Minimising muscle loss while training for adventure race

Satanta

to give some background, I have been doing almost exclusively resistance for the last 10 years or so off and on, and solid for the last 5. Until last year when I took up cycling. This year I am taking it a bit further and looking to do an adventure race in July that a friend has organised (see sig). The distances are about

Stage 1 – Run – 16 km – Cross country, road and beach.
Stage 2 – Kayaking – 2km
Stage 3 – Cycling – 24 km
Stage 4 – Mountain Hike – 3km.
Stage 5 – Cycling – 17km.

For the last 6 weeks I have been increasing running distances, reasonably agressively and now I am at 16k once a week with 2 smaller runs. I cycle about 50-60k on a Sunday. There is still allot of work to do to combine all those distances. I have also been trying to keep up 2 days in the gym, but it is becoming clear that I will have to drop the intensity of something if I want to avoid injury. I was fairly depleted from early on in the cycle today and the rest of the lads had to wait up for me a couple of times which pisses me off.

So here is the question. How little resistance work can I get a way with so as to maintain muscle and will still allow me to focus on the cardio work more?

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I would look to perform 2 full body strength days a week.

Example

Day 1
Squat
Bench + Row
Press + Row

Day 2
Deadlift
Dips or Military Press + Chin or Pull up


Keep the reps around the 5x5 region and you should be fine.

Also ensure you take in some carbohydrates around your workouts with protein. Something like oatmeal or sweet potato around 90 minutes is cool. Then some simple sugars pre workout around 5-10 mins and during.

Do this for you endurance stuff and strength stuff. also take in enough protein around your workouts as well along with carbs. This will help protect against muscle loss etc.