For long event base building I feel both the Full Distance Triathlon Base and Traditional Base plans look more interesting than Sweet Spot Base. One problem - Traditional Base is not in Plan Builder. Another problem - Triathlon plans are cycle/run/swim plans - if the Full Distance plan was rebalanced for cycling only it would make for an interesting century/fondo/randonneuring base plan for those that benefit from some vo2 work.
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to be honest I’d settle for a good 16-20 week base fitness plan with 8-12 hour/week volume and is more heavily weighted on the z2 end of the pyramid. This is one reason I’m considering 8 weeks of Traditional Base 1 and 2 (plus heavy strength training), followed by 12 weeks of SSB 1 and 2 (maintenance gym work).
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I agree, though I was listening to Mark Beaumont the other day, and he says he does do high intensity workouts , to help with achieving his ultra events. My question is, what is the point training at all for these long events? You will build up the endurance each day while you`re doing your trip. And if you do 2x 200 mile + rides/ week that IS your training. Unless you love being on your bike, then you could get a mtb and play in the woods on techy stuff for some fun
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Mark Beaumont and Michael Broadwith too - two UK ultra guys with top-notch pedigree who both advocate doing plenty of shorter, harder workouts.
What I take from that is that if you want to be competitive at any cycling discipline (up to and including multi-day events) hard, intense workouts are still important to get the best out of yourself.
Many randonneurs and audaxers that I know are happy to put in big miles on the road because they really enjoy that, and they don’t use indoor trainers. They know what they like, and that’s cool.
I went for the unstructured “long miles” approach last year. It built up my mental strength so I no longer doubted that I would be able to finish a 200, 300, 400km ride. That was a MASSIVE confidence boost. But there was a cost; I got pretty good at riding around at 25kph, middle of zone2. I couldn’t go fast, couldn’t race a 25m TT.
This year, I’m going for a diet of sweetspot and even longer sweetspot. Efforts of up to 3 hours at an uncomfortable pace. The hope is that it will both pull up my all-day audax pace, and also allow me to pace myself for “hard” efforts of 50-100km in the middle of those rides.
For me, the target is to be able to hold 250W for 4hours. That should allow me to hang out at the pointy end of any of our audax events - which I was struggling to do in 2019.
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That is basically the route I am taking: 1) Sweet spot throughout the winter 2) The season sprinkled with Vo2 Max.
All the other years I’ve just let my events be my training (it works, I do a lot of them). Winters have been a weak point.
Moved the trainer out into the garage now (it’s a bomb shelter, literally, so it stays cool). I won’t be using it that much during the season now, so it takes up too much room inside.
The hair of the dog that bit you … planning on another 400 this coming weekend.
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And that is why our clubs have a series and the 1200’s require completion of a series.
With regard to your bombing of the recent 400, that is normal and expected. I’ve only got a few seasons under my belt, but the first 300 and 400 of the year are always terrible. You’re adding five hours to your longest ride in what, six months when going from a 200 to a 300 and from a 300 to a 400? To your body, that’s uncharted territory. Just be glad you have the mental strength from prior years to rely upon.
With regard to plan builders post ride rest, of course it has no idea what to do with a 15 hour 300 and a 20 hour 400. Personally, I manually enter the expected TSS and then smooth out my average by skipping a planned ride ahead of the event and two or three rides post event. That keeps the average daily / weekly TSS, but allows more recovery time. Sounds like you’re doing the same.
Btw, I still have a couple of 1200’s scheduled for late summer on my calendar that have not cancelled yet. Knock on wood that one of them happens. It’s tough to train and do a series without a light at the end of the tunnel.
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I’m signed up for the LOL 1200 in your neighborhood (very likely be cancelled) and the Iron Porcupine which I’m using as my “A race” in TR.
I’ve been doing 200’s every two or three weekends to keep the endurance base high and finally knocked out a solo 300 this past weekend. Only one stop for water the whole 300 to minimize contact! Will do another 300 this month and then both a 400 and 600 in June if the Porcupine is still on…
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Hi, I am a fellow Audax rider. I use TR during the winter to get a higher FTP. 2 hours on a Smart trainer in ERG mode in sweet spot gives a reasonable workout. As spring better weather has arrived i have swapped 1hr TR rides for 50-60mile road rides. You can always use the TR ride as warmup before going out on the road, this something i have just started doing. The thing to be aware of is you still need to build in recovery. You do not need to ride 125miles to train for a 200KM ride. Earlier comments are correct in you have to ride at 0.7 of your threshhold level to be realistic finishing. It is all to easy to go to hard at the start and blow up in the last 40km to go. Fuelling is critical from the begining and drinking also. I am planning for LEL next year. TR will be used for maintaining fitness over the winter and build on the gains of this year.
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My dream race. But I’m a rank novice. Any tips for a prospective Audaxer?
Hi, Not a short answer.
You say Novice. I take it you cycle some?
