I’ve written four different posts for today and in the end wasn’t happy with any of them. At the last moment I decided this topic is the most relevant since the Tour of Bright is less than 4 days away. Even if you’ve never heard of the Tour of Bright you can still get something out of this post for your next important event.
Once again, this isn’t the week you want to be trying to cram in fitness at the last moment. The week before a big event is all about recovery and sharpening of your strengths. In my last post I spoke about the sharpening aspect - tapering.
One of the most significant things you can do for your recovery this week is to treat yourself to a massage. No, I’m not talking about dim lights, the smell of incense, selection of scented oils, etc. I’m talking about a deep tissue massage that will be more excruciatingly painful than 3 Mt. Hotham’s in a row.
Four days before an event is good to get a deep tissue massage. This gives ample time to get over the legginess (heavy legs after a massage) that is typically experienced after a deep tissue treatment. A deep tissue massage is akin to having a hard workout. You’ll be soar sore, your legs will feel like lead, and you’ll most likely ride horribly the next day. This is good.
You never want to have a deep tissue massage much closer to a race than 3 days before. This won’t allow ample time to recover from the massage as well as get in the rides you need to to that will sharpen your fitness.
Tomorrow, 3 days before the race, you’ll want to go for a light pedal with a few race pace efforts (3 x 90 sec with 3 mins recovery in-between) just to blow out the legginess. Nothing too strenuous, but you want to give the legs a reminder of what’s to come. If you’ve done everything right you’ll feel like you’re floating on Saturday.
Enjoy this ride and go for a coffee afterwards with your mates. This is what you’ve been training for and it’s a great feeling when you know you’re on form!
Now, I’m off to get my deep tissue massage this morning. I’m kinda looking forward to it but I know I’ll be squealing like a pig!
