The long base ride indoors ... strategies for survival

Yes, Velonews tells us we shouldn’t do long indoor rides. We burn out, we use different muscles, it sucks.

Well, riding 4 hours in a snow storm at 5am sucks as well. And I do not have the flexibility with my time slots. But I have goals. To reach these I have to do long rides.

So let’s share some strategies on how to make >3h rides more bearable. Strategies that make time fly by.

I’m talking here about low intensity rides. For higher intensity I find it pretty easy, see today’s ride for example:

grafik

Simply add some intensity over the course of the ride and you get some distraction. But what about when staying at low intensity?

  • make chunks, e.g. between my intensity 5 min chunks. This seems to be the main strategy implemented by longer low intensity TR workouts
  • hop off the bike every x minutes and do some strength training
  • be mentally prepared, set a clear session goal: today I ride 4 hours
  • I often find the first hour the most difficult. Starting at some lower-low intensity and reading a newspaper of book helps.

More to come …

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I have some thoughts and will add them soon.

Entertainment:

  • Choose at least one, but likely 2 or more sources. You may not like one or the other once you are in the moment, so having some options is handy.

Comfort:

  • Consider the common suggestions; stand frequently, maybe use two pairs of bibs, take a break off bike as needed.
  • A rocker plate or even a thicker foam mat can add some motion that relieves pressure on the saddle support.
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I haven’t done in a long indoor base ride in a while, but I used to - what worked for me was to basically split it into 2 workouts - I’d do a 1-1.5 hour TR workout on my kickr, then hop over onto my rollers and do a z2 ride for another 1.5-2 hours on Zwift. Kind of mixed things up a little bit and moving to the rollers (even though they’re e-motion rollers so it’s easier) kept me more mentally engaged.

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Find some quality entertainment!

I provided some thoughts in the other thread we had on this podcast:

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Thanks for the idea. Will try. I just started my winter season in preparation for a long ride in January. So far I can do 2 hours with no issue. But NOT two consecutive days.

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I did Allegheny on Sunday. Over 3 hours of zone 2 staring at a garage door. I listened to podcasts and music only and got through it ok.

I took 1 break to feed the kids breakfast and also stood every 20-30mins to ease the comfort.

I’m tempted by zwift to help but given I got through this and unlikely to do many rides over 3hrs I think I may be ok.

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I did my first “indoor century” in 2008 (before indoor cycling was such a “thing”) on a computrainer and have done many since so that’s where I’m coming from.

Is Zwift a possibility? If I can bang out the first hour on a group ride at the appropriate pace that is a good start. Then it’s movie time! Yay!!! Popcorn! So that gets us to 2 1/2-3 hours in, for the last 60-90 minutes I’d need either a second movie (but a little more exciting than movie #1) or switch to shorter youtube stuff. Some kind of athletic competition at the end helps me too, I kinda like the CrossFit games, ultra running events, RAAM documentaries, Ironman world champs, motocross, big wave surfing.

For comfort, standing for a designated time at a regular interval helps me…say 3-5 minutes every 10-20 minutes or whatever. Fans, nutrition. But it’s gonna hurt, there’s no getting around it (it’s just weakness leaving the body, it’s OK)

I’m off caffeine unless I “need” it so that can help with motivation potentially. Use it as a performance enhancing drug!

You go 4-5 hours without coasting even for a second, that’s got to be a good thing, doesn’t it?

I’m gonna steal a phrase but a long indoor ride is 90% mental, the other half is physical. It’s like “palate fatigue” in a race…you gonna let that stop you!!! You have to cry in the dojo to laugh on the battlefield. If you need a 4 hr ride per week then, literally, just do it.

Joe

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Can you just clarify, what is your issue here? Is it boredem with doing such long indoor rides or discomfort? I fall squarely in the discomfort camp. I attempted a 3hr session last weekend but had to pull the plug at 2hrs 15 as various parts of my body (feet, knees, undercarriage) were in pain that was becoming unbearable. I’m not sure exactly what causes such a difference between indoor and outdoor riding for me (I have no problem doing 6 or 7 hour rides outdoors) but I just cannot handle much more than 2hrs on the trainer. I’m going to have to live with that and make do with harder 1.5 hr sessions instead of long Z2 sessions when the weather is too bad to venture outside.

I don’t know how you guys do these long rides on trainers.

I’ll throw out one N+1: Matt Hayman did two a days on a trainer in the prep before his Paris Roubaix win. He had crashed out of the previous race and couldn’t ride on the road.

He did 1.5 hours twice a day. I guess he felt 3 hours per day was enough to stay in shape for a 6-7 hour race. I’ve been thinking about this strategy for myself this winter. Maybe do 2 x 1 hour 2-3 days per week. Right now I’m putting in 7-8 hours per week but that would get me over 10.

Whiel the specifics may vary, the point here is great…break the ride up into chunks, that way you feel like you are making progress instead of doing one thing for the whole time.

I persoanlly like a series that sucks me in and I can knock out multiple episodes, but each one gives me a mental break. I also only let myself watch the series when on the trainer, shich cam motivate me to get on the bike.

But I really like the idea of mixing up some Zwift group rides, then switching over to some steady Z2 work while wathicn something on TV, etc.

I used similar strategies to get through my IM attempts. Broke every thing into chunks, instead of thinking about the whole thing…so the bike at IMWI was broken into the “stem” going out to the main loop, then the first loop to Special Needs, then the second loop, then the “stem” back into Madison.

I remember being surprised the first year as I was coming into Special Needs…“Holy crap…I am already halfway through the bike” but it didn’t feel like it.

So give some mid-point changes to focus on rather than the whole thing.

Oh…one other thing. When I did my first indoor centrury, I ran Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame back to back. Was basically one long movie and totally engrossed me for 5+ hours.

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This interests me…

I have long wanted to try the Traditional Base plans, but simply don’t have 3+ hours at once during a weekday to devote to riding. I could however easily fit in 2 x 1.5 hour timeslots, and weekends are no problem.

So, not to derail this thread, but what am I losing by splitting a 3 hr base ride into 2 x 1.5 (one in the AM and one in the PM)?

This might also be an effective strategy for OP’s question… split it into 2 rides rather than one long slog.

I guess what you are losing is the time riding fatigued and glycogen depleted in the 3rd hour of the ride.

Still, we are mortals without pro contracts to all day to ride so you do what you’ve got to do. If one is racking up an extra 3 hours per week doing double days then that is 150 hours per year. That’s a good bump in volume for a lot of folks.

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And if you are still able to do the longer continuous rides on the weekend then you should be all good.

On long indoor rides I usually am fine with Zone2 effort levels, struggled a bit more with my head not staying focused, but mostly with my seat and bottom… i just cant sit for such a log time indoors, even getting out of the saddle does not help much.
Is there anything I should take care off regarding my sitting position…

Not necessarily. If you do a (highish intensity) ride in the evening, and don’t eat after and do the another one in the morning before breakfast you are more or less in a depleted state as well.