Big Bike Week Plan
I am planning my first ever Big Bike Week and need some input. If you've done one before please throw your 2 cents my way. Thanks!
1. Timing - I am shooting for next week which will be 14 weeks out from IM-Lou (my "A" race for the year). This would give me a "easy" week afterwards to recover before I start my 12 week IM plan. How does this timing sound?
2. Volume - My life currently affords me a lot of time to ride so I am planning on riding 7 days in a row with the following milegae targets (depending on how I feel each day).
Mon. 40 miles
Tues. 55
Wed. 55
Thurs. 30
Fri. 55
Sat. 70
Sun. 50
3. IIntensity - All riding will be in zone 1 or zone 2 (does it matter which?). And I plan on doing a couple negative split rides where I do the first have in zone 1 and the second half in zone 2.
4. Misc - I am thinking of not doing any swimming or any running the entire week. Good idea?
Thanks for any feedback you might have!!
Comments
With this kind of volume, I'd do more Z3 work. Maybe negative split with first half Z2 and come back at Z3.
Timing - Spot on
Volume/Intensity - I agree with Tucker - Slogging thru 350 miles over 7 days at just an IM pace has less value in getting you ready for your IM build then throwing in 1-2 rest days, and making your shorter days harder. This is an opportunity to build on your speed with some over-work - that is, harder efforts than you'll have on race day, laid up back to back. Specifically, warm up @ 60-70% for 30 min, then slot into 80-85% for a couple of hours and cruise home for 15-30 minutes. If you can vary the routes, with some flat and some hilly, all the better. Then, having a day or two @ 5 hours at 65-70% towards the end will nail the systemic fatigue you're looking for
Other sports - I always like to do a swim on the off day of a BBW, and do 1-2 brick runs of 20-40 minutes after a shorter bike ride. But no intensity or disrtance stuff, just getting the shoes on and working up a sweat @ EP.
Final thoughts - don't get locked into pre-determined mileage or time goals - you need to be willing to pull the plug if you can't get out of bed one morning, or start losing weight. And, fueling while riding and right after the ride are criticial to being able to keep going day after day. As well as a willingness to nap.
As an example, using your plan, you might take Thursday off from biking, and add those 30 miles to Saturday. 5-6 hours @ 70% will be a test of the mental six-pack, and if you do six rides that week, you'll find Sunday will be the big test - can you hit 2 hours @ 80-85%?
Or take another day off, and do another 100 miles instead of 50 one day, for a total of five days of biking, two long, one warm up (Monday), and two at a higher intensity, lower volume. Just don't do the same thing day after day.
Then a few days to recover from the deep fatigue is mandatory.
I don't know if you're a power guy, but during my two biggest bike weeks (which were actually Big Tri Weeks) last year, I hit 920 and 1060 TSS points of biking in seven days. those were 300-350 mile weeks. I was hitting about 1300 TSS/week bike + run, as well as swam 2 times. I'm going to try and go 10-15% higher than that this year in July and Sept.