Best plan for an ultra-ultra-ride

Hi all, looking for a bit of advice, or to have my plan validatedšŸ˜€ Iā€™m a 52yr old, working full time, started cycling just over 6yrs ago, FTP of 249, weighing 84kg and love ultra endurance stuff. Did a few sportives around Ireland but during lockdown starting using the big Z virtual thingy, did a vEveresting on it then did an IRL Everesting last year. Did a 24hr race on a motor racing track here in Ireland last year covering 450km, did it again this July and completed over 660km. Thatā€™s my background. Now what Iā€™m planning. Iā€™m looking at doing Mizen to Malin to Mizen, thatā€™s the Southern most point in Ireland to the Northern most point and back again, a distance of 1200km with 8,500m of elevation gain. The big thing is going to be getting hours in the legs (and arse), but over the winter Iā€™m looking to get myself a good base to build on. With this in mind Iā€™ve started on the ā€œSustained Power Buildā€ plan, mid volume for now, with the plan being to repeat it with high volume and (hopefully) higher FTP once Iā€™m finished in November. I canā€™t find any plan aimed at this kind of distance so, I think, this is my best option. Any thoughts or advice would be most appreciated.

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If you do a forum search for ā€œaudaxā€ youā€™ll find a bunch of threads and discussion for very long distance rides.

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Hi Dec - Iā€™m doing Audaxes (this year) and next, hopefully PBP which will be 1200km in August. Iā€™ll be doing the default plan, Base ā†’ Build ā†’ Speciality on the Low Volume. That gets me 3 quality turbo workouts per week and then I supplement with 2-3 commutes during the week and 1 long ride on the weekend. Worked well this year and will follow the same next year. Just reading up on the Plan phase lengths to determine when I need the new plan to start (current one ends today).

Thatā€™s kind of what Iā€™m thinking of, except I had the base work done so started on the Build phase. Sustained power looks to me to be the best plan, with a couple of S&C sessions each week, to see me over the winter and then look at it again in the New Year with a few to increasingly time on the bike. Iā€™m aiming for about 52/53hrs in total for the trip so Iā€™ll need to be able to sustain a decent power output for a long time

I did a 3-day ride this year and my power average dropped by 14% each day!
My conclusion is donā€™t expect too much from power readings (expectations) over that long an event.
See my reply post here on the Audaxing thread

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Thanks David, that ties in with my expectations/hope/plan. The 24hr I did this year was at an average speed of 31kph and NP of 175, my aim for this is 25kph and NP of 150 so close enough to your 14% drop. Definitely going to read through more of the Audax threads on here, very interesting stuff

Thatā€™s the length of London Edinburgh London right? 50 hours total or moving time?

Looking at 52/53hrs total time. Thereā€™s a couple of different routes one is 1,170km with 9500m climbing and the other is 1,260 with 8,500. Either way the bulk of the climbing is in the 1st & last 200k (South of the country) and the middle 200 where Iā€™d turn at the North, the midlands are practically flat so Iā€™m looking at the possibility of using a TT bike for that to get the avg speed up a bit

get in as many long long rides as you can (building up to them!). back to back 6h rides are gold for this type of thing if you can make the time on your days off