Folks,

Need a little help with the subject above. Let me explain as briefly as I can (on the flip):

I know a lot of you go or have gone through structured training programs for some time and I would like to leverage on your experiences.

In the past I just went out for rides/runs but about 1.5 to 2 years ago I thought I should structure more my training to get more out of my limited time. I am the typical time crunched athlete so I squeeze 6 to 8 hours of weekly training in 5 days (6 if I am lucky). I have nailed down a 12 to 16 weeks cycle. I do the base training, build up volume and intensity then cut a little on the volume while increasing intensity to finally taper and race. I have also learned to put some races before my main event just as training. I have learned (the hard way) that races are high quality training unless you do more than you can and compromise the next week training (J).I do all this effort to a main race, but after it I am usually having some weeks off (with activity but no structure) to then repeat the cycle again. This is working and I have no complaints (but....there is always a but) 

In parallel I figured out that there is pretty decent calendar of road racing around here (basically every weekend from Feb/March to May/June)

So here come the questions:

1)       Can I maintain a plateau of form after my main target for some weeks to do a few more races on the following weekends? (I know I can’t peak for 4, 5 weekends otherwise it would not be a peak J) What is an acceptable length of time? 2 or 3 weeks/weekends? Maybe 4? What works for you?

2)       What type of training do I squeeze in the days before the weekend races? Every single time I see a training plan it ends up with the main event/main target race.

What I would try to do here is to recover on Monday, do some hard training on Tuesday/Wednesday then a rest on Thursday roll on Friday and race on Saturday. I believe that with the decreased intensity in training plus the extended efforts to race my form would fade out, hopefully not too fast.

Am I in the right direction? What do you guys do? Any good reference about the subject? (internet, books, past threads).

Thanks a lot.