I am a newbie gravel rider, been doing a Trainer Road training plan for The DAMn (Day Across Minnesota) on a trainer inside. The DAMn starts at midnight then you have 24 hours to bike across the state on mostly gravel roads. My FTP has been increasing and I am getting faster. Life is busy and I don’t have a lot of free time between work and kids. My background is more running (several 50 mile ultras) and more recreational biking.
My question is I am building up a gravel bike for the DAMn and I still need to figure out nutrition. How should I incorporate longer outdoor rides to test gear/bike fit and test nutrition while still hitting the training plan goals? Also with a midnight start should I try to do a couple night rides for the same purpose? Any nutrition or gear recommendations would also be welcome.
As far as incorporating longer outdoor rides, I would incorporate a few of them now before getting too close to your race, as you’ll want to keep the legs fresh going into it. I would swap out a few of your Endurance rides on Saturdays for long outdoor rides (maybe 3-5 hours) to test out your gear, nutrition, and hydration.
Lastly, I don’t think night rides are necessary, but maybe if you start a ride before the sun comes out, so you can test your lights, that can be helpful! Plus you’ll ride into sunlight, not the other way around, which can sometimes not be safe.
Fellow Minnesotan here. While I have never ridden my bike continuously this far, I’d be happy to tell you how I would approach it if I did.
Firstly, I think getting some long rides in the saddle will benefit you even if you’re not following your plan. There’s no plan that I’m aware of that focuses on 200+ mile riding. The way you incorporate them would be a long endurance ride. I assume you’re planning a single push with stops along the way. I’d probably go out and do a few 8-10 (maybe longer if you feel up for it) hour rides and really get a feel for what it’s like to pedal and eat that long.
I’d be really watching my power or RPE and riding MUCH slower than I think I need to. Going out too hard and getting sucked into a group that is too fast for you will end up making this race hell, and or lead to you abandonment.
I don’t think I’d necessarily try to replicate a midnight start. My guess is that you’ll be adequately amped day of race and the start time might impact you less than you think. Just make sure you’re prioritizing excellent sleep leading up to it so you go in well rested.
And yes, ride your bike for a long time and eat lots of food. I would start out with easily consumable solids and avoid gels and stuff like that as long as possible.
This is just me though. Good luck with it and I hope you have fun. I have a couple buddies that do it annually.
I agree with just about everything @anthonylane said other than to add you’ll want to test your lights, so I’d get a couple pre-dawn or post sunset rides in to make sure that’s all sorted out.
Having attempted it twice, the night start is something I don’t think you can train for. It is a weird feeling around 4 or 5 am, because your body is waiting you to go to sleep, but you pedaling hard. Once the sun comes up, your body comes alive again. It can get pretty cold in the river bottoms, and you need a lights that is going to last 6ish hours.
It is a really long stretch without foods depending on where you team is going to meet you. I choose to let my team sleep in and focused on later in the day stops, especially if it is hot and you want a lot of water/hydration.
Thanks for the pointers everyone, I also need to think through the crew setup a bit. For those unfamiliar with this race it doesn’t have fixed aid stations, you pick 3 locations your crew can meet you and provide aid. That is totally different then most of the ultra runs I have done in the past. Any recommendations for picking aid spots? I am currently planning on front loading the miles so there will be more aid in the second half of the ride. Shade, top of the hill, anything else to consider when picking a spot?
My back ground is ultra running and those mostly are running from one little kids birthday party in the woods to another. Each aid station has a spread of chips, candy, water, sports drink, etc. There won’t be any of that on this just gas stations and whatever I put in a cooler for my crew to bring. Any recommendation for what foods and/or other supplies to have stocked for the crew vehicle?
My crew is new to gravel riding as well, anything I should prepare them for?
There’s a 400km audax I hope to do later in the year, which takes the form of two 200km loops, returning to the start between the loops so that riders can access their night-riding gear midway rather than having to carry day & night gear with them for the whole ride. I thought that was a brilliant idea. So that said, if you expect your clothing requirements to change between day & night, it might be beneficial for you to have a support crew meet you an hour after sunrise & then around sunset (give or take), to swap clothes, lights, etc.
I did the race last year for the only time and in regards to where to take aid, this was my thought afterwards. I had help from a friend’s wife so I just had to take the spots they picked. They had sort of random places that were easy because no one else stopped there, but here was the issue. My first stop was about 67 miles in at a random intersection. I had been in a group the whole time up to this and we were absolutely cruising. Most people take their first stop in Morton at the gas station around mile 85. So I stopped, lost the group and then had to roll that 18 miles solo versus sitting in the group. This ride is so long that you will for sure end up by yourself at some point or points. But no need to make that happen early. I would stop in Morton and yes, you may have to fight the crowd for a bathroom or to possibly buy something at the gas station. But stay with people as long as possible assuming you aren’t working too hard.
