Wanting an "ultra" HV plan option

[hippy]

This has been discussed before:

Ultra cycling plan?

Just wondering with the increase in ultra distance cycling would it be possible to have it in speciality plan in the future? And as a long distance cyclist who has been advised to go the Century specialised plan why is there no long workouts like 3 to 4 hour workouts in that plan where as you have up to 5 hour workouts on the triathlon plan. Surely to do a century or more you would need some longer spins than 2 hours.

I wonder if an “ultra plan” lacks enough science around the question of “how much?”. I don’t recall seeing many studies on ultracycling so on that basis it must be somewhat harder to prescribe quantities of work. My coaches and I generally looked at target events and then worked out progressively longer duration “long” rides leading up to those.

I’ve always done outdoor high volume training for ultra stuff until the last few years where I’ve moved to Trainerroad and much lower volume (I got sick of dealing with UK drivers). I’ve gained a higher FTP and I don’t seem to be any worse at ultra events but I have been doing very high volume for a good 10 years already so my base is pretty huge.

I’m not the guy that’s going to do 6+ hour rides on a turbo though so I’d almost always supplement TR plans with longer outdoor rides. So even if there was some kind of ultra plan I’d probably ignore it.