, and you'll do much better with fresh legs at the 1200k start.

Before a 1200k I always do a few things: 

1. Bank up on sleep. Get an hour or two more sleep per night whenever possible, and force yourself to sleep in a few days before the event. This will pay off during the event or in helping cope with the travel and stress of prep for the ride. 

2. Take it easy on the coffee. I normally drink coffee all day at work, but this means that when I need caffeine at 2am during an event it has barely any effect on me. Getting some of that tolerance out of your system will help it work when it counts. 

3. Stretch often. Should always stretch, but I frequently get lazy and don't, I make sure to start again for a bit before every long event.

4. Eat ALOT for the week or so before. People carbo load for 2 hour events. Imagine how much you'll be buying through in your 70-90 hour effort.

5. Get all your stuff together now. Realizing you forgot something two days before the event sucks.

Good luck!

[Christian]

Thanks for the replies.  This is all good to know.  I will take it easy--I'm pretty good at that--get lots of rest and do some yoga  I am not really inclined to ride much now so it'll be easy to stay away from the bike.  Good tip on the caffeine: before the 600K I dropped back to 1 cup a day (from 2) and it was noticeable especially at the start of the second day. 

And Jan: I'll see you there if only at the beginning and end. 

Best wishes,

Christian

On Tuesday, June 12, 2012 8:06:15 PM UTC-4, Christian wrote:

[russell...@yahoo.com]

I agree you do not need to train.  If training means riding very fast, doing intervals, racing, climbing steep hills repetitively.  But you should ride your bike frequently right up to a day or two before the ride.  20-30-40-50-60 miles at a time.  Whatever, just stay on the bike.  If you don't keep exercising, your muscles will deteriorate.  Any conditioning you have from the 600k will be gone by the time the 1200k comes if you don't keep exercising.

[Jan Heine]

At 10:22 AM -0700 6/13/12, russell...@yahoo.com wrote:

I agree you do not need to train.  If training means riding very fast, doing intervals, racing, climbing steep hills repetitively.  But you should ride your bike frequently right up to a day or two before the ride.  20-30-40-50-60 miles at a time.  Whatever, just stay on the bike.  If you don't keep exercising, your muscles will deteriorate.  Any conditioning you have from the 600k will be gone by the time the 1200k comes if you don't keep exercising.

It may be that different riders respond to rest differently, but for me, staying mostly off the bike works best. I still do commute, and I'll go for a pleasant ride with friends on the weekend.

I don't know how fast muscles "deteriorate," but the effect of rest is two-fold:

1. your muscles rest, recover and build strength.

2. your motivation recovers. After not riding for 10 days, I usually am eager to get on my bike. That is an important factor for a long ride.

I don't find that 10 days off the bike make me lose my form. On the contrary, I usually feel stronger and ride better.

[Dodger]

Russell - Glad to know that works for you. From my experience I would handle it exactly as Jan and Taylor have said. Rest and eat. It's taper time, you've done the work. And there is no way you will lose your fitness from a SR series in two weeks.

Any ride over 2 hours at this point is totally unnecessary and may be counter productive. You could include some short anaerobic work if you're looking for a "fast" finish in the Cascade, but since 1200's are not sprint events I don't think you even need to worry about top end at this point. You might even ride without a computer, just a watch, and go on routes you don't normally ride to freshen up your perspective. Find some new coffee shops or ice cream parlors.

Also, there's not really anything wrong with even picking up a couple of pounds going into a 1200. It's really an eating exercise as much as anything. I can digest about 300 cal/hr on the bike. I'm burning more than that. The reality is that I will deplete much of my stored calories over the course of the ride, so it works for me to bank food as well as sleep ahead of time.

If you really need something to do, you can work on your bike. Just be done in time to get a couple of easy rides in to make sure everything works the way it's supposed to. And of course, this isn't the time to change *anything* on your bike.

I would love to hear from John Hughes on this as well.

Good luck and have fun!

[Bill Olsen]

Christian - The advice you've received from others is good, although the last time I rode the Cascade I rode the Shenandoah two weeks earlier.  The hills were great to get me in shape for the Cascade as my daily commute (15 miles each way) doesn't have a lot of climbing.  You're correct in your assessment that what works for some, won't work for others.  I'm just happy riding my bike.  For this years' Last Chance I plan to "taper" with the Taste of Carolina and get in a 200K on the following Saturday before leaving for Denver on Monday.

Bill

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Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2012 17:06:15 -0700
From: christian....@gmail.com
To: ran...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [Randon] Recovery and training two weeks between 600K and 1200K

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