Advice please - etape

[r0bbti]

i am doing the caledonian etape in mid-may, currently doing about 100miles/week but plan to increase steadily. the general advice seems to be to do a run of about 80% of distance in advance which is about 65miles.(thankyou 515mm for a very helpful post in another thread). My question is - when is it best to aim to do this?
Is the weekend before the etape not leaving enough recovery time? Should I try to do it 2weeks before - and if so, how much cycling should I aim to do in the few days before the race?
What exactly is tapering?!

 

[HLaB]

I don't know if its the best technique but when I've trained for it in the past, from the start of the year I've gradually built up my mileage doing 80+ mile cycles a couple of weeks before but in the week prior I've not done much other than short commutes (less than 10 miles, round trip). This year however, my longest cycle has been a club run about 43 miles!

 

[515mm]

hi r0bbti

In 2009, we rode the Tour of Pembrokeshire the Sunday before the Dragon Ride (the blue riband event for me and my pals). From memory it was about 70 miles or so of undulating terrain with some steep but fairly short hills in. The Dragon was 85 miles with three mountain climbs and one sodding big hill.

I felt that the Pembrokeshire ride was the perfect final long ride preparation for the Dragon. About 80% of the distance and about 70% of the difficulty/intensity.

The sunday before that, we had done a similar length training ride around the Gower Penninsular - nothing too hard, but out for 6 hours or so. The sunday before that, had been the final very hard training day. 70 miles hilly including 2 of the mountain climbs of the Dragon all at a brisk pace.

The sundays before that final hard training session had all been building up the mileage or difficulty - i.e. time on the bike by 10% per week.

So, three weeks before our target event was our hardest training ride. 80% of the distance, but as similar intensity to the Dragon as we could muster. After that final, hardest day, the rides in the week were short, but intense affairs with plenty of recovery days in between. This gave us a bit of extra speed and sharpness.

Normally I ride to work, 14miles each way, 4 times a week in a regular week, then get a long ride in on my day off. When the evening light improves, my pals and I meet twice a week for an hour blast round Gower. This is useful as it's great practise for bunch riding - a skill that is easy enough to learn - which will give you a huge speed advantage on the flat, as well as provide much needed company in the hills. A recent study found that humans can maintain higher physical exertion levels for much longer when in a group. You also get to feel like a pro racer!

The final 6 days before the Dragon were a bit of a torture. Trying to reign in the exertion levels to 2 brisk sessions only and a final slow ride into work on the friday, would have tested the patience of a chess grand master.

Sunday more than made up for it mind.