Training for ultra rides - resources?

kenbaxter

Moving up from sportives and centuries to longer rides at a good pace and target for next year is LEJOG in 4 days. Want to establish what levels of training I should be aiming at over the winter.

Any good training resources out there for longer distance rides - not pannier laden touring stuff but supported rides at a good pace for 200+ miles per day for consecutive days. Who knows, maybe RAAM beckons one day - gotta dream!

As an indication of current levels - 100 miles in 5 hours is comfortable.

Thanks.

Cajun

http://www.ultracycling.com/siteindex.html

chrisw12

Ken I think you've just got to read around and ask people who've done it for advice.

I had a go last year and managed to get to Edinbrough then had to come home. So near yet so far and a long story why I didn't finish it.

I did 200+ first day then had a good night's sleep then did the rest of the miles, one day, one night then one day again without any sleep (30 mins sleep, just outside Gretna)

This was not what I planed and was a big mistake, I should have planned accomodation in advance, I think then I could have easily :roll: managed the ride in four days.

So my main advice get a plan and get a set of tri-bars, these imo are absolutely invaluable.

As for training, nothing special really, I made my attempt in the April and I was training to do 100's and 12hrs anyway. Just did lots of long distance rides.

BeaconRuth

kenbaxter wrote:

Who knows, maybe RAAM beckons one day - gotta dream!

"Dream"?! That'd be a NIGHTMARE!

Ruth

ian_oli

What you want to do is very similar to Paris-Brest-Paris, which I did this year along with 300+ other members of Audax UK. (1200 km in 3 3/4 days max.)

A good starting point will be the ACF site which is the main forum for Audaxers. The issues are around rest management, body comfort, ability to keep eating etc. rather than cycling.

For PBP you have to do rides of 200k/300k/400k/600k length at a 15kph average including all stops to qualify and this for me was a way of learning to cope better with long distances.

Blonde

I'd recommend the basic but easy to understand book: The Long Distance Cyclist's Hand Book, by Simon Doughty. This covers nutrition and training as wall as the practical side of this type of riding - bike, equipment, lighting etc. Also there are some good Ultra distance web links here: http://www.randonneurs.bc.ca/links/links.html, including Audax UK.

I'd suggest you do a few of their events as early as possible next year as a build up to the longer distance LEJOG - the 300 km events usually start around April, with 400km and 600km events May/June - which would give you a gradual step up to LEJOG. Most peope who do PBP (1200 km) or LEL (1400 km) do one series of audax events (200, 300, 400, 600km) perhaps with some extra 200 and 300 kms events, but often no more than one 400 and one 600km event before the longer distance 1200, or 1400 km event, so perhaps a similar approach could work for you. The longer rides, 400 and 600 especially, do take longer to recover from, so for example, you wouldn't want to do a 600 only a week before LEJOG but would probably need longer than that between these events. However, your speed of recovery is such an individual thing that I'd not presume to tell you exactly how long you'd need between events- you need to ride some events and judge for yourself. BTW, Audax UK actually run LEJOG as a 1200km audax event - a 'permanent' which means a suggested route/town to pass through can be provided should you want it.

You may wish to enter the Mersey Roads 24 hour TT in June next year as part of your training but you'll need to think about which month you aim to ride LEJOG too - the longest day (June) or a full moon around that time would give you the most daylight and/or decent moonlight hours.

There is a very good lists of links for LEJOG specifically (rather than just the training for it) here: http://www.users.waitrose.com/~ianclare/links.htm

kenbaxter

Thanks for the comments. Are those mammoth distances really necessary for a 4 day ride of 200-250 miles per day??? Can't see the point of building up to ride 600km or am I missing something and these are also multi day events?

ut_och_cykla

I think what's been described is the qualifying rides for PBP - even having done this some people DNF, so if you want to do LEJOG in 4 days you need to be well prepared otherwise you will be a DNF too!

ian_oli

kenbaxter wrote:

Thanks for the comments. Are those mammoth distances really necessary for a 4 day ride of 200-250 miles per day??? Can't see the point of building up to ride 600km or am I missing something and these are also multi day events?

