It sounds like you are jumping into this at the deep end and going “tell me what I need to know”, I’m sure that some with a similar tale/attitude have done the RAAM, etc. but most have worked their way up from shorter events and dealing with problems (and learning from them) along the way. Not many people can shortcut that experience.
A few points.
Weight: unless you are seriously overweight, don’t worry about it, a bit of on-board fuel isn’t that much of a problem. Many multi-day riders start several kg “overweight” as they know that no matter what they do they’ll run a calorie deficit so they’ve got something in the bank as it were.
Saddle sores/bike fit: this is one you’ve just to work out for yourself. When I started doing long distance events I’d be fine up to 8/10hrs then at about 12hrs I’d start to get nerve damage in my fingers. It took eighteen months of adjusting one thing then going for a long ride, wait a month for the feeling to come back, try something else before I got things sorted.
recuperation: ultimately you’ve just got to do long days in the saddle at a pace that you think you can maintain for the duration of the event. Use TR to work on those areas you are weak, usually for long distance riders this is VO2max. There’s no real “magic sauce”, time in the saddle is king but once you know you can do three or maybe four days of 200km or 15hrs a day then there’s nothing much to be gained from doing more since it will only grind you down. Mike Hall did very little long distance rides away from the events for that very reason.
The podcasts: ultra distance stuff is way beyond what the core audience is interested in, an athletics analogy would be the podcast being about the 100m and 200m rather than the marathon. There are takeaways that apply to all distances but it’s one of those things that you almost need to know what you need to takeaway, it’s not flagged as such. Plus of course there’s no reason to repeat what other podcasts are doing. The successful athletes podcast includes some long/ultra distance riders so try those, the recent one (28) is about someone doing a multi-day ride based on just a LV plan. Away from TR there’s the https://bikesordeath.com/ podcast that interviews people like Lael Wilcox, Sofiane Sehili and Josh Kato but it’s not “you need to do X” howto .
There’s three basic rules:
- Look after yourself
- Look after your bike
- Look after yourself
In general ultra-distance is very niche - if I turn up to an ITT event here in the UK I know at least half the riders, a couple of years ago when I went over to France for the French Divide, I knew quite a few of the Brits plus a few of the French. It’s a small world.
While some things seem common, it’s often the case that we’ve got there individually. For example quilts from the Polish company Cumulus are very popular in the UK ITT community, no-one has gone: “these are the best” we’ve just ended up with them for our own reasons.
Preparation for the longer events is really just minor adjustments to the preparation for shorter ones. You need that experience to know what works for you - it doesn’t matter what other riders do. No problem in using their setup as a starting point but it’s just that, a starting point. My kit list now is nothing like what it was a few years ago both in what I take and how I distribute it around the bike.
You also have to know yourself - I’m not exactly young and there’s no way I can keep up with the likes of Lael Wilcox so there’s no point in even trying. On the French Divide we had a lead out car for the start - we were doing 50km/h on the flat on loaded mountain bikes! Turned off the road and I pulled up and took a photo of the lead group heading off. I’d have lasted half an hour if I’d tried to keep up with them.
Edit:
There’s a fat bike race in Alaska called the ITI - Iditarod Trail Invitational race. The full race is over 1000 miles long (1600km) in winter. To be able to enter it you have to have finished the shorter 350 mile version. Both races start at the same time so that means at least one year between doing the short race and the long one. To be able to enter the ITI 350 you have to have done a number of shorter qualifying events, since entries take place in December that means at least another year or two. It’s quite possible that if you decided to do the full ITI now it would be four or five years before you were on the start line.
In the case of the ITI, it’s a safety thing - being out in the wilds of Alaska when it’s -40 you need to be able to deal with a lot.
Again, following this thread. A few of these 24 hour Pros are on social media now, and like I said, I’m following close. though i don’t have time for 4 hour Tempo rides Tuesday and Thursday like they do.
in that I can do a 30km loop not going more than 5km from the house with 1100m of ascent.