Long Ride Event Taper Strategies?

[ols]

If you are riding a century or a double century, I was wondering what has worked well for you as a taper in the last week(s) leading up to "the day." I've done more formal marathon training than cycling training, and in running the marathon, a common suggestion is to do your last long run 3 weeks, or at a minimum 2 weeks before marathon day, but I havent found much similar advice for cyclists. At least one on-line schedule (the one I've been following actually) suggests you ride 75% of the event distance one week before (!) For a double century, this means you are recommended to ride 150 miles one week before the ride day.

My specific situation is that I'm signed up for the Deathride in 10 days or so (129 miles and lots of climbing) and just trying to figure out how long to ride my long ride this weekend. Last weekend was 85 miles, and this weekend should be 96 miles if I stick with the 75% suggestion... Any better advice? Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

[boulder_courier]

A century a week before your 129 mile ride should be fine. Just make sure you recover after the ride. Complete rest the nest day is fine. The following day do active recovery by riding for an hour at abot 60 - 65% of max HR. You could probably also do a ride of about 50 miles during the week say on tues or weds. Use thurs and fri as active recovery days - say 1 hour rides at 60/65% max (easy rides). I feel it is important to do active recovery, and not inactive - you'll feel better when it comes time to do your long ride on the weekend.

I ride Brevets (200km,300km,400km,600km) and the rides are spaced 2 weeks apart to promote recovery from each event. I buld up for this series by doing 50 - 75 mile rides each weekend about a month before the 200km and maintain my fitness by riding 3-4 times during the week, e.g.,

Saturday - 200km brevet
Sunday - nothing or 1 hour easy (Zone 1 60/65% max HR)
Monday - 1 hour Zone 1
Tuesday - Intervals 4 X 4/6 min at LT (Zone 4/5)
Wednesday - 50 -75 miles Zone 3
Thursday - 50 miles varying HR depending on recovery
Friday - 1 hour Zone 1
Saturday - Long Ride 75 mile+

Hope this helps. Have fun -

Jim

[Lost Weekend]

Hey OLS, I'm doing the ride next weekend as well. I'll probably ride hard on saturday , easy on sunday, hard on monday and then rest till the event. The hard part for me is to taper my beer intake,but you better beleive I'm going to indulge saturday night If I complete this $#^%# ride!?! Best of luck to you. :beer:

[ols]

Boulder Courier and Lost Weekend: Thanks for the input! 75% of the ride it will be. A link I just found to ultracycling.com also says the 75% rule applies to any event up to 24 hours, which seems to make sense, they just dont say when it should ideally take place. I would have expected a training plan to have a 75% ride more like 2 weeks out with a 50% long ride the weekend before. Guess I need to finish reading the Joe Friel book...

btw, Lost Weekend, I'll be on a bright orange Kirk out there. Have a great ride as well.

[Lost Weekend]

Hey ols, I'll keep an eye out for you. I'll be on the st ottrott in either a green sierra nevada or green dos xx jersey. Should be a great ride!