Multiday racing help

bobgfish
bobgfish Posts: 545
edited August 2011 in Health, fitness & training
Hello

I'm looking at doing an event which is over 10 days riding approx 100Km a day and includes a lot of climbing. I believe several thousand metres a day.

I currently ride my road bike a lot and live in the flatest country on earth.

Can anyone offer good advise on how to train. I'm not worried about the distance just the hills and potentially worried about the difference between a road bike and MTB and the upper body muslces not coping.

I've got about six months to prepare so plenty of time.
Thanks
CyclingInTheLowMountainsOfSchweiz

CyclingInTheFlatlands

Comments

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    What country exactly DO you live in? "Flattest country on Earth" could mean anywhere, depending on what your perspective/expectations are.
  • bobgfish
    bobgfish Posts: 545
    The one that is mainly below sea level. The Netherlands. Windy and flat. The biggest hill I've seen is generally a bridge over a canal...Hence part of the problem. The other is the that the MTB routes are not technical enough to bother riding to replicate alp like off road conditions.
    CyclingInTheLowMountainsOfSchweiz

    CyclingInTheFlatlands
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    Ok, well, in that case, then you may well struggle with such extreme climbs, not only because you're not conditioned for them, but also because of the altitude. I presume that if they have several thousand meters of climbing per day, they're held somewhere extremely mountaineous, such as Canada? Nepal? The alps?

    I'd suggest getting yourself on a mountain bike and doing lots of repeated, extended climbs, however you manage to do that.
    Also be aware that 100Km on a mountain bike is going to be absolutely brutal compared to 100Km on a mountain bike.
  • bobgfish
    bobgfish Posts: 545
    Portugal. Max per day is about 4000 metres climbling. Lowest is about 2000 Metres. They are up to 20Km long or so. I can manage long distances on road bike and did do the Tour of Flanders which had 1800 meters of climbling over 260KM. I will be doing events like this again as lead up to it but concerned that riding loads of hills each day will kill me. I did 85Km in Ports Du Soliel this year and found it hard but managable. Thats was without having to do climbling. Longest hill I know of is about 1Km aroung here and it's only about 4% I really need some 15% for a few Km's. Myabe a rethink or just lots of interval training...
    CyclingInTheLowMountainsOfSchweiz

    CyclingInTheFlatlands
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    I hate to suggest it, but maybe a rethink is in order. Events like this are just mental really.
    You said you did the Tour of Flanders, well, you're going to be climbing more each day, than you did in the entire tour :shock:

    Maybe start with less extreme enduros, and work up to something like this?
  • ollie51
    ollie51 Posts: 517
    It's hard enough condintioning yourself for those kind of events when you live in a mountain range, but in the netherlands it's damn hard. The only thing I can recommend doing is doing liong intervals at just above threshold, for 10-20 minutes to represent intensity and then push a much bigger gear than usual to represent the gradient. Best to be done on a turbo.

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