5 In-Season Training Mistakes to Avoid

Today we are describing 5 five in-season training mistakes you can avoid by listening to this podcast.

Here are the five mistakes to avoid, and I’m going to save a bonus one for last - so listen to the end!  👇

#1 Group ride 3 or more times a week (Coach Jake)

4 is a no-go, and 3 gets tough to recover from, especially if these are hard for you.  A social group ride may not count unless it is really really long.  I think it's a super-safe bet for 2 group rides per week.  We advocate for the one shorter mid-week group ride and then one longer Saturday group ride.

For gosh sakes, do not do 3 or 4 zwift group rides per week! LOL.  Bring some specificity to your training ;-) 

#2 Racing every weekend (Ricky)

Non-competitive weekends

Certainly not for Gravel, and even cross need at least one weekend, maybe 2, where you don’t race.

#3 Under recovery after a weekend of racing and travel (Zach)

2 Days On 2 Days Off Rule

Def Monday Off.  Tuesday is a maybe, maybe not.  In our sweet spot part 4 plan, we use Tuesday as the day to ride easy in zone 2 to save the legs before a harder VO2 when you are recovered on Wednesday. 

#4 Not going back to base at some point after a midseason break, even for a few weeks

Aerobic endurance training is one of the most fundamental tenants of your training! After a break, build back up your base.  You can do that by training in zones 2 - sweet or 56 - 97% of your threshold.  I like for athletes to do all those zones at once in our TSS Ride for 2-5 hours in length. It's fun, flexible, and gives the athlete to ride by feel.

Also, don’t jump right back into full gas interval training - your CTL to a dip build it back up 10-20% of your total load. This is what the original sweet spot training tip article I published in 2005 was talking about - summer sweet spot base - when you’ve already done some base and can turbo charge your base training in a shorter amount of time (because you don't have all summer)

#5 Not training specifically for your event with intervals that meet the power demands of your goal events as well as the endurance training

Let’s take Master Nationals in Albuquerque, NM - there is a hill approximately 5 minutes that makes or breaks the race.  You absolutely want to be training specifically for that 5-minute hill with Vo2 max intervals.  You absolutely want to de-emphasize threshold training with long 8 - 20 min+ climbing intervals.  Get specific and feel the benefit. 

Bonus: Trying to lose weight in the middle of the race season

We can do a whole podcast about not doing this but suffice to say, you cannot simultaneously improve and recover from your hard training and racing while in a caloric deficit. I have seen many a season go down the tubes trying to lose weight in season. Do that in your off and pre-seasons.  The weight you start the season with becomes your race weight.  Figure out other ways to improve by raising your power output from there. Do not, I repeat, do not try to lose weight during the season! 

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