Training Plan for Etape 2015

Heesh123

Hi All

I am planning to enter the Etape du tour next year but really need a structured training plan to get me in a good condition to complete it. One of the concerns I have is that I have a holiday booked for 2 weeks in April and wont be able to get on a bike. I will be able to run etc while i'm away but I need to incorporate this into any training plan so that it wont affect my riding. At the moment this is worrying me!

I've seen other posts on here about training plans but nothing which outlines what I should focus on month by month and also take into account a holiday. Can anyone advise me on this, what I should be doing each month/target/intensity etc. And also the inclusion of sportives etc.

Also, is it worth getting a turbo trainer and heart rate monitor to help? I've heard mixed opinions on having one.

Any advice would be appreciated. Sorry for all the questions, I know i'm sounding like a novice but I've been riding a little while now but with no structure!!

imposter2.0

Difficult to answer any of that without knowing the standard you are at currently - and how much time you can make available. Anything you get off a free forum will be generic at best, so your expectations are a little high, tbh. Alternatively, just read some of the other threads on the same topic...

Mr Dog

Turbo yes... hrm.. yes. If you have piles of cash hanging around a power meter adds a level of detail to your training most of us only dream about.

Above anything else make sure you have the gears to do the job. Nothing will spoil the experience to the same degree as grinding your way up large mountains.

Don't worry about the 2 week break. You'll see a small drop in performance but hardly noticeable unless you're riding at a relatively high level, and it won't take long to regain anything lost.

As for a plan there are plenty floating around the web. Depends how many hours you can commit and what your goals are. A 32 week plan was printed in issue 12 of The Cyclist last year which seems a good general schedule.

In the mean time just ride whenever you can. Good Luck.

DeVlaeminck

The key things are to fit in some regular group riding, a weekly long ride and some higher intensity something like a 2*20 session or chain gang. 3-4 sessions a week including that would see you ok. Build towards Spring, you don't need to be doing 100 miles straight through right now though of course if you are it wont hurt!

Heesh123

Basically my goal is to finish and not end up in the broom wagon. A fantastic time is not on the agenda but finishing it while not feeling totally destroyed is what I would like.

In terms of hours I can commit, one long ride (4 hours +) at the weekend and a couple rides (1-2 hours) in the week is achievable. Sometimes more if time/work/children/wife allows. If I had a turbo trainer then this can be done in the garage on top of this.

My current fitness is ok, but I do suffer from cramp. Whether this is down to conditioning or nutrition i'm not sure. A 40 - 50 mile ride is no problem but anything over that (which is hilly) brings it on. I'm hoping more riding will sort it. I also do track sessions (running) with the local Tri Club.

Imposter, after posting the question I did think I'm asking way too much for someone to write a nice month to month plan for me but I appreciate any advice really.

Mr Dog, when you say gearing what should I replace it with? I have an Orbea (only carbon fork) road bike with a triple chain ring at the moment.

Heesh123

Regarding the intensity work, at what pace/heart rate would the 2x20 min sessions be? If I'm doing intensity sessions on a turbo trainer what other intensity sessions would be advisable? Also would it be advisable to try and replicate the climbing on a turbo trainer by having a high resistance? If so what pace/heart rate would do this? I've heard people talk about zones but I don't really understand what that means.

DeVlaeminck

I do my 2*20s to power and do an intensity that I know I can sustain for 2*20 minute intervals but that will be challenging to do so. For me this tends to be around 95% of what I can hold for a well rested, well motivated standalone 20 minutes. If you don't have power you could use speed (maybe with a rear wheel computer on the turbo) or heart rate but most people find HR drifts up during a long interval even after a good warm up. I think if you do use HR just use it as a common sense guide as sometimes you wont be able to reach a level you normally can.

Don't be ambitious though, start at a level you find relatively comfortable as you have plenty of time til July and there is an element of just getting used to the turbo and the session - a big fan also helps.

Brian Can't

I did my first etape in 2012 and in the months before was fixated by the broom wagon but even moderate training let me finish inside the cut off.
I didn't start training properly until the weather improved (March?) Getting out 2/3 evenings a week plus a long (build up to 100kms+) ride every weekend should be fine. A turbo trainer will definetly help.
Get some base miles in your legs as early in the year as possible. Don't worry about your holiday so long as you're well into your training before then.

As posted above, appropriate gears are the key. You should be fine with a triple but it might be worth checking your ratios. Both times I've done the Etape have been with a compact. First year was a 13-29 cassette and the second a 12-32, this year felt like I was cheating!

There's a lot of climbing this year and there's no hills in UK like the ones in France. UK can have very steep ramps but theyre still not long. The French mountains are much more uniform in gradient but go on for miles. You need to get used to putting out that sort of power for maybe 1.5 hours at a time.

