I signed up for a 50-mile gravel race on August 29. I’ve been letting myself go a bit, but this week I did an 11-mile hike and an 18-mile ride. I wanted to hit 20 miles but I was having a lot of chain slip and decided to cut it short and fix it at home instead of in 90-degrees.
My ride went ok but by no means fast. I averaged 10 mph, but that was stopping every 5 miles to drink water and eat trail mix in the shade, since I went in to the ride dehydrated and without breakfast (I know, I know).
Lots of plans I found start out with ~30 minutes of riding. Well I’m past that now I guess. Also, a lot of them are 8 weeks.
I have about 12 weeks to go, so plenty of time.
I could cobble together a plan based on reviewing several different ones as I have for training for runs before. 3x rides a week, easy/technical-hilly/LSD seems to be pretty standard, with cross-training in between.
Planet Fitness opens back up on the 15th. I used to like to do the stair climber, is that going to be too much lower body stuff in combination with the riding? I need to work on my arms/shoulders/core as well. Those should bounce back pretty quick.
So this race… a lot of elevation variance or mostly flat?
My advice, set your base of 20 miles. If you can ride 20 now - and it sounds like you pretty much can - ride your 20 three times a week for the first two weeks. Recover by not riding in between but also not taxing your legs too much in recovery workouts. I wouldn’t run, for example.
In the following two weeks, change things up by introducing tempo rides for shorter distances, say 10-15 miles. Still allow for rest days in between. Add at least one interval/sprint ride also for shorter distances. Do that for two weeks. Try to get one easy 20 mile ride in on the weekend.
On weeks 4-8, continue the above but start building miles 25, 30, 35, 40. Make the long rides, your weekend rides and give yourself a chance to recover the next day.
Drink water and I recommend gels for easy energy when you’re bonking. I find solid foods requires energy to digest that gels do not. But it’s an entirely personal decision as to what works best. Lot’s of water is essential.
Well, it’s hilly AF. (And I realize that hilly AF is relative) I didn’t realize that when I signed up, I just thought it was close and sounded cool. But then when I shared it on FB, a friend who does a lot of gravel mentioned all the damn hills so only THEN did I look at the map. 2k+ elevation gain in 52 miles, so I will definitely need to work on my hills and spend time in baby gears.
That sounds really reasonable…I’ll save my legs for riding and work on core and upper body and keeping loose on off days.
Luckily (or not) I have a good stock/variety of gels from preparing for a trail race last year. Most of them are even still within the ‘best by’ date
I have 2 bottle cages and yesterday experimented with carrying my hydro pack as well. I didn’t like that it made my back sweaty and cut down on air flow, but as the first official aid station is 33 miles in I probably should just get used to it. My neck was a bit sore today, but I don’t know if it was from the pack or because of my riding position.
Okay, with lots of elevation, I’m going to suggest dropping one or both interval days and riding hills instead. Sprint intervals will help improve your average speed but given the relatively short amount of time you have to train for a hilly event, I think hills would be a better interval training alternative. Get you better reconciled with the suffering.
If the neck pain persists, experiment with raising the bars. Even an inch or two can make a big difference.
Well, I’m only 4", but some folks thinks that just waaaay too wide.
Actually I ordered new bars last night. I ride a MTB because it was the biggest bike I could get, and I don’t like the lack of hand placements even with grips with bar ends. So I have butterfly bars on the way and I think those will be just swell.
Fortunately I can get lots and lots of hill work within a 1-mile radius of my house, so let the suffering begin!
Do some of your riding on the same surface as the race. if it’s loose gravel and you do all your riding on road/ packed dirt, you’ll be in for a rude surprise.
Also, eat/drink what you’ll be eating/drinking during the race. Try to find out what they’re providing at the aid stations.
Good advice indeed, and one I definitely learned from trail race training. I don’t do very well at following the ‘no new food on race day’ rule, though, since those races tend to have everything from cookies, to nutella tortilla wraps to salted potatoes, pringes…and in once case cups of cold PBR and whiskey shots. Fortunately that was the last aid station before the finish, soooo…
I have a couple multi-use trails of nicely crushed and maintained chat from 12-25+ miles within 20 minutes or so, but to get on actual gravel roads I’ll have to save those for the weekend since they’re at least 30 minutes away. One I hit those, though, I could ride to Colorado and never hit pavement. Hypothetically. If I wanted to. Which I don’t. This year.
I don’t know if you have an elevation map of the race course. If so, try to plan a proportional hill to flat ratio. So if the race course is 20% climbing, plan a 10-12 mile ride with 2-3 miles of climbs. Then build. If you can plan a short circuit, then just repeat until done. If there are long climbs in the race, find some long climbs.
Try not to over train. I think running coach will agree that rest days are as important as training days. Try not to train more than 4 days a week. Alternate with 3 days a week training for particularly long and hilly rides. Last two weeks before the race, get in longer rides but keep it to 3 training rides per week. You don’t want to feel too torn up on race day.
Definitely what others are saying here: hill workouts will improve your fitness as well as re-enforce handling skills, and intervals will improve your overall fitness and endurance. Not much more to add to what is already recommended.
I will add one thing, tho, you need butt-time. You are probably going to be in the saddle or pedaling for 4-5 hours, so your butt needs to be ready for that - the only way to build up endurance there is to have your ass in the saddle - gym workouts wont provide that. One way to do this is when you do your long weekend rides chose a fairly level route that gives you distance but not necessarily elevation. You will spend most of the time saddled and spinning, which is good. The other things that help are decent gel-padded cycling shorts and a decent saddle. My 2 cents.
That’s another thing I might need to look at, my saddle. It’s the stock one that came with the bike, and my suspicion is it’s similar to the pedals that came with it, and toilet seats; they assume you’ll change them so they do put a lot of effort in to them.
Sit-bones are definitely sore today which hasn’t happened before. I got new shorts that are actually long enough for me and wore them for the 2nd time yesterday, but they don’t have a super-thick chamois. I have a couple pair of thicker ones, but the legs are way too short on me. Do you think I can just stick with the new shorts/thinner chamois and get conditioned to it, and should I look in to a new saddle?
Mostly cuz I’m not fast enough to bother pushing hard enough to puke. I may just be lucky to not get an upset stomach while I run, I’ve never had a problem. And damn, being surprised with a cold beer after running in the woods for 3 hours was sweeeeeet!
They sell cycling underwear liners that have built in gel padding. You can slip those under your shorts and likely be alright. You’ll have to experiment. Fortunately, you’ve got lot’s of opportunity to do that in the next 8-12 weeks. Saddles are a pain in the ass. Period. Find one that hurts the least and train your ass to get used to the rest. They are not very expensive, unless you want them to be, so experiment with a few of various width and padding. Often, adjusting the tilt of the saddle the smallest amount can improve your comfort level.
Very true. The more time you spend riding the more particular one becomes about saddles - it is a deeply personal thing, and as you say, the smallest adjustment or difference in saddle width can mean a world of difference in comfort. Sometime stock saddles are fine but if you are going to spend a lot of time riding and want to enjoy it to the fullest, finding that “right” saddle is key.
I also agree on the padded underwear as a good investment. I always advise new riders to invest good money in things where your body touches the bike (saddle, handlebar tape/gloves, and shoes/pedal system.
