Faced with a long-distance race but aren’t sure you have the fitness you need? You may be surprised to learn that you can tackle long-distance races (and rides) with all the fitness you need, and more, by simply training smart.
How the Time-Crunched Athlete Gets Faster
The problem many athletes face is the limiting belief that they can’t get faster with the little training time they have available in their busy lives. Take a breath, and take solace in the fact that you don’t have to ride for inordinate amounts of time to be competitive for your long-distance events and rides. Even ultra-endurance athletes efficiently build their fitness under time constraints by integrating progressive, structured training into their training plans.
Why You Don’t Need to Train for X Minutes to be able to Ride for X Minutes
Cycling endurance training has typically been thought of as long, gruelling hours on the bike. It seems obligatory to go out and train for the same distance that we’ll face in our races. Simply put, you don’t need to. Sports science and enhanced understanding of physiology brings to light that high-intensity interval training elicits the same training stimulus necessary to prompt physiological adaptations in cyclists to get faster. TrainerRoad training plans are built around these principle advancements in sports science. Let’s see … grind out lower intensity miles for long durations, or train efficiently on a time budget with higher-intensity interval training?
High-intensity interval training isolates specific energy systems to prompt specific physiological responses. TrainerRoad’s guided training allows riders to target the right training impulses and see increased fitness, without having to do the longer duration rides that are normally associated with this sort of fitness gain. In a progressive approach to training, we can’t continually task our bodies with event-distance training. Not only is it unnecessary, it has potential to be a detriment to your training progression in the long-run. So, what about the mental hurdles?
Mental Barriers: How to Get Over Them
Every rider faces a mental barrier of conquering that first long ride; whether that’s the first 50 miler, or even the first go at a 112 mile bike-leg at a Full-Distance triathlon. It’s intimidating, and our natural inclination is to train by taking to the road with something like 4 bottles and our pockets stuffed with food. We’ve all been there, and maybe that’s where we’re at right now. That isn’t the best approach.
Another tendency is to doubt our training when we see there aren’t any 50 mile or 112 mile efforts in our training plan. This is natural, intended in our training plan design, and also something we have an explanation for: Athletes can build the fitness necessary to be competitive at their events without having ever done the distance that they’ll compete at. Fitness isn’t the concern, but for other reasons we do recommend getting out on the road as you approach your event(s).
Reasons to Train Longer for a Long-Distance Event
Racing requires highly specific forms of fitness. The type of fitness we spend our entire training season building up towards. Training is specialized during what is known in the TrainerRoad training plan process as the Specialty Phase of training. The final training phase that leads you to your event. Throughout this phase of training is a perfect time to experiment on the road with some longer rides (not necessarily the same distance/time of your event).
- Test hydration and nutrition strategy: You don’t want GI issues when it comes time for the big day. Test your nutrition and hydration needs when you put your high-end fitness to the road.
- Familiarize aero positioning for an extended period of time: That fancy bike isn’t worth a darn if you’re riding upright for half your race.
- Test ride your course: If you have the option, pre-ride portions of your course to pick up on any nuances there may be. It doesn’t take your race-day effort to get familiar with your course.
- The fun factor: You may just want to get out on the road while following a high-intensity interval training plan. We feel you, and want athletes to feel comfortable and stay motivated by getting outside when it’s needed. Our training plans include longer weekend rides that are perfect to be swapped out for a ride in the great outdoors. It may not lend itself to your fitness as much as a ride on the trainer would, but we have to remind ourselves we do enjoy this.
For more cycling training knowledge, listen to the Ask a Cycling Coach — the only podcast dedicated to making you a faster cyclist. New episodes are released weekly.
References
- Gibala, et al., (2006, September), Short-term sprint interval versus traditional endurance training: similar initial adaptations in human skeletal muscle and exercise performance. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16825308
- Nalcakan, G. R., (2014, December), The Effects of Sprint Interval vs. Continuous Endurance Training on Physiological And Metabolic Adaptations in Young Healthy Adults. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25713670
- Gillen, J. B., Gibala, M. J., (2014, March), Is high-intensity interval training a time-efficient exercise strategy to improve health and fitness? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24552392
- Burgomaster, et al., (June, 2005), Six sessions of sprint interval training increases muscle oxidative potential and cycle endurance capacity in humans. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15705728
- Tabata, I., et al., (October, 1996), Effects of moderate-intensity endurance and high-intensity intermittent training on anaerobic capacity and VO2max. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8897392
- Billat, L.V., (2001), Interval training for performance: a scientific and empirical practice. Special recommendations for middle- and long-distance running. Part I: aerobic interval training. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11227980
- Cocks, et al., (February, 2013), Sprint interval and endurance training are equally effective in increasing muscle microvascular density and eNOS content in sedentary males. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22946099
- Foster, et al., (2015, December), The Effects of High Intensity Interval Training vs Steady State Training on Aerobic and Anaerobic Capacity https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4657417/
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Hi, I’d like to swap an outdoor ride or two into my training plan by using assign ride and the data coming up. Is this planned yet? I love TR but it seems to me to be the one negative. You constantly see under scores TSS weeks when in fact you have done the specified period of time. Some of the easier rides are fine for outdoors aren’t they? I know people who won’t use TR because of this factor here in UK where it is now very popular as I am sure you know.