The main thing to start with is do short rides to begin with, train for a century ride. I would build to do 100km audax. Although they are all suspended just now. The main thing when doing audax rides is not to go to fast. Get in with a bunch to save energy. Take some food with you eat and drink regularly. If you are a novice cyclist. Then your rides as i say start with short say 20 mile rides, do not add more than 5% distance per week. I would not recommend initially more than 2-3 rides per week to start with. I would as you add more miles. Do one day on one day off. Give yourself recovery days. Learn your body feeling. Get plenty of sleep (Sounds obvious aim for 8-9 hours) , Eat well add a salad a day. When training drink water for short rides , but add an isotonic/ carb drink for longer ride. Once you are doing 50 mile rides. Aim for a 200km audax, then a 300km. These are doable in a day. Hence you gain experience. I would recommend working to 70% Intensity Factor and means you are more likely to finish. The thing to learn is what will you carry on the bike and how? Short events (Yes 200km is seen as short by some). Good water proof not sweat in the bag worth spending money on, i did Paris Brest Paris in 2007 it rained for 2 and 1/2 days. I would recommend Velo Toes to keep feet dry. The point of contact to the bike really important, so saddle and Shorts will be personal to you. I would recommend joining Audax UK, you will get the quarterly magazine (Arrivee) it does have stories and some tips. Good luck and welcome to Audaxing.
I did PBP 2007. That was the hardest of the three I’ve done…by a long shot. Brutal.
Thanks for this and your tips. I’ve been hoping to run into some randonneurs so I’m happy this thread was made.
Not a novice but I’m not a competitive cyclist; I find cycling for cycling and the adventure itself to be more enjoyable than to beat the other guy. I typically do indoor training for 2 hours at a time right now all z2 (edit: I meant z1) in a 3 zone model. I’m starting to ramp up the time after a early year hiatus due to achillies injury during the Festive 500.
I got the Audax bug after doing the Festive 500 in 2018. Weather was terrible but it was thrilling to be outside and cycling for 75-100km at a time. Just felt like a great adventure and I was planning on Audaxing this year but…you kno…Rona happened.
Still on the bike indoors but can’t wait to finally get outside now that my Achilles is fine.
Oh I meant z1. Got the zones all mixed up in my mind.
Z2 in a typical model, Z1 for Polarized.
Sorry for the confusion
[quote=“clasher, post:30, topic:35235, full:true”] I haven’t been outside for anything more than imperial century
[/quote]
Something only an Audaxer would say. 
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Hah, I had Covid-19 back in March - I’ve only just manage to ride a short distance; 50 miles on Saturday
I’m an audax, long-distance rider, based in the UK. I did PBP last year and the Transalba 2019 (1700km race around Scotland). I am REALLY missing it all but loved seeing these pictures - thank you.
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I still have the Iron Porcupine in my calendar, but I have cancelled. I can’t see it happening safely. By that I mean, I can’t see that it will be safe to travel and pass through Chicagoland. The ride itself might be remote enough, but it involves a lot of risk taking to get there.
No idea when I will actually work on this. It is Apache licensed, so TR could use the work we do (if anyone ever actually does work). If TR using the code is our end goal, perhaps something easier to read like Python would be easier so we can get the algorithms correct. Then again, maybe whatever TR uses would be useful (which I think is C#, and yeah, no way I am personally doing that right now).
In any case, PRs welcome.
There is no use clicking on the link right now if you aren’t a developer, because currently it doesn’t do anything (I will try to remember to come back and update this when it does something I at least consider useful):
Right now, my focus is on learning Camel, and I am not sure that is the most useful thing for us Randos.
I use that term pretty loosely with myself. I can’t see myself doing more than a 300k because I don’t like riding at night. I suppose it’s at least conceivable in late June that I could do a 400k in daylight in top fitness. I do like the style of riding though, and am an official RUSA member, so there’s that.
if you just read the above then you might find this interesting
https://ultracycling.com/sections/MOVEDarticles/training/intensity_training.php
I have begun doing ultra type distances over the past 2 years. Last winter I used plan builder and chose high volume everything (SS Base and Sustained Build) along with Gran FOndo Specialty. It worked well for me. I did my first Bikepacking Ultra race (The Lost Elephant Ultra) 522km, 9000M, offroad and self supported. I won the event and smashed the course record. I credit a lot of it to TR as I set it as my only race.
I did several 200km training rides in there (on the weekends), but mostly stuck to the plan. I had done an everesting in 2019 which was 320km and 9000m in 20 hours, so I had dabbled in the big stuff.
Jay Petervary, an ultra bikepacking legend, says his training is like most other cyclists with standard intervals and such. He says train with shorter high intensity. The long rides are simply to test your mental preparedness. Once you have done it a couple of times, you really don’t need to do long training rides.
All that to say, I think Sweet Spot Base and Sustained Power Builds are what we need. My novice opinion is that the specialty phases seem rather irrelevant for those of us doing ultras or randonneuring.
I am looking forward to hearing from others on this.
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