So I’ve registered to another race. This one will be early may, 1200km / 16000m of elevation gain of hard gravel / easy MTB. No crazy long climbs, but lots of short, punchy climbs. The finishing time is 7.5 days, but I hope I can do it in about 6 days.
Whats your plan?
I’ve done SSB1 MV and I’m currently on the last week of Trad Base 1 HV (since my country was on lockdown and I’m working from home I figured that it was the best way to spend my time). Now I was considering:
- Trad Base 2 HV (with a one week break between christmas and new year, when I will not be home and be less serious about my diet)
- SSB2 HV to start 2021
- Sustain Power Build HV until 1 week before my first event
- One week with slightly less TSS (or less time on the bike and more swimming / running) and then the event starting on Sunday, May 2nd
I will also have a 2 weeks holidays in February, so I’ll probably go and ride looking for the sun. I’ll mess my training plan but if I don’t use my paid leave days I’ll lose them so…
In 2021 my country should not be on lockdown anymore so I plan to go and ride quite a lot on the week-ends. Basically I will probably use the week days workouts for VO2max and stuff like that and do endurance training the week-ends with 10+ hours rides and nights in the wild (for training, but also because I love and need that).
I also need to shed 10kg so I’ll continue monitoring my food intake and add some easy workouts during the weeks (running and/or swimming).
My three fears / points of attention :
- overtraining : I consider myself fairly sporty, but I’m usually the all-or-nothing kind (like no sport for 6 months and then thru-hiking for 6 months). It’s the first time I follow structured planning and I don’t want to burn myself out (physically or mentally)
- saddle sores and bike positioning: trainerroad will not help that much for that, so I need those week-ends to try and make things reliable. I’ve already done a 300km day, but the following day I could barely sit on the saddle…
- recuperation: I need to train those legs to do long days back to back. This is what trainerroad is made for!
Do you think this is a good plan? Are there some specific stuff I should pay more attention?
Note: I have listened a lot of the trainerroad podcasts and I find them very instructive. Nonetheless, I’m quite disappointed there isn’t that many podcasts about ultra-endurance bikepacking events and how to prepare for them (like RAAM, Tour Divide, Trans Am, TCR…). When they talk about ultra-endurance it’s more like Dirty Kansas or Cape Epic, which are differents and I don’t feel I can transpose the information they give.
Does anyone knows good resources about all that (trainerroad podcast or other stuff)?