RAAM Training using TrainerRoad

I just joined a relay team to compete in the 2020 Race Across America event next June. It’s 3000 miles with 170,000’ of climbing that starts in Oceanside, CA and finishes in Annapolis, MD. We have nine days to finish. With the number of teammates, I only need to be prepared to ride about 60 miles per day for nine straight days. The course profile is all over the map with the low point in Death Valley in the heat to 12,000’ elevation through Colorado. I’m 64 and have been on TrainerRoad for nine months. Started with an ftp of 190 and now am at ftp of 244 (3.55 ftp/kg). It’s really helped contribute to my grand fondo and triathlon performances this year. Has anyone out there used Trainerroad as part of an ultra endurance event such as this? I’m also a runner to and generally transition to half-marathon and marathon events starting in the fall. My challenge is finding balance over the next several months while building up to be able to ride 400 plus miles a week leading up to next June.
Thanks
Craig

1 Like

We trained a 4 person relay team two seasons ago, using Trainer Road for 3 of the 4 riders. Worked out great; the team was Mixed Gender +50 and they set the 4 person record for the event. Being a 4 person team they had to ride continuous rotating 6 hour shifts of 2 riders. So we used a customer plan but built totally from Chad’s baselines with some tweaking to deal with the concept that the train never stops with only 4 people. At 60 hours a day for the nine day crossing and the bigger team you should be well served by sustained power mid volume plan.

In the end not killing the crew turned out to be much harder than keeping the riders from exhaustion

Thanks for the feedback. We will have a six or eight person team for next year. Fortunately, we have time to work through the training plans. The added dimension for me is that I also race triathlons and half marathons in the mix. I’ll be busy for the next 9 months figuring this all out.

Hi Ratz

Do you have more details on the plan? would love to access it. We are a team of 4 preparing for RAAM in 2020 and we dont have a structured plan yet.

Cheers
Pierre

I have not seen this plan yet. My team is an eight person team. I’m looking at ideas to build my own. I’m a triathlete as well and will have to integrate my individual training to accommodate my run and swim training through the spring until I purely focus on the bike for RAAM.

Here’s the spreadsheet you want.
https://us.workplace.datto.com/filelink/57727-212543ef-3639f109c1-2

This is a tailored training plan for Ultra Cycling. These plans are for people targeting events >= 12 hours long. It Includes a plan for Sebring training that can be used by itself, that plan feathers into full on RAAM training. The RAAM training assuming you’ll be riding on a 4-8 person relay team and putting out repeated efforts that hurt.

Thx. Will check this out.

Is this still available?

I ended up using the new feature training plan to build my plan. Only took a few minutes and it created 5 months of training. The feature to switch sessions between indoor and outdoor is great.

3 Likes

Sorry for the delay. Life happened; yes it’s still available if the link isn’t working (actually hard for me to test because it’s on my account) let me know and I’ll post a new copy

No worries, link brings me to a login screen??? If you can make available would love to see it

Try this one folks