Build up your long weekend ride after your holiday so you get two or three 100 milers in before the event and get used to taking in enough food and drink.

I took a lot of tips from some guys that wrote a blog. It's called "I'm somehow doing the Etape" give that a google, I found it really useful. I didn't do nearly as much training as them and finished about 30 minutes behind.

Best advice I got though was to enjoy it. It's a great experience, don't forget to take it all in.

Good luck!

bahzob

I've done the Etape, finishing top 200 overall. Based on my experience I'd say from your current level the best plan would be to buy a good training book and follow the plans there.

This will go into the subject far more objectively, completely and thoroughly than the advice you will get here.

I would especially recommend the Time Crunched Training Plan by Chris Carmichael. It pains me to do so as the author has a dubious history but his book is extremely good and takes into account the real world constraints of combining training with job/family etc.

It contains various 12 week plans, including "beginner century". From fitness point of view if you simply do this plan once, rest week or so then repeat it or step up to the "experienced century" you will be in great shape for the etape.

Closer to the day itself you can then use this forum to ask questions which a general book like the above can't cover.

Re turbo trainer/HR. The answer is yes to both. Having a turbo means you can train regardless of outdoor conditions and get more training done.

A turbo is also the best way to simulate the long hard climbs that are the key challenge to the etape. Nothing in the UK is quite like them.

HR is a good way to track progress and set training zones. If you measure speed/distance on the turbo or road than as you get fitter you will go faster/further for the same HR. The book above covers all this in a lot more detail.

meanredspider

bahzob wrote:

Nothing in the UK is quite like them.

It probably doesn't help the conversation much but I have found a fire road MTB climb up to a wind farm near me actually simulates the time and effort required to do something like the Alpe quite well - especially when the surface is damp and adds a bit of drag - it takes about an hour and simulates the feel of climbing better than a turbo. It's 12k for "only" 600m but the surface and the MTB more than make up for that. If I do get talked into AD6 again this year, that's where I'll be going to train.

Brian Can't

I found this post on the "Training for Marmotte 2015" thread very appropriate.

"Strangely Essex is an excellent place to train for alpine climbs. You need to get yourself to a place where you can pedal non-stop for over 1 hour at tempo pace (comfortably uncomfortable and harder to do than than you might think). There aren't any British hills that will let you do practise this so long flat roads without junctions preferably against the wind are an excellent substitute.

Some good advice here http://www.kingstonwheelers.co.uk/coaching4.shtml

Mix your training up with endurance rides and long and short intervals. Also try doing near a threshold hour at the end of a 2.5-3 hour ride to simulate climbing when tired.

You don't need to be riding centuries every weekend. I successfuly completed two Marmottes on 8-10 hours training per week where my longest ride was 3.5 hours with 3-4 sportives thrown in. Consistency is the key so regular training with no more than 2-3 days off a week- being a weekend warrior won't work.

As above get 3-4 Sportives in so you can practise your nutrition strategy.

Get your gearing right. No one failed to get up Alpe d'Huez because their gears were to low but plenty have failed because their gears were too high. You need to be able to turn the cranks at 70-75 rpm when going at about 75-80% of your maximum up a 10% gradient. This needs a lower gear than most people think. I use 34/32 minimum gear on Alpine climbs.

The Marmotte is generally hot. If you can, get there a few days early so you can get some acclimatisation rides in.

When you get there take some time to lift you head now an again and take in and enjoy the experience"

with thanks to Twotyred.

paul2718

I think that's good advice.

One thing is that I don't think you should train for the Etape (or whatever) per se. You should endeavour to get generally bike fit, then you will be able to ride the Etape. Make it part of your lifestyle and you can do it next year without any sort of plan.

I got a last minute place for this year's event through British Cycling, although the weather was hideous and I've never been so cold on a bike, it was one of the best days riding I've ever had. Including the ride to the start in Pau and the descent after the finish it was my second and final 100 mile plus ride of the year. The first was the 153 mile 'Flat Out In The Fens' in June.

To me the critical parts of the above post are 'intervals' and 'threshold at the end'. So making big efforts and recovering to repeat, and being able to end rides with huge efforts. Then all you have to be able to do is pace yourself and manage feeding/drinking, so ride some 100 mile sportives in late spring/early summer.

It's easy really, I can't wait...

