Im pretty sure this question may have been answered but if it has, please direct me towards it.
I am joining a LeTape Race on 4th of June 2022. The goal of this race is to just enjoy the route. no pressure of winning just completing the 140km route within 6 hours (8hours cut-off).
I just finished my base phase and going into build. What id like to seek for advice is, before the 4th of June, i will be riding to the venue with a couple of my mates (just for fun).
31st May - 160km
1st June - 140km
2nd June - 160km
3rd June - Rest
4th June - 140km race day.
I am more worried about the route goin to the event instead of the event itself. Im wondering if i will have enough mileage in the legs just by continuing my mid volume plan. like do i substitute my 1:30hrs weekend TR workouts (threshold and ss) to 3 hours endurance workout?
hope i can hear some answers or just direct me to the solution. THANKS TR PEEPS!
I think we need a little more info about what sort of weekly hours youâve been doing. Have you ridden this sort of block before? In the end thereâs no magic formula that will say âyouâre 100% ready,â but the larger the jump in hours/tss the more uncomfortable and the higher the potential for injury. Itâs close enough to the start date now, that I would personally not make big changes to my training. I might consider trying to stack a few longer days next to each other this week to see how your body handles it, but I wouldnât dramatically adjust my total weekly volume.
I think the most important thing is being honest with your riding partners about how youâre feeling and what you need both ahead of time and during the ride.
thanks for the reply bro. yea well this is how it looks like for the past 4 weeks (everyweek was like this, 3 TR workouts, 1 hard outdoor ride, 1 recovery ride)
Not seeing anything longer than about 2 hours in your post above. Have you done any hill sessions of up to around 4 hours, seeing as you are looking at 6 hours of hills during the event? Iâd get some long hill sessions in the legs if you havenât already.
If you have the time on the weekends then you should 100% do longer endurance rides.
This close to the event it will be a balance to not be too tired. What is your history with longer rides? If you rarely go over 2 hours, then I would maybe keep them a bit shorter (3-3.5hr) or do one shorter one (2.5ish) and one longer (4+). These rides will give you a chance to practice your fueling and the back-to-back rides will let you know how it feels to spend lots of hours on the bike. You not only have to fuel on the bike and between the rides but just things like uncomfortable bib shorts can become painfully obvious when you do weekends like that when they might not if you only do 2x1.5hr rides.
Especially if you are not looking to âraceâ these rides then your top end power is not super important. But what could really be your limiting factor is if you are not used to fueling for these long rides. 80+g/hr of carbs on the bike and then basically eating everything in side in between.
hey bud. thanks for taking the time to reply. yes ive been looking at the workouts for tomorrow morning. thinking of doing a 3ish hour one and about the same on sunday to see how i do.
all i know is i just need to spin my legs for at least 4 hours apparently (outdoor rides) in order to train the muscle endurance. so im gonna assume 3 hour continuous spin indoor would be sufficient?
will also practice refuelling. 80g/h? i always thought its 40g l. but thanks for the input bro. I will def aim around that.
3hr indoors would be pretty good. Iâm not sure I agree with the whole âan indoor ride is equal to a longer outdoor rideâ thing but if 3 hours is what you have time for then do that.
How many longer outdoor rides have you done recently? On those longer rides I think itâs valuable to do them outside for a couple reasons. You have to keep the power lower on the hills and that can be a bad habit that a lot of people have. Also, for fueling, on the trainer itâs easy to have enough and be consistent cause itâs all right there and you have nothing else to distract you from watching the clock and eating frequently. But outside, youâve got lots of distractions and it can take a concerted effort to keep on top of your fueling while navigating the route, hills, towns, etc.
It was previously preached that the limit of fueling on the bike was lower. But now it seems that you are able to train yourself to consume much more (especially the sport specific stuff with a mix of glucose and fructose). I eat ~100g/hr on most of my rides and up to around 120 during races. The limiter seems to be gut distress so if youâre not used to it donât go crazy but itâs worth trying to eat more. Also remember that during these 6ish hour rides there is a good chance that you will essentially be riding through lunch and so the calories you eat on the bike will partially be making up for this missed meal. If you only eat 400 cal on the bike when you are burning between 400 and 600 every hour youâve dug yourself a pretty big hole. And doing that 5 days in a row can be hard to make up off the bike.
Again, itâs something to experiment with and your personal limit can be different but can also be trained. But in general, eat as much as you can on the bike without any gut distress and you will almost certainly ride better for that ride and recover better for the next one.
