With Maui just a few short weeks away, now is the time to sharpen up for race day with some very race specific training sessions. This upcoming three part series will provide you with some final key workouts each week as you approach race day: #1 a Vo2 Max Bike-Run Session, #2 a Threshold Bike-Run Session, and #3 a Pre-Race Session to prepare for race day. Look for #2 and #3 online next week and in future XTERRA Tribe newsletters.

Maui is a “strong-man’s” (and woman’s) course. The water is rough, the bike is extremely hilly, and the run has no flat terrain (except perhaps the beach which has deep sand to make up for the flatness). Add in the heat, humidity, and wind and you have a true world championship course if there ever was one! With this in mind, your training should mimic these tough conditions as much as possible in your final build up. Spend some time pulling in the pool to build strength in the water, ride and run hills as much as possible, and wear extra clothing (or train indoors for hills & heat training) to work up a good sweat.

The following session is great for building the power and strength needed to go hard repeatedly over the steep hills. This is best done on your mountain bike, either on smooth dirt, pavement or trainer for best power output for the effort. The “hard” effort in the main-sets are intended to be above race-pace, around the vo2 max/zone 5 intensity level (110-115% of FTP on the bike, 3k-5k effort on the run).

WARM-UP:
-10:00-20:00 easy
-5:00 build to threshold/race pace
-5:00 easy

MAIN SET:
-5-6x[3:00 hard hills/3:00 easy]
-5:00 easy

AEROBIC SET:
-optional additional aerobic riding to meet volume goals
(60-90 minutes total time)
Transition to run below…

Put your bike away and get to the run within 1-5:00.

Off the bike…
-4:00 build to race pace
-1:00 walk

MAIN SET:
-4-6x[400m (or time equivalent) hard hills, 400m (or time equivalent) jog down]

WARM-DOWN:
-2:00 walk
-10:00+ easy run
-3:00 walk

Written by Cody Waite, professional XTERRA athlete, endurance sport coach and founder of Endurance Performance Coaching. You can  follow Cody on Instagram and ‘LIKE’ our EPC Facebook Page to keep up with all our 2016 happenings.

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