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MTBRaceNews.com originally posted this Q&A article.

Question: I am a reasonably successful Cat-1 racer. My work sends me on week long trips once a month. Usually without a bike. How do I maintain my fitness during these week long trips?

Answer: Business travels present significant changes to the normal day to day that you’re accustomed to, therefore it’s no doubt that time away from home can be stressful.  Not only will the weeklong trips affect your normal training routine, but they can also impact your nutrition and sleep quality.  All of these factors affect your well-being as an athlete so it’s important to give due consideration so that your fitness can be best maintained.  Being that you’ve had success at the Cat I level already, I’m assuming that you’ve got a strong foundation to work from and your training must go relatively well while you’re home.  By planning ahead we can improve your consistency so that you can more seamlessly resume normal training once back from the trips.

Provided that the week-long trips are scheduled in advance, it’s possible to have them coincide with a period focused primarily on recovery.  By generating an adequate training overload in the two to three weeks prior to your departure, there will be lesser concern given to the volume of training while you are away.  Instead workouts can be brief and include just enough intensity to keep you feeling fresh.  In most instances it is possible to use the hotel gym facilities. However basic they might be, you can often find an exercise bike that’ll help get you through.  It’s important to keep exercise built into your day, and often first thing in the morning can be the best time for a brief workout.  Even if it is just 30-45 minutes, it’ll be enough to suffice.  Including some interval training can help the time pass and the intensity will ease your transition back to your normal training load.

While the training workload is low it’s beneficial to consider other factors that affect your cycling performance and understand how the trips might impact them.  Nutrition is often the biggest struggle while away from home since meals are often determined by convenience rather than quality.  Do whatever is possible to plan ahead so that you have healthy options available and when healthy options might not exist, it’s especially important to monitor your portion size. Even though you might not be able to train as you would normally, you still have the option to make healthy nutritional choices. Starting with a healthy breakfast (along with your quick workout) is the best way to start the day.

It’s common to put in long days during business trips, so it’s especially important to relax and get adequate rest.  If possible, try sticking with your same bedtime or perhaps you can even catch up on some extra rest while you’re away since doing so will help your transition upon returning home.  Keep in mind that riding is only one component of your athletic well-being. Train well prior to your travels, then do everything possible to maintain good nutrition and adequate rest so that you can be ready for the next round of training once you return home.  In doing this, there will be little or no negative effect to your fitness as a result of the travels.

MTBRaceNews.com orignially posted this Q&A article.

QUESTION:

I am a terrible starter. In the first 10 minutes of a race the leaders are just pulling away from me and I can’t go any faster. Then I start to pull them back but it takes a huge effort. How can I train to be faster in those first 10 minutes without blowing myself up?

ANSWER:

The question of pacing strategy and just how hard to start is one that all racers will have.  It’s a fine line between knowing how fast you can go versus understanding how hard is too hard.  Course design, the level of competition, and your fitness should all affect your strategy for the start of the race.  Assuming you’ve got a feel for the strategy based upon the course and competition you’ll be up against, we’ll focus on what it takes to get physically stronger for those first 10 minutes.

It should be mentioned that if you’re able to regain contact with the leaders sometime after the first ten minutes of racing, your pacing strategy is likely working quite well for you.  A steady effort done over a longer duration will leave you with less fatigue than would a harder effort that tapers off over the same duration.  So if you get dropped, but can routinely catch back on, there isn’t much reason for undue concern.  If this is the case chances are good that you’re pacing the effort better (more steady) than those who you’re regaining contact with.

When a rider loses contact with the leaders within the first ten minutes of racing, odds of regaining contact later are slim at best. The effort that a racer is able to sustain for 10 minutes correlates strongly with the intensity that can be sustained for the entire race when a racer is well conditioned.  If you can’t match the effort for ten minutes, it’ll be a tall order to match it for two hours.  Both durations (ten minutes and two hours) are highly dependent upon your maximum sustainable power – the balancing point where you’re riding hard and any harder would create an undue amount of fatigue.  The average intensity of a xc race hovers right around this threshold.  Racers with a higher threshold or a greater maximum sustainable power will start faster and place higher when all other factors are considered equal.

In order to improve the maximum sustainable power that you’re capable of producing, it’s important to do training that specifically replicates this intensity. I might suggest doing 3-5 repeats that each last 8-12 minutes. For example, doing 4×10 minute repeats will allow you to accumulate 40 minutes of workload that closely mimics the intensity of a race start.  Do your best to make each 10 minute effort of equal intensity. As you accumulate training time spent at this intensity, you’ll be creating the overload that’s required in order for improvements to occur.  By doing this type of training approximately twice per week for a span of 2-4 weeks, you’re bound to see improvements, provided you recover well and have fun with the workouts along the way.

With improved threshold fitness you’ll be better prepared to hang with the leaders throughout the first ten minutes of the race and beyond.  Plan some specific training that fits with your schedule, work hard, recover well, and enjoy the faster (not easier) starts that you’ll have as a result.  If you can hang with the leaders for ten minutes you’re that much closer to hanging in there for the full duration of the race.  Go for it!