I’m doing training for Vätternrundan 315km, but i only get long sessions at 150min at the longest which seems abit too little as a preparation.
Is there a way to increase the viable distances for the ai or do i have to manually increase it myself?
For reference I’m aiming for a sub 10h
Hey @SlimJim88,
Welcome to the forum! 
You can set a maximum duration cap for each day of the week in Plan Builder.
Click on the name of your plan when logged in on the web and then click “Edit Plan” as shown below.
From there, you can change the maximum workout duration that will be prescribed for each workout.
Keep in mind that you don’t need to train ultra-long hours to prepare for a long event. You just need enough training stimulus to get your body to adapt and get stronger!
Whenever I see this my mind asks “but is this actually true?” I can certainly understand that from a fitness POV it might be correct, but from a ‘butt sitting on a saddle’ or ‘how much do I need to eat/drink’ or ‘how does my body react to that’ POV I still think that, if someone is doing a long event’ some training days of at least close to the expected time should be included, even if they are at low intensity.
Thank you that made the trick!
And it’s more that i want some time in the saddle and having the ai decide so i have a rough idea of when and how i should increase the duration.
I don’t want to do a 10hour race and only done 2.5h in saddle at most before.
I like this idea and it’s something I’ve mentioned before.
You could have the option to treat a cycling plan like a marathon plan where the long runs get progressively longer as you approach the race.
I do think it could be tricky to plan for rides longer than six hours, but maybe we could figure that out.
I’l pass your feedback along to the team! 
Not doing longer rides does seem to be saying specificity of training doesn’t matter.
I’m thinking your long rides should go up to 11.
I completely understand that we put TR in a position where if the plan isn’t customizable to the nth degree, there are always going to be people who want something else, and they have to make decisions and compromises that they feel will benefit the largest number of end users. I understand that and support it 100%.
Having said that, I’ve listened to the “you don’t need to do long rides to do long events” kind of advice before, and while you may finish, you also may finish completely smoked, sore, and wishing you could never throw a leg over a saddle again. I’ve been there. Spent a whole season training indoors, max ride length of maybe 2 hours, etc., then went out and did a 6+ hour event in high heat, where my stomach hated all of the food available on course, they ran out of water at the aid stations so I couldn’t make my own mix, etc. I finished, after stopping multiple times to work on cramps, and literally taking turns pedaling with one leg while I stuck the other straight out trying not to cramp worse. It was absolutely terrible! Now, I’m not saying that will happen to everyone, or even anyone else, but I’ll never do an event again that I haven’t trained for the kind of event and in the kind of conditions and with the kind of foods I’ll be experiencing. YMMV
I’m so happy to know I’m not the only one old enough to think about Spinal Tap every time I see his name.
Im not sure that’s entirely correct, shorter rides at race intensity still reflect specificity. But as you imply, I’d be focussing on gaining bike fitness then focus more on long endurance - build then speciality phases, essentially.
It should be a balance that fits the athlete first and foremost, imho.
Personally, I think you only truly need long rides to determine whether you can actually pull off a long ride. I’ve done plenty of 8+ hour rides, and I know I can do a 12 hour ride. The key thing to know is if you can turn the pedals for that long, and if something like your back, neck, or knees are going to fail on you.
Long rides are incredibly depleting. Before unbound 200, I did two 8 hour rides in a month. I think they actually reduced my fitness for the actual race, because I wasn’t able to hit my intervals for quite a few days after each ride.
In those long races, the efforts are so variable that a solo long ride doesn’t match up well. In a race you might have some big surges or periods of high output to stay with a group, but then extended periods of group riding with very low output. Being able to make those big efforts and recover is critical, and intervals are very effective for training that.
Don’t forget we’ve got a new movie coming out soon! 
The guys from my band in high school are talking about all flying back to the scene of the crime and having a guys weekend to see it!
It sounds like there were a lot of factors at play here.
