Anthony Colby Describes His Race-Week Routine

 

Anthony Colby and I, coach Chad, attended and graduated Fort Lewis College together. Then Colby was a budding pro mtb racer and now he is a top domestic road professional. Last weekend Anthony placed third in the ultra sweet stage race, Tour of the Gila in Silver City, New Mexico. Below is, in his words, a typical Colby pre race week. Being a pro cyclist is not easy, read on……

     I like to keep everything in order the week before a big race and it’s always differs depending on where the fitness is at and how much training and racing I’ve been doing. It usally looks something like this. A hard race the weekend before, then 3 days easy because you can always go hard before the race but it’s harder to back track and take more rest. 1 spin the day after the race, then a day off, then another easy spin. By then the legs still hurt a little and it’s a good time to do a 2-3 hour fun ride to push some of the junk out of the legs, sometimes I’ll do a longer ride but it’s always on the road well within the comfort zone with some good climbs. The next day is best being a travel day so I’m not traveling the day before the race and everything is squared away the day before the race so you can focus on the task at hand. The only thing I have to look forward to is a nice spin after the car of plane ride. I’ll sometimes open it up a little but nothing structured. The day before the race I always head out in the morning and a 1-2 hour ride mostly spinning, but I usally do a good opener 3-15 min. If it’s a TT it’s important to get the systems going and get all cylinders firing. I’ll do this in intervals not forcing anything to hard until the legs have time to adjust. That’s when I start to dig a little focusing my a nature high cadence with good form and hold it for a few min, recover and then once more. If it’s a long road race just a few smaller intervals and if it’s a crit then the same but also with a few 20 seconds jumps to get the legs up to speed with the right muscle firing. Somtimes my teammates and I use each other to motivate and push the pace, but it’s never good to race before the race just  to lison to your body and do what’s necessary to prepare for the event. 

Anthony Colby

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