Now that the racing season is upon us we can finally shift our focus away from the weekly training cycle that we implemented all winter long. During the winter we jumped on the trainer almost every day, ideally while following a systematic plan. The routine that we all worked ourselves into led to our minds and bodies expecting hard work on a certain days, and recovery rolls on other days. The schedule allowed us to find a rhythm that our bodies liked and thrived upon, and we grew from it.

Now things have changed. With the arrival of the warmer weather, the time change and the racing season, our rhythmic schedule is no more. We have gone from structured training weeks to riding the most when the days are nice, and putting in hard efforts when the group is present. While this change is psychologically good for us, it can sometimes lead us to physically struggling to find the right form on the right day. It does not have to be this way though. There are several things you can do to help yourself  get into a beneficial rhythm for race weeks, and two of the most important things are recovery days and openers.

Recovery days that I am referring to here are not easy pedaling days, but actual days off of the bike. Ideally, they should be placed 2 days out from the race. Taking this particular day off will allow your body and mind to rest, and get fully prepped for the effort that is ahead. For those of you that worry that you will lose form by not training so close to a race, don’t worry as you will not. Remember, you get stronger during recovery and not actual training. So you will get stronger by taking this day off and resting.

Openers are day before the race day efforts. Most people have heard of them, but most do not know exactly what they are, or how to properly complete them. When I was younger I will include myself as fitting into that category, at least the how to do them category. I remember I listened to the advice at the time – which is still given today –  which stated, ” you should do 3 – 5 medium to full gas efforts of ~ 60 – 90 seconds each with a few minutes of recovery between efforts”. I followed this advice diligently, and then on some race days I would feel great, and perform well. And on others I would feel blocked up, and perform poorly. It was frustrating to me that I could not always show up with the legs I wanted each and every weekend. What I did notice was that if I did not go well on a particular race day then I always felt great the next day. At some point it occurred to me that I personally needed more than just some hard anaerobic jams the day before. I actually needed some combination of hard anaerobic efforts and threshold work to get opened up. What was the exact combination that I needed? That I was not exactly sure about. So I began trying different things on the day before the race to get the proper preparation dialed in. Through lot’s of trail and error, and process of elimination, this is what I determined works perfectly for me each and every time as an opener protocol:

1. Warm Up @ 20:00 – 30:00 with a few punchy 10 – 20 second efforts placed throughout to activate the system.
2. Standing @ 8:00 – 10:00 at a low tempo pace. This standing effort is the final part of the warm up process and really gets my back, knees, legs and cardiovascular system ready for the harder effort ahead.
3. Recovery @ 5:00 – 10:00. This is easy < 150 watt pedaling.
4. High tempo to low threshold @ 8:00 -10:00 with (2- 3) 30 sec power bursts included within the effort.
5. Cooldown @ ~10:00.

I am not making a claim that the 3 – 5 medium to full gas efforts of ~60 – 90 seconds each with a few minutes of recovery between efforts  is the wrong thing to do. It may very well be the exact right thing to do, and I know it works well of many people. However, I am stating that it may not be the perfect thing for you. If you feel you are landing on race day with the legs that are not perfect then make sure you experiment with your opener protocol to find the solution that works for you.

There are a lot of variables and factors that come into play that determine how you are going to feel when it comes the race day. Some of these things we can control, and others we cannot. Take a few steps to maximize the impact you have on the variables that you do control. Make sure you dial in your opener protocol, and make sure you take a complete rest day two days out from your event.

-Jason