Thanks Darren
Hey Darren!
We do in fact have an update in the works that will allow you to upload outside ride data and keep track of your TSS both indoors and outdoors 🙂 It is coming soon, but if you want early access I would recommend checking out the Facebook TrainerRoad Beta group as there will something there for you in the near future.
Cheers!
Very interesting article.
From past experience, I’m still somewhat skeptical that I will be well prepared (I’m talking about fitness preparation here) for a 150km – 200km race in the alps with 2 to 5 major climbs following the SweetSpot / Sustain Power / Climbin road race or Century approach which is often the one suggested in the Ask a Cycling Coach podcast. Workouts don’t exceed 90 minutes in low volume of 120 minutes in mid volume when my target event will take me around 10h to get through.
This year I experiment triathlon training and I find that the full distance triathlon plans are very well organized with 1 V02MAX workout, 1 muscular endurance workout and one long aerobic workout each week in low volume and I expect it to be very well suited to my target event (Etape du tour), although not encouraged (nor discouraged I admit) in the podcast.
Hey Florian,
Whether you are training for a long gravel grinder race like the Dirty Kanza, or you are tackling a 200 km gran-fondo, you will likely have reservations about the short duration of TrainerRoad workouts. However, the reality is that through structured training, you are able to pack more training load into a much shorter period of time, allowing you to make gains in fitness without spending whole days on the bike. These gains will raise your FTP, allowing you to ride at a lower % of FTP during your race while still keeping the pace up to a reasonable level.
All that being said, there are some instances where you may want to ride close to your target distance just once. Keep in mind that this is not actually for training as much as preparation and peace of mind However, for events that hover around the 6 or 7 hour mark, there can be some benefits. The first thing to note is that this ride will not be “training” per se, but it is better to think of it as a trial-run. When you set off on this ride you will have a few main goals:
Nail down your nutrition. In a long race, nutrition is crucial to your success. You will need to take on electrolytes and carbohydrates in order to perform your best during your race, however different administration techniques can have different effects on your digestive system. For example, some people find success with carb-heavy sports drinks while others may not be able to digest the drink properly and it makes them sick. Do you prefer Gu packets or chewable electrolyte gummies? What flavor of electrolyte drink can you tolerate for 6+ hours? These are all questions that you should try to sort out prior to race-day.
Address fitment issues. This can be especially true for triathletes due to the extreme nature of their aero position but also applies to all cycling disciplines. Do you start to develop serious knee pain when on the bike for long periods of time? Do you have a sharp pain in your back or neck or shoulders? These could be indicative an improper fit or improper core strength, but either way, it will be good to know before race day.
Gain a mental edge. Many people set mental blocks for themselves when it comes to distance, but the truth is that your body doesn’t really have a distance maximum. It is important to remember that as the duration increases, the intensity must decrease to compensate. For example, in an anaerobic effort, you may only be able to ride 1 mile before succumbing to your fatigue, however at 50% of your FTP, you can likely ride for hours upon hours as long as your nutrition is dialed. All that being said, for many people, it is a big confidence boost to have done their target distance and to know for certain that it is something they can complete. While not physically neccessary, this confidence can play to your strength come race day.
I hope this clears things up a bit, good luck with your event!
I read this article with intetest, as I’m currently in the base period preparing for a series of 200, 300, 400, and 600 KM brevets later this year. I’m following the recommended structured plan including SS base, sustained power build, and Century specialty. I’m taking it on faith that this will build my fitness sufficiently to handle these long rides. One thing that concerns me, however, is that the studies cited in the article demonstrate the efficacy of HIT (i.e. 20-30 second “all out” sprints) at building aerobic fitness, yet the TrainerRoad plans I’m following contain little, if any, of this type of workout. Can threshold, sweet spot, and tempo workouts do the trick, or should I include a block of HIT in my program?
Hey David,
There are a lot of effective ways to improve aerobic fitness, but our Sustained Power Build and Century Plans focus heavily on sustained efforts to greatly improve that part of your power profile. This reflects the sustained nature of your target events so this approach will maximize your performance on your event date. That’s not to say that HIT will not make you fit, but rather it makes you fit in a way that does not directly improve your race day performance which is what we are striving to achieve 🙂
I hope that makes sense, good luck with your training!
One thing that bugged me doing the ‘Century Speciality’ was that it doesn’t say in the description, or anywhere I could see, a century of what? Km or Miles? I spent weeks mildly concerned it was a km century and at 62 miles into my ride I’d fall apart!!
Hey William,
Thanks for the feedback, we will consider adding some info about that in the description 🙂
In reality, it is not really about the distance but rather the approach to the race. The century plan prepares you to ride at a set %FTP for a very long period of time. It prepares you to be a very steady state and consistent rider. It does not prepare you to deal with sprints and surges.
Whether you want to ride consistently for 50 miles or 200 miles, Century is the plan we recommend.