Training for racing, and a 475m 4 day charity ride...

jonmack

Hi all, this is kinda a two posts in one, but I'll just go right ahead and get into it.

Firstly, I'm doing a charity ride in May, it's Bristol to Bordeaux in 4 days. The route is as follows:

Th 27/05: Bristol to Portsmouth - 100m (161k)
Fr 28/05: Saint Malo to Saint Naizaire - 120m (194k)
Sa 29/05: Saint Nazaire to La Rochelle via Nantes, La Roche-sur-Yon - 132m (213k)
Su 30/05: La Rochelle to Bordeaux - 123m (198k)

Now the distance works out at about 475m give or take (the actual route isn't finalised yet), you can choose to do 80-90m per day, and be driven the rest, or you can do every single mile. I'm wanting to go for the every single mile route, so what is gonna be the best way to train for that?

Also, I'd like to start doing some club level races in the new season. I guess my base level of fitness is currently quite good. I've been commuting to work every week for the last 4 months, 20m per day, and over the last few weeks I've started going out on the weekend and doing 20-40 milers, so my minimum weekly milage is 100. I have my driving test a week today (fingers crossed please guys) which means I'll be driving instead of cycling. However I do have a turbo trainer, and I will be cycling at the weekends, so can anyone give me an idea of what kinda program I should be following to get racing fit over the next few months?

Obviously it's my first season so I'm not expecting to win anything, but I'd like to do quite well.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Jon

chrisw12

That sounds like a great challenge, hope it goes well.

Let me get this right though, if you pass your driving test, you'll use a car instead of the bike and decrease your training mileage, that makes no sense!

jonmack

I'll be using my car because my current commute is 1.6m to the train station, 30 minutes on the train, then 8.5m to the office, and the same in the evening. Although I love the ride, the drivers really piss me off and it's becoming more and more dangerous. Dark, wet roads aren't fun, people just don't see me, and I don't want to lose my love for the sport due to having bad experiences commuting.

However, my training schedule will change, and my base milage is actually going to increase. I've had a read of the Black Book and it looks like a good plan, so I'm just gonna start doing that.

chrisw12

jonmack wrote:

I'll be using my car because my current commute is 1.6m to the train station, 30 minutes on the train, then 8.5m to the office, and the same in the evening. Although I love the ride, the drivers really wee-wee me off and it's becoming more and more dangerous. Dark, wet roads aren't fun, people just don't see me, and I don't want to lose my love for the sport due to having bad experiences commuting.

However, my training schedule will change, and my base milage is actually going to increase. I've had a read of the Black Book and it looks like a good plan, so I'm just gonna start doing that.

It just strikes me that your commute gives you have a great chance to get some quality miles in that will help towards your specific goals. Being stuck on a turbo imo is a poor substitute for the challenge you've set yourself.

Out of interest how far is your commute in total? 30 mins on the train, why didn't you ride it all?

jonmack

30 miles each way. I'm already getting up at 6:30am and leaving at 7.20am to get the train, getting back to the station at about 6ish for a 6:20 train, getting home just before 7pm. I think if I was to ride the whole thing I'd have to get up even earlier, and the 12h days are already killing me. Plus there is no "nice" way there, it's all busy A roads at 7/8am, the commute is pretty dangerous and I don't trust the drivers at all. Might sound like I'm making excuses, but I've considered it and I don't think it would be very fun or beneficial, even if it was only once a week.

The commuting miles have definitely done me good, but my body is very used to it, I need some variation.

chrisw12

Fair enough, 30 miles every day is a bit much, but as you said at the bottom the commuting miles have done you good and I'd guess with the event you're contemplating will carry on doing you good.

I was going to say harden up with regard the commute but I now avoid the busy road in to work for the reasons you mention, saying that I use them on the way home sometimes because the traffic seems much calmer (odd that thinking about it!) in the evening.

Another question why does it take you 50 mins to get ready in the morning, hair? You can do it in ten, extra 40 mins in bed then

Bronzie

jonmack wrote:

what kinda program I should be following to get racing fit over the next few months?

What sort of racing? Time trials or bunch racing?

jonmack

chrisw12 wrote:

Fair enough, 30 miles every day is a bit much, but as you said at the bottom the commuting miles have done you good and I'd guess with the event you're contemplating will carry on doing you good.

I was going to say harden up with regard the commute but I now avoid the busy road in to work for the reasons you mention, saying that I use them on the way home sometimes because the traffic seems much calmer (odd that thinking about it!) in the evening.

Another question why does it take you 50 mins to get ready in the morning, hair? You can do it in ten, extra 40 mins in bed then

Get up at 6:30, go downstairs and make my porridge, wait for it to cool down then munch that which takes me to about 7 (I don't know why it takes half an hour to eat a bowl of porridge, but I'm usually reading stuff online anyway). Then I read a bit more stuff online, get dressed about 7:10, go downstairs, put my lunch in my bag, finish getting ready, putting on gloves/helmet/etc. walk to the garage and jump on the bike!

Hope you enjoyed that little insight into my life :P

Bronzie wrote:

jonmack wrote:

what kinda program I should be following to get racing fit over the next few months?

What sort of racing? Time trials or bunch racing?

Haven't really thought about doing TT's, more interested in traditional bunch racing.

Anonymous

You're lucky, I have to be out the door at 0430 if I ride in on a day shift

Bronzie

jonmack wrote:

so can anyone give me an idea of what kinda program I should be following to get racing fit over the next few months?

OK, so the ideal training for a 475 mile 4-day charity ride and that for road racing are pretty different. You are going to have to accept that you focus on one at the detriment of the other.

That said, if you get race fit, you’ll still be able to cope with long distance rides but you won’t be used to spending the hours in the saddle or the day-after-day nature of the charity ride and all the associated body niggles that come with it.

If you are going to try to write your own training plan for road racing, Joe Friel’s “Cyclist’s Training Bible” is a pretty good place to start. It’ll show you how to put together a progressive plan to achieve peak fitness for your target events.

Also worth a read is “The Road Cyclist’s Guide to Training by Power” by Charles Howe. Obviously, without a powermeter you’ll be shooting in the dark to a large extent, but it’ll give you an idea of the sort of progressive training that you need for road racing. You can download Part 1 here:
http://www.freewebs.com/velodynamics2/rcgtp1.pdf

jonmack

Well racing is my number 1 goal, so I guess to get racing fit would make the most sense, however like you said, on the charity ride, I won't be used to putting in longish distance day after day, but as I wont be riding race pace I'd like to think that I should be able to manage it.

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll have a look at it, I don't have a power meter but I'll definitely take a look at the pdf to see what kind of things are suggested. Every little helps!

Ph!l_GeeWhizz

I havent got a clue about training mate. Just wanted to say good luck! My bum is aching just thinking about doing that sort of mileage

vorsprung

Over the winter just keep it going. Start to increase your mileage in March

In April / May you will be able to ride to work some days
Try and work out a route that doesn't seem too evil on weekends

Try and ride 200k per week at least before the event. Try and do a 200k at least once before the event. If you look on the audax uk website (http://www.aukweb.net/cal/index.htm) there are many 200km or 100km events in April/May in your area