I completed DAMn in 2021, here are some of my recommendations and learnings.
Bike fit is super important for this event, it’s really impossible to know how your body will react to being on the bike for 15+ hours. Consider getting a professional bike fit. In the past, Paulie at GO PHYSIO has offered discounts for DAMn. He’s a great bike fitter and has done the event multiple times so he knows what it takes. After getting an initial bike fit, I’d recommend doing a longer ride(5+ hours) or other gravel event on that fit to make sure it works.
As for bike/gear setup, I recommend trying to keep all your nutrition on the bike. The last thing you want is to have a pack on your back. Also make to test your lighting away from the cities as it can get really dark out in the middle of nowhere Minnesota. This doesn’t need to be a full-blown ride just get out there and make sure you have enough light to ride comfortability. Make sure you have a backup light as well just in case. Lastly, consider carrying a portable battery charger to top off your Garmin, lights while you are riding. You can always give it to your support once its light out. Most of the course is a very slight downhill and not technical at all, consider using aerobars if you are comfortable in them. Lastly, make sure you have warm enough clothes on at the start, it can get really cold in the dark and you can always ditch them at a rest stop once it warms up. Also consider having a second kit you can change into if needed. Make sure to have chain cleaning tool, bike lube, and sunscreen at each rest stop. A bike pump can also be helpful as your tire pressure can change quite a bit as the day goes on.
Nutrition is so personal, hard to give much of a recommendation beside bring more than you think is needed between rest stops. Also, have some real food at a rest stop, you never know when the stomach will revolt and sitting down at mile 200 and eating a sandwich allowed me to finish the race. Lastly, bring something special for the end.
The strategy to front load the rest stops is a good one and I did something similar, want to say it was something like mile 80, mile 140, mile 200.
As others have said don’t get caught up in the excitement early in the day and ride to hard, take it way easier than you think you have to. Your body will thank you at mile 200.
Thanks more good advice, any thoughts on what % of ftp is easy enough for the start? I am working on adding a power meter to the bike I plan on riding. I know on long runs easy RPE was hard to gauge what was easy enough once you got past 1.5x the longest training run.
I just looked up the ride. It took me about 18 hours with 16 hour ride time and I was at .6 IF. this may have been too hard for me on the day as I exploded spectacularly at hour 15 and spent 30 minutes resting in a ditch and then an hour at the final rest stop eating real food and taking a nap. YMMV.
Another random gear tip, have 2 pairs of glasses, a clear pair for at night and sunglasses for the day.
Not only glasses, you kind of need a night setup and a day setup. I stopped shortly after sunrise and swapped glasses, ditched layers, ditched lights. No reason to carry all that stuff for the hot day portion of the ride, but you may need more for the colder night portion. Just depends on weather though.
Regarding what IF to ride at. I would start out at a pace that feels noticeably too slow. Like where you’re thinking to yourself “this is too slow”. It probably won’t feel that way 15 hours later.
Again, just me spitting my personal approach, but with an FTP of 285-300ish at the moment I’d be riding around 140-155w to start. I mean real easy. And then evaluate.
Also, are you looking for a certain result or just want to finish? That would make things different as well.
If it were accessible to me, my progression would be…
This year:
Unbound
DAMn
Next year:
Unbound XL
Double DAMn
Surely RAAM’s gotta be in there somewhere. (TransOz is probably the closest thing I’ve got without leaving the country, not technically a race, & it’s 500 miles shorter than RAAM.)
For anything around or over 300km, I’m around 50% of FTP*. Other rule of thumb is if I get to halfway & I barely feel like I’ve been riding, then I feel like I’m on a winner. If I notice myself starting to feel the distance then the damage was probably done already & I need to back off.
.* 50% of FTP is my average power target over non-coasting time. The scenario of real-time self-evaluation is where I think the non-coasting AP metric (if available) would be better to display than AP or even NP.
Thanks for all the advice, this time next week I hope to be about 70 miles in. The hay is a in the barn at this point. Whatever happens it will be my longest ride. My goal is to start, see what my body can do on the day, and hopefully finish.
Any other last minute advice for the day of?
I tried to capture and summarize the various advice I have received. Probably both missed something and am over thinking it:
I am sure all the Minnesotans in this thread know full well but the flies and mosquitos there are aggressive! I can only imagine riding through the night with lights.
Haven’t seen it mentioned but you all use bug spray?
So cool you’ll be doing the DAMn!
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