I was one of the above posters:- I am slower than you, but I did the British Cyclosportive (120 miles) in under 7 1/4 hours, so around 18mph average. However...

The point about cycling very long distances in a short time is not just the cycling. A regime of mainly speedwork with the odd long ride will let you do it, but even with support you will have to cope with a range of issues that a 100 mile ride just doesnt have.

You will be doing double your hundred miles each day and you will find you cannot do 200 miles+ at your 100 mile pace, you will need to navigate unless you simply plan to bomb up the main roads, you may be knackered from the day before, your feet and your upper body may hurt like hell, you will need meals, there will be nobody else's wheel to follow, if you're unlucky you may have a headwind the whole day, you slow down in the dark, get a puncture, or worse, perhaps? You will be doing very well to complete 250 miles (that's 400km) in less than 17 hours. You then need a large meal, shower, bed, get up, breakfast, start again, so that's 4-5 hours sleep.... It's getting the handling of these factors wrong which will mean you dont finish in four days.

As I said and Blondie too - its do-able but its more than just about the cycling and Audax (the UK's main form of ultra-cycling) can help. Incidentally the latest copy of the Audax magazine (Arrivee) had a very good article about training for Paris-Brest-Paris.

Cyrenne

Fancy some company Ken? This is the sort of thing I'm thinking about too.
I'm in pretty good shape as a base. It's just the distances I need to work on.

kenbaxter

Thanks all. Some great advice here. Next question - how to build up a training plan for these events, or do the Audax sites have this?

Blonde

In answer to your questions about audax events and training plans - I suggested the 'series' or 'SR series' of audax events because they lead up to the longer events of 1200km. The longer rides such as 400 or 600km are a single event, but you are allowed to sleep on them as long as you finish within the time allowed, so the effect you will get is the same as doing about 200/250 miles between rest/sleep periods. Of course it isn't necessary to do audax events as preparation, you could simply devise your own routes, but having some company and some identified intermediate goals/markers might help you with your ultimate aim. There are some training articles here, though you may need to purchase some books to get the full information: http://www.ultracycling.com/training/training.html The articles about 'Training for a double century' and within that: 'Training for a fast double century' are useful.

BTW, PBP (1200km) in the fastest time group (70 hours max) can be used as one of the qualifiers for RAAM if you are interested in qualifying for it. I think in practice though, you'd need to complete a 1200km audax event in about 15 hours less time, to stand a chance of competing well in RAAM. Details of qualifiers are here: http://www.ultracycling.com/events/raamqualifiers.html

kenbaxter

Blonde wrote:

... There are some training articles here, though you may need to purchase some books to get the full information: http://www.ultracycling.com/training/training.html The articles about 'Training for a double century' and within that: 'Training for a fast double century' are useful.

Thanks. Some excellent resources there. Just drawn up my training plan for next june based on articles - a bit daunting but ya gotta aim high.

Thanks to all. Will let you know how I get on!

LukeBream

It would also be worth considering coaching like Century Training

amaferanga

I did an unsupported LEJOG earlier this year in 5 days (started at 6am on Sunday, finished at 6pm on Thursday). Came in at exactly 1500km as I tried to make the route at least a little enjoyable. I had a good 8-9 hours sleep every night so it wasn't really anything like PBP or LEL - no night riding at all. I guess this is the sort of ride that you are looking at doing?

I wouldn't bother with audax as it won't prepare you for what you want to do. You'll need to get used to riding for a very long time with no company and I agree with you that riding 600km events is pretty pointless if you're training to do 350-400 km/day. I averaged about 25km/h each day including stops on my LEJOG and managed to keep the average up by minimal stops and phaffing. Having done numerous audaxes (mostly just to qualify for PBP - the audax scene isn't really for me) its clear that excessive phaffing is endemic

As for training, I started doing 200km rides in January, aiming to do a ride of at least 100km every weekend. All my training rides were very hilly Peak District rides, which meant that every LEJOG day was easy in comparison. I was also commuting about 30km/day on fixed. By April I did my first 300km ride (5000m+ of climbing) then had almost a month off long rides due to work. I did the ride in July having done 5 x 300km rides. I only rode the following day after one of these.

It worked for me as I found the ride pretty easy.