@jkc Those 3.5 hour Saturday rides are good, and your plan for 6 big rides looks perfect. I’ve got one century a month on my calendar starting in January. Did the Davis Double in 2017 and had built up enough stamina and fitness (all outside rides) that I did solo centuries as warm ups at 3 weeks and 1 week before the double. To this day nearly all my power PRs from 50 seconds to nearly 3 minutes are from a Wed morning commute just 3 days before the double. I’ve got a Strava KOM on a 1 minute sprint just five days after the double (enough fast guys around here they would take it if they targeted). With my knee issues in the rear view mirror, hoping to science my way back to that level of fitness this year!!
Which doubles are you targeting? I might do Davis Double again, and maybe target two more as I really want to earn the CA Triple Crown jersey this year or next year!
Solvang, Hemet, Davis, Eastern Sierra, & LA Wheelmen’s Grand Tour (highland). Salvang & Hemet are training (and if stars align, Golden Thousand this year and two birds down). Completed LAWGT lowland this year as my first. Actually registered for Davis but settle for the century after catching a cold the week prior, but DNF after trusting my GPS and took a wrong turn after the first rest stop for a short 50 miler. Glad that happened as I missed the rain. If you do Davis, maybe we can rollout (I’m a slow climber).
Agreed. Amazed, yes, but not particularly envious. Indoor stuff up to 1 hr 30 min, is ok (kind a), but once it gets into 2 hours it becomes, literally, a pain in the butt and I do not really believe in their benefits. So much of long distance is more than just pushing the pedals and that mental aspect is not attainable, for me, indoors.
Sorry to hear about that bad experience in the heat and string of 200’s. I ran into heat issues a couple of years ago on a 600. Ended up with urinary tract infections and whatever else could be mixed in. That’s when I dumped the rubberized Brooks saddle (Cambrium). Give me spongy leather any day in those conditions.
I’d like to do it, but I’m injured and don’t know when I can start training properly for it. A number of my club-mates did it last year and enjoyed it.
I’m a randonneur and even with a dash of modesty, I’d have to say a very experienced one.
After a year of the workouts in TrainerRoad, I’m getting close to concluding that the only thing I really need is sweet spot work and sweet spot plans, since they sprinkle in a little variation, and a little variation is all I need.
But as has been mentioned above, physical capacity is only about 30% of what you need in long distance riding. The mental training can only be had by long, murderous rides. You can’t train for it. You have to ride so long that you are thrown down in a deep cold cellar with no obvious way out. Then you have to figure out how to get out. It might be stopping, screaming into the night. When it is so bad that you can’t hold back the tears, then you know "I gotta get a grip. Shit, even if I wanted to DNF (did not finish), where are you? You are 50 km out in vast farmland, on a small road with no traffic. Even if you wanted to DNF, where are you going to go? You have to ride on anyway. The next control is a couple of hours away. Call your wife. Hear a familiar sane voice. Get back on your bike and remind yourself ‘no one can fall asleep on a bike if they push their pulse up into the red’ … " and you ride on, passing others on the way.
Can’t train for that. It just has to be experienced and overcome.
That’s for long rides, of course. It doesn’t happen to me until after 1000 km.
At some point during Day 2, 3, or 4 of every single damn 600+ km event there is a low spot if I’m by myself (which is very likely). Right around when the temperature (high or low) starts getting unbearable and hills all feel super steep to my smashed legs and sleep deprived brain.
You are correct though. That is an untrainable hurdle except through experience, mental fortitude, and a significant other who knows how to text Rule #5 to you.
Regarding training plans, the sustained power build workouts are awesome for long distance riding. Cruising all day at 50-60% of 300 watts is way faster than cruising all day at 50-60% of 240 watts. And that means an extra hour or two of blessed sleep per night.
And because of our rando riding, our short power SUCKS so it’s worth doing that solely so that when the roadies catch up during a hill climb on their carbon steeds with no extra weight, you can make 'em earn that “I crushed that dude on the 30 lb steel bike with both a handle bar bag and huge trunk bag” smirk they share at the coffee shop after their epic 32 mile ride. Or at least prevent them from having an easy conversation as they pass you…
You’re right about the sustained power build workouts. I go for them too.
A friend told a story about what happened to him and a fellow randonneur. They were cruising in to the finish of a 300 km, still had 20 or so to go. A young kid buzzed right by them. Didn’t warn them, didn’t greet them, just whizzed by.
They looked at each other and pulled him in. When they got up with him, they started a pleasant talk about the wonderful cycling events called brevets. All the time picking up the speed a little at a time. He was hurting. After a while, while they still picked up the speed and babbled about how cool it was to ride long endurance rides, he suddenly declared that he had to turn and pulled off onto a residential side street just to get away from them
Yep, TrainerRoad helps. I’ll be following the same strategy as you. Sweet spot and then Sustained build. Fantastic value for the money.
Never mind vast farmland, how about the mountainous terrain of North Wales, or Cumbria (North England). Or even the far North of Scotland. It’s often easier to continue than to stop. Arriving at a check point with 15 minutes in hand, early in the morning, and knowing you have to ride all day, get through another night again with minimal sleep, then all through the next day, and into the next night, in order to finish in time. Well beyond Type 2.
A lot like Sweden. We have the population of Chicago (not quite that much) spread out along a distance from northern German to the southern tip of Italy, and it’s not really spread out, but clumped into 4 or 5 areas leaving the rest … like what you describe.
This Covid lockdown will provide some interesting info. I’m typically a high volume outdoors rider but for the last couple of months have been doing very little outdoors and a high volume sweetspot indoors and a bit of Zwifting just to give me something to do. My races are either cancelled or pushed back. My FTP is climbing but I’m normally not spending more than 2hrs on the bike at a time which is quite different to normal. Will be interesting to see what happens if I’m let out to do a longer race - will I be faster? Will I fall apart because I can’t deal with the extended saddle time? Right now I’ve just moved from Base into Build after adding 20W to my FTP and absolutely cannot complete 7x5@108%! Will give Build a couple more goes but if it sucks I’ll just do SS Base until they let us out to race.
(coming from someone who bombed out of Alta Alpina 8 pass after the first climb up Ebbetts…)
A number of my club-mates did it last year and enjoyed it.
A lot like Sweden. We have the population of Chicago (not quite that much) spread out along a distance from northern German to the southern tip of Italy, and it’s not really spread out, but clumped into 4 or 5 areas leaving the rest … like what you describe.