Rick Finley's Page

Hi Rick,

Glad to hear you are getting use of the training plan.

Once you start diving into the racing season you have to start making some choices - are you focusing on these early races or will they just be for training? If they are just for training then you can go into them slightly tired knowing that you will compensate for the recovery following the events. This can be a great way to build some fitness quick but you have to be careful to not do too much and overstretch yourself. You really need to allow yourself a good bit of recovery if you do 2 midweek workouts and 2 races on the weekend.

If the races are key races then the best thing is to minimize the workload during the week and make sure you are reasonably rested. Again, assuming that this is an early season race and your form is not where you need it to be yet then you'll still need to get a single intense workout in sometime midweek - perhaps even with some volume. As the season progresses, volume can be reduced and the focus can be on more rest, especially on double rest weekends.

So to summarize
going into a double race weekend for key races - 1 midweek intense workout, otherwise rest.
going into a double race weekend for training races - 2 midweek intense workouts (and maybe a 3rd moderate intensity workout)

Hope that helps. Good luck with your season.

Thanks,
Mike