Hello,
I will cross the Alps from Oberstdorf/Germany to Riva/Italy end of July 2024 with the MTB.
It is a 7 day trip with luggage, with more than 400 km and 16.000 altitude meters. Average riding time per day would be 7 to 8 hours. Each day there are two summits/mountain passes to reach or cross. 7 weeks before the AlpCross, will be a training camp with 4 days, 50km and 7.000 altitude meters occur.
I have selected a trainingplan with Gran Fondo and stages, but I am not sure if this is the best fitting choice…?
I am also surprised, that TrainerRoad recommended 3 intervall workouts and only one outside ride with 1,5 hours duration. It is hard to believe that only one outside workout with 1.5 hours duration should be enough to be prepared for 7 days with 8hours hard riding. Maybe it is my lack of experiences with this new kind of training, but I would feel better, if there is some feedback from experienced people.
Thanks and regards
Stefan
Can’t help with the TR training plan, but there is a good thread here with experiences of people who did the Transalp race, which is sort of similar to your plan: Anyone completed Biketransalp?
TR doesn’t specifically recommend indoor/outdoor workouts, any scheduled ride can be either. Just click on the scheduled workout in the calendar and choose. The default amount of “interval days” for all volumes (Low, Mid, High) is 3 days, with the remaining being endurance. If you prefer 2 days of intervals than choose Masters or Polarized plans. Also, when using Plan Builder (recommended), put in your “A” race and TR will schedule your season leading to when you want to peak. You can alter each day to your choosing if you want to ride more/less hours depending on your availability and needs.
I’d recommend doing General Base, Sustained Power Build and Grand Fondo. Choose the volume that you feel you can handle. Ideally also you’d increase your z2 rides to be longer, particularly a long Sunday z2 ride. TR plans are a good guideline, but don’t be afraid to adjust as you see fit. They are not meant to be rigid and you are your own coach. Training is less like baking with exact ingredients and measurements, rather it’s more like cooking and season to your taste.
Welcome to the TR community! 
The Gran Fondo plan is a great choice for this kind of ride. It sounds like you’ll have a lot of sustained efforts to hold as you make your way over the mountain passes.
As @MI-XC mentioned, you can tweak your plan by changing your preferred volume and by adjusting the duration you’d like to workout each day. Check out these TR Support articles for more on that:
- How to Adjust your Current Plan’s Custom Workout Duration
- How to Change your Plan/Plan Volume with Plan Builder
Also keep in mind that by training the appropriate energy systems for the demands of your riding, you can get in excellent shape for your goals! Here’s another good article that might be useful for you:
Hope this info helps! Feel free to let us know if you have any additional questions.
Thx a lot for your comment.
I follow your recommendation and created a plan with these blocks:
General Base, Sustained Power Build and Grand Fondo
Overall the workouts fits very well - not exhausted, good body feeling, refreshing sleep and fully motivated for the next ride - far away to be overtrained!
All workouts so far have been occured inhouse. But I am really looking forward to do the longer rides outside. How is it possible to calcute the heart rate for z2 rides?
Thx for the welcome - it’s nice to be part of the TR community!
It will be a very interesting time over the next 6 months to train and to see if the TrainerRoad plan is succesful.
So far I am convinced to be on the right track!