For many readers, the end goals for a year of training is one major event usually preceded by one or two lead-up races. Often for those of us who are facing a series of races over a compressed race season a good deal of thought needs to go into how you can maintain your race fitness without burning out or slackening off so much your performance goes backwards.

The whole aim of your race period is to see your preparation and ability used to the fullest and in so doing safeguard your not inconsiderable investment in time and effort over the base and build months.

If you are involved in weekly racing such as club and state series xc-mtb with dirt criteriums in between every week, this competition alone may suffice to maintain your fitness level without additional training intervention. Apart from regular recovery in this situation very moderate fartlek and some skill sessions can be helpful.

It’s common practice when faced with a mid-season form dip to hit the rewind button and return to your early to mid base level training for a few weeks and evolve your build-up again. Maintaining peak fitness for more than 4 to 6 weeks is a tough proposition even for the fittest and best. In many ways the body yields a law of diminishing returns for those who attempt to extend the race season by adding on more training; the harder you go at the tail end of you peak the harder it is to get a concomitant return in performance.

You would usually want to plan for 3 to 4 weeks of peak racing with another 3 to 6 weeks of preparation beforehand.

Always bear in mind, that completing a race provides a tremendous training springboard for the next event; there is always a positive outcome irrespective of the result.

Coaching legend Joe Friel has this to say ‘It’s probably best to decrease the number of workouts by no more than one or two in a week during the Peak and Race periods. “High-intensity training is the most potent stimulus for both improving and maintaining fitness. A race-intensity workout every 72 hours is all the stimulus needed at this point in the season to peak your fitness……it does not need to exceed expected race intensity, and , in fact, this may prove detrimental”.

Susceptibility to illness does not wane over race season; you need to be vigilant. Check your pulse on rising in the morning if it is 10 beats/min higher than normal, it may be an indicator of impending health threats such as:

• the immune system hitting its straps to fight an cold or ‘flu infection
• insufficient recovery from the stress of your last race