I created a training plan recently, with a big race (70.3 Worlds in 2025) as the A race at the end of the year. All others are B and C races. So of 5 races total, that’s four B/C races and one A race.
Athletica built the plan and it seems to be treating every race as an A race. It even has me tapering 2 weeks for some of the C races. This is definitely not what I want for a C race! I would expect to train straight through a C race, and maybe have a 1 week recovery before a B race. I wouldn’t want to do a long taper until show time in November!
Hi Coach @rctaylor157,
I understand your concern. A couple points.
Remember that the Athletica algorithm is working to optimize your A race first and foremost, but provide a subtle optimization for B and C races also. That algorithm is working irrespective of any labelling you’re reading on the microcycle you’re in (i.e., taper 1, taper 2). As well, if you compare a Taper 2 microcycle week with any of the Build weeks, you’ll also note that there isn’t much difference (check it out yourself). Remember also, and this gets mentioned repeatedly here on the Forum, the sessions you read today are only the static plan like you’d get anywhere else on the internet. Of course, once you get going, you’ll see that the plan changes regularly in accordance with what you do or don’t get done.
Also for the C races, you may feel better not to taper at all for these and in this case, what I would do is not list it as a race on the training template (delete it from your template), and just add the race as a note in your calendar - plus move key sessions in your week around so that they all land on C race day (i.e., speed swim, MIT bike, HIIT run).
Does that make sense?
Best,
Paul
That does make sense. I’ll take a look at the specific weeks!
I do think that the label on a microcycle matters, though. Even if it’s a “shallow” taper, labeling it as taper is a big mental thing for a lot of athletes (myself included!) Having only one week labeled “taper” going in to non A-races might be better presentation-wise. And having to leave C races off of the schedule deliberately in order to make them work kind of defeats the purpose of having the category!
One other question: the plan has me beginning build work in January and staying in Build/Taper/Recover microcycles until the A race in November. Is it really wise to do 9 months of Build phase?
Appreciate all that @rctaylor157 and noted for the future.
Yes - looking deeper into your plan and with Worlds in mind, I would agree and not start building until Feb. So I would swap recovery weeks into at least the first 4 build weeks to delay the building. To do this, go to Overview and hover over the date of the microcycle in question to swap in a recovery week. The recovery week is more or less similar to a base week. This would extend your base period more appropriately.
