Training for the Transontinental

Hello guys,
I haven’t posted on here before but I have found these forums really helpful when looking at equipment/ working out why my bike is being weird (normally its just me being daft).
Having been unsuccessful with previous attempts I submitted an application for the transcontinental again this year, however this time I was really happily surprised to see that I had qualified. When the reality that I would be cycling 4,000km in under 15 days on little sleep dawned on me I instantly started researching ways to take my training up a notch, however most blogs seemed to focus on weekend rides and ignored the mid-week training. Does anyone who has done the transcontinental or something similar have any advice or book recommendations on the topic?
Since December I have been trying to do 3 or 4 sufferfest turbos a week, at least one long weekend ride (ice and snow permitting), five 6km runs (to or from work), five short yoga sessions (before leaving for work) and thirty minutes of core work and weights (again before leaving for work).
I also try to ensure that I have at least one rest day and have a lighter week every four weeks to allow for full recovery and then retest my FTP.
If there’s any tweaks people could recommend, I’d appreciate the insight.
Additionally in a bid to see that I am as self reliant as possible I was hoping to complete a bike maintenance course. Does anyone have any that they would recommend in London?
Cheers,
Dan
I haven’t posted on here before but I have found these forums really helpful when looking at equipment/ working out why my bike is being weird (normally its just me being daft).
Having been unsuccessful with previous attempts I submitted an application for the transcontinental again this year, however this time I was really happily surprised to see that I had qualified. When the reality that I would be cycling 4,000km in under 15 days on little sleep dawned on me I instantly started researching ways to take my training up a notch, however most blogs seemed to focus on weekend rides and ignored the mid-week training. Does anyone who has done the transcontinental or something similar have any advice or book recommendations on the topic?
Since December I have been trying to do 3 or 4 sufferfest turbos a week, at least one long weekend ride (ice and snow permitting), five 6km runs (to or from work), five short yoga sessions (before leaving for work) and thirty minutes of core work and weights (again before leaving for work).
I also try to ensure that I have at least one rest day and have a lighter week every four weeks to allow for full recovery and then retest my FTP.
If there’s any tweaks people could recommend, I’d appreciate the insight.
Additionally in a bid to see that I am as self reliant as possible I was hoping to complete a bike maintenance course. Does anyone have any that they would recommend in London?
Cheers,
Dan
0
Posts
I've not done anything as long as the transcontinental but I've done London Edinburgh London twice, other 1000km Audaxes and plenty of 600km Audaxes. The main thing is lots of long back to back days. Enter some 600km Audaxes to give you something to aim at and get as many full weekends in as you can with 150 miles both days.
As well as getting you fit you'll also learn exactly what works for you in terms of equipment, the saddle or shoes that are good for 100 miles might be terrible after several days. It'll also show you if your lights are good enough and your recharging systems etc are going to cope.
As well as long distances I also try to do a Spoco TT series each year to mix it up and they definately add fitness in a different way, 2 Hours flat out on a 50 mile TT can't help but add to a good base.
In terms of bike maintenance you really just need to have covered what can be fixed quickly on the road, cables, brake pads and simple indexing and punctures etc. All these can be learnt at home with the help of You Tube.
I've done plenty of Big distances but Transcontinental is another level especially if you're racing it rather than riding it. To be honest if you're messing about with 6km runs as training then you're going to be in for a serious wake up a few days into it.
Just ride - lots.
www.cyclecoach.com
Good luck, but it's not my idea of ''fun".
Good points all and I am definitely going to look to drop the runs and look at getting a coach. I've got a series of 400km/600km weekend rides planned and will aim to do a series of multi-day/ overnight long weekend rides too.
Sounds like the trick is just more and more hours in the saddle.
Like you say, time in the saddle.
Also spends a lot of time on the mental aspect, fatigue tolerance, micro sleeps (30 minutes), fuelling etc. Also had some funny tales (well I say funny but really quite horrifying) about being attacked by feral dog packs in Romania, another competitor chased by bears etc.
He's been taken out by cars twice in the last year, and now has the fear of being hit from behind to add to his other mental toughness challenges.
Like someone above said, it's not everyone's idea of ''fun''. Type 3 fun maybe.
Good luck with it, it's a major undertaking.
A lot of competitors do their longest ever ride on day 1 of the TCR. On 600km audax a week will help, but I would say you're better off doing 100km six times and getting used to the repetition than not backing up efforts day in day out. And get to love Zone 2.
Good luck looks like a fantastic event.
Should be a pretty brutal step up but I’ve done quite a few 150-200km rides this winter so hopefully have a reasonable base. Just need to get the miles in and start doing a lot longer distances every weekend. Unfortunately I’m snowed in this weekend lol
Dan,
Feel free to reach out to me on [email protected] -- i'm happy to discuss a few ideas with you, or alternatively, i offer coaching for the event as well. In the meantime, i've a stack load of blog posts about the TCR and James Hayden
https://www.cyclecoach.com/blog/2017/12 ... hayden-way
https://www.cyclecoach.com/blog/2017/12 ... way-part-2
https://www.cyclecoach.com/blog/2017/10 ... ing-sniffy
https://www.cyclecoach.com/blog/2017/10 ... ontinental
https://www.cyclecoach.com/blog/2017/10 ... ental-race
https://www.cyclecoach.com/blog/2017/10 ... ugust-2017
And, James is again being coached by me this year for another assault on the TCR.
Ric
Coach to James Hayden - Transcontinental Race winner 2017, and 2018
Coach to Jeff Jones - 2011 BBAR winner and 12-hour record
Check out our new website https://www.cyclecoach.com
As a TCR dot watcher, respect to anyone who is brave enough to take this on.
I took the advice from a few of the people on this site who reccomended that I hire a coach. This was the best decision I made and completely changed my understanding of how to train and massively boosted the efficiency of my training. Previously I had been putting in a lot of hours on the watt bike in z3/z4/z5 coupled with really long distance rides at the weekend and simply succeeded in burning out. But by switching my sessions to be longer during the week with more rest days and shorter weekend training sessions I was able to still have a bit of a life and to train as hard as I could. Active recovery sessions were a new experience but were incredibly effective.
My coach basically made me attempt to boost my power through long watt bike sessions and short 2 hour economy rides until three months out from the race. My longest ride at the weekend would be 6-8 hours, but more frequently I would do a three or four hour watt bike session or hill climbing session on both Saturday and Sunday (boring, yes I know) instead of a long ride. During the week the sessions would be 1-2.5 hours per day.
Whilst I was worried about the lack of endurance training, each watt bike session would have a large amount of z2 training and I found that my endurance was strong from all the training so I had surprisingly good endurance already and it didn't take much to fine tune it.
Overall in the training, my FTP jumped by 80 and I lost 8kg. If anyone is considering doing a race like the TCR I would thoroughly recommend hiring a coach who can adapt a plan to your personal life situation and also to how your own body adapts and recovers.
What an acheivement.
better training is the way forward. off the top of my head James Hayden's longest ride pre TCR was 'just' 6 hours long. you don't need to do uber long rides for such an event.
If anyone would like some advice on the TCR, feel free to give me a shout. Hopefully i know what i'm talking about having coached James to the win for the last two years!
Ric
Coach to James Hayden - Transcontinental Race winner 2017, and 2018
Coach to Jeff Jones - 2011 BBAR winner and 12-hour record
Check out our new website https://www.cyclecoach.com