Hi All, Just looking for some advice in respect of training for a multi day ride next year. The plan is to get long rides in at a weekend and compliment these with sessions in the week on the trainer. The ride will be mountainous but not a race, Should I be almost exclusively be riding tempo / sweet spot intervals?
If you’re training for a multi day ride, I’d not focus on the higher power bands. Most of your riding will be in zone 1 and 2, with occasional periods in 3 and short bursts of 4 (maybe).
In order to get the most from your target ride, try to build up longer and longer sessions to immitate the riding you’ll be doing.
I was in Norway in July and did just over 800km in 8 days with 15,500m climbing. I did some proper hill efforts mixed in with that, but most of my riding was low end zone 2 and I could have continued on in that vein indefinitely. You’d think you’d get tired doing 100km and 2000m every day, but your body just gets used to it.
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I am working for similar goal, with preferred weekly layout like this:
i.e. hard day / long day are back-to-back to get accustomed to work when fatigued. AE in workout name means going by Z2 HR, not power.
If you can’t do long day in middle of week, then maybe do hard days on Tue/Thu and long days back-to-back on weekends. VO2max + SS are good candidates for hard days if you are in forever base loop. If not, then consider following reverse periodization: get high intensity stuff early in season and as goal event nears, specialize more and more for longer rides with event-specific intensity.
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Hey there, and welcome to the TR community!
As @JonInSweden mentioned, you’ll likely spend most of your time in zones 1 and 2. As such, focusing on your muscular endurance will be key – so I think you’re on the right track with targeting Tempo and Sweet Spot intervals for your mid-week trainer sessions.
Make sure to stay on top of your nutrition/hydration as well, especially on your longer training rides (and, of course, during the ride itself!). Take note of how your bike fit feels on some of your longer rides too so you can make any changes if needed.
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