Planning MTB XC Season 2019

Hi everyone, I ask you a hand for planning my next MTB season.

Also this year I will participate to Xc Mountaibike championship based on 6 stages.

the first race is scheduled for March 17 then:
2/6 - 25 April
3/6 - 26 May
4/6 - 2 June
5/6 - 16 June
6/6 - 14 July

I started my preparation with TR in October with the two blocks of Sweet Spot - Low Volume. Now I’m in the first week of General Build - Low Volume.

I expect to finish the GB the first week of March, except for unforeseen events, I’dd start Cross-Country Olympic - Low Volume just the week of the first race.

The end of the specialty phase is scheduled one week after the 2nd race, specifically the first week of May.

I started the preparation before the calendar was known, so I decided to choose the 3rd race of May 26th as A race, also because the third, fourth and fifth races are the closest. Is it right as a choice?

According to this hypothesis I should finish the 28 weeks, three weeks before the A race… how should I manage these three weeks?

Thank you all and sorry if I have asked trivial questions but it is my first year of TR.

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Yes, that will work.

It sounds like you just chose an A race to set up your calendar, but it’s not truly an A race, but rather you want to be the fittest you can be for all the races, is that correct?

If so, you can add more weeks of specialty to hold on to your fitness “peak”. The last two weeks of Specialty have a built in taper, so if you don’t need a two week taper, adjust the plan accordingly.

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Exact! It is a championship, so they are all important races in equal measure. My reasoning was to identify the moment in which a possible peak of form concurred with several possible races.

I’m not clear about the cone you’re talking about, but anyway when April arrives, we’ll see how to set ourselves up.

Thank’s!

Hey there!

It can be really tricky to balance a long race season like that where every race is counted towards your overall points. If I were you, this is how I would set up my training through your race season:

General Build (Weeks 1-7)
XC Olympic (Weeks 7-8)
March 17th- Race #1
General Build (Weeks 4-8)
April 25- Race #2
XC Olympic (Weeks 1-3, 8)
May 26- Race #3
XC Olympic (Week 8)
June 2 - Race #4
XC Olympic (Weeks 7-8)
June 16- Race #5
XC Olympic (Weeks 5-8)
July 14- Race #6

You’ll notice that I placed a recovery week or a taper week before each race. This will help you to make sure that you are primed and ready for your event, not overly fatigued from your training. I also added an additional Build portion to help you extend your season and get faster and faster as the races progress.

I hope this helps, let me know if you have any further questions!

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Perfect, I will follow your advice, grazie :grin:

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Hi guys, we’re almost there!
in two weeks I have the first mtb xc race.
In front of me I have the last two weeks of short build power before beginning cross country specific phase, the last of which discharge.

According to you, I have to leave everything unchanged or:

  1. next week I insert in mtb outputs race pace and then leave the exhaust week before the race?

  2. I train normally next week and replace the week of exhaust with outputs (max 2) in mtb to simulate the race pace?

Thanks again for the valuable advice

ps. ftp is going up;)