Training for ultra-distance

[Shanx]

@bobw

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.

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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.

I feel like there has been some misconception. I already have a lot of experience: I’ve hiked more than 10’000km, with some very long hikes (Continental Divide Trail, 5 months, 4500km) or some very harsh (Jordan and Iceland thru-hikes, winter hikes in the Alps). I know myself quite well, and I definitely know my kit very well (and, incidentally, I’ve use a Cumulus quilt for more than 250 nights). I’ve also traveled by bike for 5 months in Patagonia (and I was planning to go all the way to Alaska but Covid19 made me come home). Since I’ve come home, I’ve done several multi-days cycling trips (up to 2 weeks) with a minimal bikepacking kit.

My setup for a 2-weeks easy MTB trip with camping gear and 3 days worth of food

My questions were only on the cycling preparation side of things. Of course, I’m always interested if you have some experiences to share, but I feel quite prepared kit and experience wise.

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.

While I would not say I’m seriously overweight (my ego would not like that), my BMI is 28.5 so I definitely need to lose some weight and not only for the sake of being faster on the bike. Loosing 10kg would make my BMI 25, which is more healthy anyway.

I’ve always had troubles monitoring what I eat, and I’ve found that having this kind of challenges (registering for cycling events) helped tremendously.

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.

I think I can already manage 3 days of 200km if the elevation gain is moderate. But elevation is quite my nemesis: I’ve done 3 days of 150km / 3000m of elevation multiple times and the 4rth day I always toasted.

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 .

I get that ultra-endurance is niche, but I would argue it is less and less so. Even so, how many people are interested in ultra-endurance / travel by bike? If you compare with people actually engaging in crit, I don’t think the numbers would be too far, and yet the trainerroad podcast talks about crit almost every episode.

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.

I definitely don’t want to compete with those guys. I want to do this for me, to have a goal and help me becoming better as a cyclist and healthier in general.