[evan.piche]

Hey all, during the snow-free months I’m primarily a trail/ultra runner, but also compete in a few endurance mountain bike races each year. My A-event for the year is the Grand Traverse, a 41 mile run from Crested Butte to Aspen on Saturday, followed by a mountain bike race in the reverse direction on Sunday. (Some of y’all are probably familiar with the winter GT.) I was wondering how (or if) the Big Vert plan could be tweaked to accommodate some bike training. I’ve done the race in the past without following a structured plan but I’d like to improve on my 2018 finish by training smarter. My background is in cycling so I have a decent base, but I’m definitely more passionate about alpine running nowadays so cycling is less important.

Cheers-
Evan

Topic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on May 9, 2019 at 1:19 pm #21801

Evan:

With your cycling base I think you could incorporate some rides into the Big Vert plan without overloading yourself. During the early part of the plan where the emphasis is on the ME workouts and easy base miles you would probably be advised to keep the cycling fairly flat and mellow as cycling (especially hilly mtn biking) already has a large ME component baked in. If you hammer you legs in the plan’s ME workouts and then again a day or so later on the bike you may be overdoing that ME loading and not see the expected progress. Late in the plan after the ME phase would be the time to begin to add some intensity in the cycling. At least that’s the way I think I’d handle this back to back event. The BV plan should do a good job of making your legs more fatigue resistant so you will be starting the second day on the bike a bit fresher.

Good luck. Sounds tough.
Scott

[evan.piche]

evan.piche on May 9, 2019 at 1:40 pm #21802

Thanks for the reply! By “incorporating”, do you mean adding additional workouts to the plan, or substituting some runs for bike rides? I know that’s super individual and probably depends on the person, but in your opinion would adding more workouts likely compromise recovery for the runs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on May 10, 2019 at 12:22 pm #21846

I’d start by substituting biking for running and see how you handle that load. Then begin to add back a run day at a time to see the effect.

Scott