I know everyone has a different approach, but below is my training the last 5 weeks.

Junk mileage M-F varies 1-3 rides usu 25-65km ea with a long ride on the weekend.

Week 1
Total distance: 201km
Hours: 7h 16min
Sun: 201km

Week 2
Total distance: 202km
Hours: 8h 12m
Sun: 170km

Week 3
Total distance: 272km
Hours: 13h 36m
Sun: 126km

Week 4
Total distance: 209km
Hours: 11h 1m
Sat/Sun: 67km/70km

Week 5
Total distance: 314km
Hours: 13h 30m
Sat/Sun: 160km/30km

--

My training goals are a sportive in France first week of July, 175km w 5000m elevation. If everything goes to plan I may ride trans-Alps from Geneva to Nice after the race.

I think I would like to follow the 3/4 rule riding hard 3 weeks, dialing it back week 4 etc, but I never know how much to dial back for recovery. I'm turning 39 this summer and definitely notice the important of rest / recovery. Still I want to jump out and ride long every weekend if the weather is nice. My long rides usu are around 2000m of climbing. The high end would be 3500m when I'm really seeking to climb but an "easy" long ride will have about 1800m of vertical gain, so the legs climb a lot.

Based on above mileage what would be wise to do this week for recovery? My thoughts are two camps: first, ride every day for an hour to get more consistency, or two, go easy during the week and moderate long this weekend maybe 135km with climbing? Thoughts?

In other words, how easy should a recovery week be? I never know how much to dial it back until I get out on a long ride after consecutive weeks of hard riding and realize shit my legs are tired; I can feel the cumulative fatigue so then and only then do I dial it back. I also let Mother Nature determine rest by not riding when it rains but it hasn't rained much this spring hence a lot of long rides recently.

I would also like to really start ramping up my climbing. I feel like I have a decent endurance base and would like to start preparing for being plastered to the side of a mountain all day per the 5000m sportive. I've ridden La Marmotte before and know how important both long rides and climbing are to training properly.