Paul

Toks

Hmm there's so many different ways to prepare for the Etape Du Tour and crucially a lot of it boils down to fitness levels, availability to train, preffered training method,etc...I've done four Etapes (Im not quite at Babzobs level but I've always finished comfortably - although this year was a little bit wet and cold.
In my first year, 2003, I did lots of riding both alone and with my club 3-5 hours on the longer ones. Average speed 16/17mph. I'm quite skinny 72KG I did OK
I'n my second year (2004) a bit less long riding probably 100-140 miles per week from march on wards. I was a smigen fitter and went OK - but messed up my eating and drinking though (bonked after 80 miles)
My 3rd attempt, (2005) did some 3rd cat racing; did some in the winter turboing (2 x 20 - look it up) did a few other other sportives, got to the Pyrenees a few days before and rode 1-2 climbs - did really good (for me at least) - got a gold! (fuelling was spot on)
4th attempt (2014) not many long rides (mainly 2hrs), turbo in winter, no racing - did fine but was over geared (very sore knees at the end!)
#myth1 - YOU HAVE TO RIDE THE FULL DISTANCE BEFORE HAND! No 2/3rds will be fine
#myth2 - YOU NEED TO DO LOTS OF HILL TRAINING? No, of course it will help. But best year I spent doing lots of fast riding/TT effors on the flat
#Myth3 - YOU NEED TO BE SUPERLIGHT, No, the lighter you are the better of course but theres always bigger guys going past me on climbs

Just use the search key. There are tons of good posts about this - Good Luck. I may see you there - paid my 78 euros yesterday morning!

dangerousdave.

I'm booked in for next year too. Never ridden outside of the uk and while I have done some racing last year I'm concerned about 1.5 hour climbs at or above threshold. Would hill repeats up cat and fiddle or Holme moss (or another similarly long climb maybe cragg vale) be a good comparator to what's needed?
Thanks
Dave

imposter2.0

dangerousdave. wrote:

I'm booked in for next year too. Never ridden outside of the uk and while I have done some racing last year I'm concerned about 1.5 hour climbs at or above threshold. Would hill repeats up cat and fiddle or Holme moss (or another similarly long climb maybe cragg vale) be a good comparator to what's needed?
Thanks
Dave

Have you not read any of the replies on this thread?

dangerousdave.

Imposter wrote:

dangerousdave. wrote:

I'm booked in for next year too. Never ridden outside of the uk and while I have done some racing last year I'm concerned about 1.5 hour climbs at or above threshold. Would hill repeats up cat and fiddle or Holme moss (or another similarly long climb maybe cragg vale) be a good comparator to what's needed?
Thanks
Dave

Have you not read any of the replies on this thread?

Yes that's why I asked the question, I see no reference to repeatedly climbing the longest climbs in the uk which are c5 miles in length 2, 3 or 4 times to replicate a 20 mile climb. Having never climbed an alpine climb I have no idea how this would compared.

imposter2.0

Like I said - there's plenty of good info on this thread, if you take the time to read it.

bahzob wrote:

A turbo is also the best way to simulate the long hard climbs that are the key challenge to the etape. Nothing in the UK is quite like them.

"Strangely Essex is an excellent place to train for alpine climbs. You need to get yourself to a place where you can pedal non-stop for over 1 hour at tempo pace (comfortably uncomfortable and harder to do than than you might think). There aren't any British hills that will let you do practise this so long flat roads without junctions preferably against the wind are an excellent substitute.

Some good advice here http://www.kingstonwheelers.co.uk/coaching4.shtml

Mix your training up with endurance rides and long and short intervals. Also try doing near a threshold hour at the end of a 2.5-3 hour ride to simulate climbing when tired.

You don't need to be riding centuries every weekend. I successfuly completed two Marmottes on 8-10 hours training per week where my longest ride was 3.5 hours with 3-4 sportives thrown in. Consistency is the key so regular training with no more than 2-3 days off a week- being a weekend warrior won't work.

As above get 3-4 Sportives in so you can practise your nutrition strategy.

Get your gearing right. No one failed to get up Alpe d'Huez because their gears were to low but plenty have failed because their gears were too high. You need to be able to turn the cranks at 70-75 rpm when going at about 75-80% of your maximum up a 10% gradient. This needs a lower gear than most people think. I use 34/32 minimum gear on Alpine climbs.

The Marmotte is generally hot. If you can, get there a few days early so you can get some acclimatisation rides in.

When you get there take some time to lift you head now an again and take in and enjoy the experience"

Toks wrote:

#myth2 - YOU NEED TO DO LOTS OF HILL TRAINING? No, of course it will help. But best year I spent doing lots of fast riding/TT effors on the flat

bahzob

dangerousdave. wrote:

Yes that's why I asked the question, I see no reference to repeatedly climbing the longest climbs in the uk which are c5 miles in length 2, 3 or 4 times to replicate a 20 mile climb. Having never climbed an alpine climb I have no idea how this would compared.

Based on having done hundreds of climbs all over Europe including epics like Ventoux/Zoncolan.

The straight answer is that there simply is no climb in the UK that replicates an Alpine or other long climb.

