It’s inevitable: it’s been hot, you’ve been busy, and summer has flown by.   Your favorite race is just around the corner, but no mind, you’ve been riding, you’ve been preparing… or, have you?   We all know that terrible feeling-the start of a mountain bike race, or the first big attack in a road race, and suddenly, all the training you’ve done all summer seems not to matter. Your legs are screaming, your heart is pounding, and you’d rather be just about anywhere but sliding off the back of the pack.   Often times, this leaves you wondering, “what the heck just happened? I thought I’d done all the right things…”

Assuming that you warmed up well, chances are, you did do most of the right things, except the really high-end race pace work that prepares you for the big day.  So, now that your first race is around the corner, what should you do to get ready, and can you get ready with only a week or two left?

Absolutely.  Let’s go back to the situation in the first paragraph: a day or two later, you get back on your bike and you feel like a million bucks.  What happened?

In order to power your bike along, your muscle fibers operate in a cyclical manner. In other words, not all fibers fire at the same time all the time.  In order to do more work, you must recruit more fibers to share in the work.  You’ll often hear the term “neuro-muscular” work in training. That basically means that you do work that causes your nervous system to fire more fibers  at the same time–or recruit more muscle mass.  When this has not been done, often times riders find themselves in a tough situation- that first big surge hurts, their body isn’t ready for it, and since the pack isn’t slowing down at all, there’s no chance for recovery. In many cases, not having done some sprint work or some really hard race efforts is the only thing that holds a rider back.   Sometimes, EVEN if the rider has done some sprint work and high-intensity work, he or she has simply not met the level required in a race.

Another reason that a rider might find themselves in this situation is simply for  a lack of training at this really hard level.  Maybe too much time has been spent submaximally,  or again, not quite at the level required of a race, and he or she immediately produces a huge amount of lactic acid that, in turn, limits activity.  Since your body hasn’t been trained at this level, you’re less “tolerant” of the lactic acid. For starters, it feels awful, and your body hasn’t made all the adaptations it can to clear the lactic acid as quickly as possible.

Physiology aside, the good news is that this is an easy fix prior to race day.  Start by incorporating  some sprints into your regular rides.  Ideally, these can be done on hills of varying grades, and varying sprint durations, 10s-25s durations is sufficient.  5-7 of these in a ride is all you need–particularly if you can challeng a friend in the sprints.

Also, incorporate some really high powered work into your training.  1-2 minute intervals in which you are hitting VO2max heart rates are very helpful; rest for 2-3 minutes between each interval, and don’t exceed 10 intervals.  A local weeknight race or group ride can get you the intensity you need to get used to that level of effort.  Just make sure that the group is one in which you feel comfortable and that your skill level is appropriate for the race or group ride. If you have trouble finding the right group, make your own- get your regular riding buddies to come out for an hour of  hard work.  Keep the hard training bouts short: riding more on top of these types of training sessions only make you more tired.

Make certain that you have at least 1-2 days recovery between hard bouts of training, and if you are really sore, take more recovery time. It’s better to allow your body to adapt than to waste time by trying to ride more than necessary.Typically, people are the most sore after the first hard workout; soreness can last as many as 3-4 days depending on the intensity. If you feel sore, don’t do the hard training and sprinting, save it for another day. When you are 4 days out from your event, don’t do the high intensity work.

Prior to the event, as in the day before, you can do a couple of  light sprints and a couple of hard efforts to make sure that you are tuned up for the race.  Keep it mostly on the light side, but don’t be afraid to sweat a little.

Finally, remember that you can do everything possible to prepare for a race and still not be satisfied with your performance.  The best thing to do is to ignore the result, focus on what could have gone better, and modify your training plan to address weaknesses and capitalize on strengths.

Sara Krause, M.Ed., is an exercise physiologist and owner of Krause Sports Performance based in Austin, Texas.