Peak season weeks 13-16E
You should now be feeling at the peak of fitness, reaping the benefits of all those weeks of training!!! These last few weeks prior to the event weekend are for the final steps towards your goal. The longest training ride that you will do takes place during these 4 weeks, approximately 2 weeks before the event. Rides continue to be a balance of low and high intensity. By this stage you should be practicing the good eating and drinking habits you will use on the day of the marathon – try High5 energy source in your bottle.

WEEK 13 EXAMPLE (Start week)

	New to MTB Rider	Regular MTB Rider	Experienced MTB Rider
Monday	REST	REST	1 hour 30 minutes MTB
Tuesday	1hr 15mins MTB	1 hour 30 minutes MTB	30 mins cross train or turbo (optional)
Wednesday	REST	30 mins cross train or MTB (optional)	1 hour 15mins turbo / road ride
Thursday	45 minutes MTB / Road bike	1 hour MTB / Road bike	45 minutes cross training session or MTB
Friday	REST	REST	REST
Saturday	2 hour 15min MTB	3 hours MTB/road bike	3 hours 30 minutes MTB / road bike
Sunday	30 mins cross train or MTB (optional)	1 hour cross train or MTB	1 hour MTB
Week should consist of:	3 low intensity rides 1 high intensity ride or long interval	3 or 4 low intensity rides. 1 or 2 high intensity rides (eg - one short and one long interval session)	4 low intensity rides. 2 high intensity rides. Including one short and one long interval session

PROGRESSIONS WEEK 13-16

Week 14 (build week) - Repeat the same workouts as week 13 but increase the duration of each session by 15 minutes and the duration of your longest ride (Saturday) by 45 minutes.

Week 15 (push week) - Repeat the same workouts as week 14 but increase the duration of each session by another 15 minutes. And, the duration of your longest ride (Saturday) by another 60 minutes. This is your longest ride before the event. It should be done at an easy pace with steady efforts up the hills. Remember your basic kit for endurance rides and to drink and eat regularly.

Those ‘New to MTB’ will therefore ride for 3 hours 45 minutes. ‘Regular MTBers’ will ride for 4 hours 45 minutes. ‘Experienced riders’ will ride for 5 hours 15 minutes.

Week 16 (recovery) - Remove two workouts from the week and replace it with extra rest days. Stay away from interval training this week and enjoy the rest!!

SAMPLE WORKOUTS WEEK 13 TO WEEK 16 - ALL GROUPS LOW INTENSITY RIDES
The longer rides of the week should take the form of one of the workouts below:

• Café ride. Social ride at conversation pace. Keep moving. Don't try to race your mates up the hills - hold back. No anaerobic work.

• A rolling course with several easy hills, keep in the big chain ring. Stay seated. Don't muscle up the hills.

• Turbo trainer - focus on spinning / technique and maintaining a high cadence of 80-90 rpm.

• Really easy flat ride - focus on keeping high cadence and good technique.

• Turbo trainer - do a 10 minutes warm up. In an easy gear try to spin as fast as possible for 30 secs. Repeat 5-10 times with 1 minute recovery each time. 10 minutes cool down.

HIGH INTENSITY RIDES
• Repeat the 30 minutes time trial done in previous weeks.

• Ride for between 60 and 90 minutes at a moderate pace. Not quite flat out but at a sustainable pace. Concentrate on good technique

INTERVAL TRAINING (1)
• 10 minutes warm up - then ride flat out for 2 minutes. Rest by cycling slowly for 3 minutes. Repeat 3-5 times (New to MTB Rider). Cool down. t
• 10 minutes warm up - Then ride flat out for 3 minutes. Rest by cycling slowly for 3 minutes. Repeat 4-6 times (Regular MTBer). Cool down.

• 10 minutes warm up - then ride flat out for 3 minutes. Rest by cycling slowly for 2 minutes. Repeat 5-8 times (Experienced MTB Rider). Cool down.

• As above but intervals are done up hill. Recover by riding back to the bottom of the hill.

INTERVAL TRAINING (2)
• 10 minutes warm up - then ride moderate hard pace for 6 minutes. Slow cycle 3 minutes. Repeat 3-5 times (New to MTB Rider). Cool down.

• 10 minutes warm up - then ride moderate hard pace for 6 minutes. Slow cycle 3 minutes. Repeat 4-6 times (Regular MTBer). Cool down.

• 10 minutes warm up - then ride moderate hard pace for 7-8 minutes. Slow cycle 3-4 minutes. Repeat 3-8 times (Experienced MTB Rider). Cool down.