Riding over six hours in the heat with a bunch of random food that you don’t like and not having enough water is pretty much a guaranteed way to suffer miserably and experience severe cramping.
Would getting in a few 6-hour rides in training have fixed those issues? Absolutely not.
It’s impossible to say now, but I do wonder what would have happened had you been able to fuel and hydrate properly. 
A counterpoint would be that they depleted you because you hadn’t done enough rides like that and then did 2 in the month before the race.
N=1, but I was doing 6-8 hour rides fairly regullary (and often followed the next day w/ 4+ hour rides) and was able to complete my regular workouts during the week with no issues.
Which I guess is another way of talking about “durability”.
I had always been of the mindset of needing to do the distance before the event until I went with a coach about 10months prior to the Mallorca 312. He instantly cut my volume and prior to the event I did a lot of interval training (45-65minutes) and a few flat imperial centuries (the 312 was probably 20 times the climbing and twice the length). The training got me through, not with an impressive sub 10hr time but my excuse the dodgy stomach (through up dinner and through up breakfast) that saw me doing the event on an empty stomach was not just nerves but the start of a bowel cancer. I’m now firmly of the mindset that you don’t need to do the event before the event but a little extra Z2 volume doesn’t hurt. Good Luck!
Mallorca 312 on a dodgy Stomach :-o | Ride | Strava
This. Doing one long ride just to check that box and mentally say you can do it. Doesn’t have to be the full length, 75% duration can prep you while you work out pacing and fueling. Things will hurt, they might not be things you expect or new niggles might pop up. Some of that training is getting comfortable with being uncomfortable and deciding if you are truly suffering or not. For me, finding a training plan that is consistent/maintainable and mimics the flow and elevation of the race is more effective than practicing going super long and then having to take time off the bike to recover. I spent over 8 hours on my bike during a 100k MTB race last year yet most of my training was 1-3 hour sessions mixing in punchy hard efforts and 2-3 minute climbs as the course was “death by 1000 cuts”. I started a big specific training block 6 weeks out with a proper taper (had been focusing on sweet spot before that). I then “chunked” the race into three blocks mentally/using lap timer. My legs felt amazing during that race! My hands felt destroyed and still have some lingering soreness. I’d done many metric and full centuries before and had never had hand issues. If I had to do it again, I’d do it the same way. Obviously YMMV but perhaps if you throw in longer ride, do it a ways out from the event so you can recover and then follow the plan. Good luck.
Absolutely true, which I would have known if I had trained for longer rides outdoors and practiced fueling them. That can’t be done when your longest ride is indoors in a cooled room and 2 hours long. That was my point.
Yes, had you done some long rides outside with the proper nutrition/hydration under the same weather conditions, you could likely guarantee whether or not that approach “works,” but unfortuantely, it wouldn’t have helped you in the situation you were in.
At the end of the day I think it’s important for us to remember that it’s okay to be uncomfortable during big events. Not eveything has to be completely familiar and something we’ve done before. It’s okay to push the boundries and explore our limits.
In terms of fueling/hydration, those equations should already be worked out come race day, and it’s not always possible to create test scenarios where you’re riding at race pace for 8+ hours. Fueling and hydration are different depnding on your effort level, so trying to fuel with your race strategy on an easy 8 hour ride isn’t going to feel/work the same as it will come race day when you’re really going for it.
You won’t simulate an 8 hour race effort either, but you could simulate a 2, 3 or 4 hour hard effort and if the fueling strategy works there, I’d be willing to be that it’s going to do pretty well during longer events.
There are limits to everything, but we can’t test them all, and it’s okay to learn things during events. There also quickly comes a point where once you’ve done something, you have a better feel for it. With that logic, I’d say that you don’t need to push training to the extremem before each event. After a couple of long, hard efforts under your belt, you should know what works best for you for the next one.
Sounds like we mostly agree. I just think it’s better to have practiced a bit more prior to the event so that it’s a more positive experience.
