400 miles in 4 days - Training Plan?

laurentian

Hello there

The Mrs and I have been cycling for just under 12 months. We started as she had entered us into a charity ride (she always commits to a physical challenge of some sort every year be that marathon, half marathon or ridiculous yomping across the country).

Anyway, we did 150 miles over 2 days in Scotland and both thoroughly enjoyed the ride and indeed the training for it. we were supplied with a week by week training plan by the organisers and I was very impressed how this took us from complete novices to being able to complete the 150 miles. In truth I think we could both have done a 3rd day of 70+ miles.

We have the opportunity to join some people on a coast to coast ride in May 2013 that, I believe, is around 400 miles. The others doing it are pretty experienced riders but I am confident that a similar week by week plan would enable us to hold our own. Can anyone suggest a source or know of a plan that could get us from our present 30-50 miles on a Sunday to being able to do four consecutive 100 milers?

Thanks

Herbsman

Do as many miles as you can on four consecutive days, rest for 2 days, then repeat

bahzob

I have done quite a few long tours with consecutive days of 100 miles plus.

From my experience the first couple of days are the hardest, almost as if your body is asking you "do you really want to do this?". After that it accepts the matter and things feel progressively easier, especially so once you start to reap the fitness benefits of your ride. (There is a limit to this ofc but it doesn't kick in until about a week or so when it's probably worth planning an easy day but you will be back home then.)

Other thing is that while "100 miles a day" can sound a lot, in practice it feels less. A typical day will be 2-3 rides each around 2-3 hours separated by rest/food/drink. At a comfortable 12-15mph this ends up at 100 miles quite quickly, especially if you are riding in company. (If you are riding with more experienced cyclists that's good news, they will do the hard work and you can just follow in their slipstream:) )

So I would guess from your earlier trip you should both certainly be capable of doing the trip.

Herbsman advice above is good way to train. When I was training for my trips I had some 30-50 mile routes I rode, one in the morning, one in the afternoon. As I got better I just added a few miles to these and/or tried to ride them a bit quicker plus plan some days when do rides back to back. That should work fine for what you are planning to do.

Good luck to you both.

Trev The Rev

Something going on here? Mods removing posts?

Sorry seem to be 2 threads with same title.