3 Day stage race training

Week one of my training for the "Tour of the Catskills" is in the book, very tough week but productive. If you follow my blog, you may know that I am a member of a cycling club "Cyclo-Club" and I get the majority of my work outs and routines from this site as well as from other members.
I am currently getting guidance from the owner of Cyclo-Club Graeme Street as well as Josh Liberles whom is a Cat 1 racer and does lots of big races. Josh has given me a formula for approaching my training for this stage race, and we will be working on strategy on how to approach each stage to get the best results with in as well as over all (GC). Each race has points with in it for KOM (king of the mountain) as well as sprints. I am not strong after the climb but can climb pretty well during the climb if I expect not to come over the top and stay with the pack, which is one of the major things I am working on. So, there is a bit of strategy that goes into this type of race, as I am learning.

This week in my training I am doing a few days in a row of 60-100 mile rides and with in these rides I am going to do chunks of focused efforts, for example I may do some hill accelerations, some tempo, as well as various techniques to get pedal efficiency up.

If your wondering why I am doing this type of work out for the week, here are a few reasons. First, I have some family things planned and can get in some long rides in the morning and spend the day with the wife and kids. Then there is the base building that comes from long endurance rides, as well as getting my body into a mode of doing long harder efforts consecutive days in a row. Then there is the main reason, my wife is throwing a 40Th birthday party for me on Sunday and I plan on drinking a fair amount of booze (not something I do often) and I doubt I will be doing much riding the day after...:) and that would be right in the middle of a week long routine.

I am really jazzed up about this race and the training and learning that will come with it. Should be a great experience. So here we go full speed ahead.

Harvey

"Gunnadropya"