In all of my training, I emphasize quality over quantity. The ingredients needed for speed are the same that are needed to build endurance. As a reminder, I previously wrote:
“if the fastest that you can ride on a flat road for 1 hour is 20 miles per hour, then every distance you do that is longer than one hour will be a proportion of that speed. Therefore, the ability to go fast necessarily erodes the longer the distance. If you worked on raising that speed to 23 miles per hour, then you would be slightly faster at all distances longer than 1 hour. In other words, at every given intensity, you have a capacity to do work. That means that as your capacity to do work increases at high intensities, your relative ability at lower intensities also increases.”
I also talk about specificity of training for your event: “Focus on specificity throughout your program. You should always have an eye towards the course you will be riding.”
If you need to be specific in your training, but you also need to develop speed, how do you reconcile the two when it comes to training to race for a minimum of 5 hours?
For the ultra-racer, the importance of spending long hours in the saddle becomes more than just about physical training, but a matter of logistics and psychology. The following items are just a few issues addressed by long rides:
- Fueling strategies-learning to fuel at the appropriate times, and in what concentrations to avoid gastro-intestinal upset.
- Ability to sit in the saddle for long periods of time-avoidance of saddle sores, developing lower back muscle tolerance.
- Equipment problems-the race is not the right time to learn that your gloves or your grips rub your hands raw, or that your saddle is great for 4 hours, but is intolerable thereafter. Your favorite equipment can quickly become your enemy in these types of races.
- Maintenance of skills in a fatigued state—the ability to ride obstacles should be second-nature—when tired, you need to be able to ride safely.
- Psychological benefits—it is difficult to ride for long periods of time if you have not engaged in this in the past. (Note: the converse of this is that if you do this too often, you can cause a mental burn-out. You should climb into the saddle on race day looking forward to the challenge ahead, not dreading another long day in the saddle).
You can get the same physiologic benefit from doing two different types of rides. Typically, I see riders build and build mileage throughout the training program. Instead, do your longer rides earlier in the program. What defines “long” is largely based on your riding history and current fitness level. If you have been riding for 2 years and have never done a 3 hour ride, don’t go out and do 5. Be smart; if you are doing 4 hours of riding at a time and find that you are exhausted for days afterwards, do shorter rides with a little more quality built in, then work your way to a longer ride.
In your long rides, make sure that you can hold a steady pace—at least a 4-5 on a scale of 1-10, where 10 is all-out. At that pace, ensure that you can withstand some harder efforts (such as hills) without becoming completely exhausted before the ride is finished. Again, if you are riding really easily for 4 hours, chances are, you’re not gaining much benefit. You are better off riding a little faster for a shorter period of time, and on a course that has elements that mimic your race.
When you incorporate longer rides into your schedule, focus on the recovery afterwards. If you are riding at a 3-5, it should take 2-3 days to fully recover, so don’t push too hard in those days. If you are riding at a harder effort, then it can take longer. Be careful to allow for recovery before doing more hard training; it’s easy to hit diminishing returns when you are building up to an event.
As your training program progresses, and you have adapted to longer rides, you can insert quality into these rides. You can incorporate threshold intervals, hill attacks, and other ingredients of your race into these rides. By way of an example, let’s say that Pat is doing a 100 mile mountain bike race in June. The race has a lot of climbing. Pat is a category 2 mountain biker who will be completing a cross-country season. Pat trains about 7-8 hours a week, and has a good level of fitness. Pat has been riding for about 4 years. Pat’s longest ride to date was 4 hours.
In a 6 month time frame, Pat might choose to incorporate the following rides:
Early phase: 3 hour rides, progressing from rolling hills to a hilly course.
Early middle phase: 3 hour hilly rides progressing to two 5 hour rides on courses mimicking race course, spaced 2 weeks apart.
Late middle phase: 3 hour rides incorporating long intervals at threshold (these intervals should have incorporated into early training, so that you are familiar with them)
Late phase training: 2.5 hour rides incorporating hill repeats and other maximal aerobic training.
Again, this example is based on a specific, hypothetical athlete. This formula might not be right for you, but the general idea is that instead of progressing to longer and longer rides, you progress to faster and faster rides over a moderate to long distance.
When undertaking any training program, be certain that you are careful to have any aches, pains, or unusual symptoms checked out by your doctor. Training is a hard business, and avoiding injury or illness is the key to future success. I have a saying: “they will hold the race without you, and strangely enough, they’ll hold it again next year.” So, if you have to err on the side of caution and change your plans, do not feel badly: when the time is right, pick another race and forge ahead with a new plan.
Once your training has been dialed in, you will need to spend time planning the logistics of your race and managing it appropriately. In future articles, I will go through the logistics of these races: equipment choices, and insider tricks that will shave minutes off your total time.
Sara Krause holds a master’s degree in sports science and nutrition and has been coaching athletes to numerous state championships and top national results since 2005. Krause has won multiple solo victories at 6 & 12 hour races, and has placed 5th in the women’s solo category at the prestigious 24 hours of the Old Pueblo. She has also won the 24 Hours of Rocky Hill where her performance netted her a 2nd place amongst all solo men as well. Krause will focus on ultra-distance racing for 2010, with appearances at the National Ultra Endurance Series. She is the owner of Krause Sports Performance
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