Coach Rick-

Fall.

Finally.

This can be a bit of a tricky time.

The big season goals are over.

That inner pressure we feel to keep high fitness as we work in and around weeks of summer racing, always mindful of what's coming up and working to prepare for it.

It wears on you.

You can turn that pressure switch way down.

It is now about continuing to ride, but doing it more at your pace and your choice.

You can still ride 5 hours, do some structured workouts, ride some CX, do some coffee rides. Your choice.

Have fun.

Keep some fitness. 

Recharge.

Enjoy.

 

More detail on this period from Coach Jerry-

 

Fall workouts can be quite productive. They can set a nice foundation for the next race season

if done properly.
However, there are some important do’s and don'ts during this part of the training calendar.
Let’s begin with an assessment of where an athlete is before discussing a training plan.
Riders that have raced a full season with a lot of hard events should be carefully assessing
fatigue and motivation. If you are feeling cooked and not motivated, the fall season should be
mostly about more relaxed riding. Formalized “structured” intervals should be kept to a
minimum. We advise a lot of varied riding with some intensity, but not too much. The primary
goal is simply to maintain most of race season fitness into the rest and reset period that will
begin for most of us in November.
For athletes that have not raced to their limits and are feeling motivated and rested enough, the
fall can be a productive period. While formalized structured workouts are less intense than
during race season, they can be helpful. This is also a perfect time to add volume which will
build a nice base that can help raise the “launching off” point for the next season.

Fall Structure
Formalized interval work over this season is a combination of less intervals and also somewhat
less intensity. For example, rather than a peak season FTP workout of 4 x 10 minutes @ 100%
to 105% of threshold, we advise just 2 x 10 minutes at about 5% to 10% lower watts. If
the athlete has both the time and the motivation, then add another 45 to 60 minutes of mostly
tempo riding.
Another helpful strategy is to do less in the way of formalized intervals and more of just using
terrain to add enough intensity. Picking out various hilly loops is an ideal way to do this. Just
pick out a few of the hills or Strava sections to ride hard. Push these to maybe 90% of max.
Ride the other sections at “high tempo”. This is hard enough to go above threshold, but not so
hard as to create too much stress at the wrong point of your season.

Long Rides
As structured training is less intense and weather is ideal, this is a perfect point of your season
to add in some longer rides. This has numerous benefits. It will push out your “fatigue
resistance”. These rides also train your body to use fuel sources efficiently; burning both fat
and glycogen. Finally, these rides are also quite helpful and limit off-season weight gains.
A great strategy is to do a “monster” ride about every 2 weeks, not every weekend. We advise
competitive athletes to go ahead and ride 4, 5 or even 6 hours. Doing this type of ride (with
limited stopping) can yield massive benefits for athletes that are targeting longer and more
demanding races.
As these monster rides are demanding, we advise doing a more relaxed endurance ride of
about 3.5 hours on the alternating weekend. Keep these rides relaxed and fun.

Days Off the Bike / Having Fun
Fall is a perfect time to take a few more days completely off the bike. That will assure that
you are not doing too much at the wrong point of your season.

This is also a time to just mix things up, listen to what your body is saying and just have fun on
the bike. All of us have only so many weeks during our competitive season whereby we can
push very hard workouts. We want athletes to be ready for those demanding periods.

Summary
The combination of some fall Structure, enough long rides, just playing games and a few more
days of rest, should have athletes maintaining much of the season's hard fought fitness. We
want to hold on to as much of that as possible without stressing the systems too much. This
can set a nice foundation for the next race season.