The difference is that the UK has hills, Europe mountains.

The two factors that make them different are:
> Their unrelenting length. Ventoux goes for over 20km at an average gradient of 7.6%. Zoncolan 10km at an average gradient of near 12% Even the hardest "long" climbs in the UK are nothing like as steep for a significant amount of time. The scary double digit gradients of UK hill climbs like Hardknott are just for short sections. While these are tough they can be overcome through a few minutes brute strength. This same effort won't even make an impact on a mountain. The "5 mile" climbs you refer to will have an average gradient of less than 5%. Since difficulty increases exponentially with gradient this is less than half as difficult to one with 8%+. I'm not boasting but when you are used to doing steep long climbs a <5% gradient feels more like a false flat than a real ascent.

> The climate: the climbs are often done in temperatures that would rate front page banner "phew what a scorcher" headlines in the UK. Depending on the mountain the effect can be magnified by the lack of shade with the heat reflecting back off the melting tarmac.

This does not mean you cannot train for mountain climb in the UK.

The simplest way is on a turbo. This is the only reliable way to simulate the unrelenting effort demands. Doing 1-2 hour plus steady efforts as hard as you can sustain will pretty much be the same as what is needed. Even with a good fan setup you will still be pretty hot and uncomfortable. And you can setup your bike so that it is at a steep gradient to make sure your position is comfortable.

An alternative is to do time trials. A 25mile time trial done on a road bike is pretty much the same as doing an ascent of Alpe DHuez in terms of effort. The shorter 10s are also good preparation. There are plenty of these all around the country from spring onwards. The benefit of doing them is that the competitive aspect will force you to go harder.

Short hard hill repeats are also useful:
> They build fitness
> They can be used to check out gearing. Find a section of 10% or so and try to do at the effort level/rpm you do the turbo/25mile TTs at. If you find that you cannot do this typically it will be because the same rpm even on the lowest gear is too hard>Fit a lower gear.

However they can also be problematic:
> The effort they are typically done at is way too high for mountains. It can only be sustained for a few minutes. You should never ever be in this zone on a mountain climb.
> You get to rest too quickly. It's one thing to ride hard for a few minutes, quite another to ride hard for over an hour.

meanredspider

I think it has been hinted at but it's also worth training for the mental effort too. Here in the Netherlands, long winter rides inevitably involve brutal and relentless wind - there's no respite because there's no cover (there tend to be ditches where we'd have hedges in the UK). It isn't quite the same as an Alpine hill but, both physically and mentally, it's great training.

dangerousdave.

Thanks for the comprehensive answer bahzob

twotyred

dangerousdave. wrote:

I'm booked in for next year too. Never ridden outside of the uk and while I have done some racing last year I'm concerned about 1.5 hour climbs at or above threshold. Would hill repeats up cat and fiddle or Holme moss (or another similarly long climb maybe cragg vale) be a good comparator to what's needed?
Thanks
Dave

Dangerous, unless you are super fit and super confident in your ability to pace yourself then going at, never mind above, threshold on the climbs on an alpine sportive is a recipe for cooking yourself. I think you should be aiming for top of tempo (zone 3) then see what you've got left in the tank for the last climb.

Repeats up shorter UK climbs won't do you any harm but you should also be doing 1-1.5 hour steadier intervals as well at or near threshold- this could actually be a lot harder for you mentally than doing repeats of the Cat and Fiddle but is closer to an alpine climb. Like the poster above said 25 mile TTs are a good session.

Glad to see someone found my previous posts useful.

bahzob

meanredspider wrote:

I think it has been hinted at but it's also worth training for the mental effort too. Here in the Netherlands, long winter rides inevitably involve brutal and relentless wind - there's no respite because there's no cover (there tend to be ditches where we'd have hedges in the UK). It isn't quite the same as an Alpine hill but, both physically and mentally, it's great training.

Very good point. At the end of the day what gets you up mountains is as much about the state of your head as the state of your legs.

Funny about the example you mention. The hardest single day of cycling I have ever had in my life was in "flat" Belgium riding the wrong way into a hurricane. It was in fact a constant succession of rolling hills and blowing so much that I had to pedal hard just to make progress on the downhill sections, all the time having constant buckets of water chucked in my face.

Now when things are difficult I just repeat the mantra "It's tough but not as bad as Belgium.." (Apologies to any Belgians out there, I love the country when its free of a hurricane and probably owe my life to a Belgian I met later on the same tour as above.)

meanredspider

bahzob wrote:

blowing so much that I had to pedal hard just to make progress on the downhill sections, all the time having constant buckets of water chucked in my face.

Nothing more depressing than to having to pedal hard downhill! At least in Belgium they tend to have trees and hedges. I now thoroughly understand why NL has so many windmills...