Fingers crossed we’re going to finish our season with an attempt at 80km. Estrid had 2 weeks off after her 64km and that gave us 4 weeks of training before needing to taper for the next competition. Unfortunately of those 4 weeks I have been away every single weekend, either working or seeing family so our usual training schedule has been a little disrupted.
However, Estrid didn’t seem to struggle at her 64km and we had a very decent riding speed so I figured she only needed to maintain her current fitness level. We could potentially reduce our speed if need be to allow for more miles in the tank but if Avon Valley was anything to go by, she had plenty left anyway.
Maintenance training is actually pretty different to trying to improve. You don’t need as high a frequency and you can take slightly longer rest periods between sessions. Estrid has been on a 6 week block of 2 days on 1 day off most the season with a switch of training focus every 6 weeks and one week off between blocks. So we switched it up so that she had 2 days on, one day off, 2 days on, 2 days off over August, there have been a couple of occasions where she’s had to have 3 days off or just one day of training. This has also meant that the training sessions have had a slightly higher intensity to make up for the reduction in frequency. Overall it’s been ok and I’m confident she’s more than fit enough for an 80km and it just shows that there are so many ways of achieving the same outcome.
Beth Endurance 