Endurance Race Training.

[ireland57]

I’ve had some doubts recently about the training/riding I’ve been doing for endurance races (longer than 2 hours).

Many comments are made on forums and in bike mags about training distance/time spent in the saddle not needing to be as long as the races we do. The suggestion is often that shorter, harder training will do the job.
For me, it’s not working and I think the long rides are the most logical missing part.

Lately I've been going decent in the short races (under 2 hr) and fading in the long ones. I’ve only started getting seriously interested in training late last year and my first “endurance” race was a 12hr night time event (Dec 09).
I'm taking into account that getting "good" for endurance rides is a longer term prospect as well and realise this won’t happen overnight.

I teamed up in a couple of 8 hour events recently (riding just 1 lap at a time) and been ok for two laps then slowed a fair bit e.g. 53 mins for the first two then 57, 58 mins for last two.

None of my rides are as long as the longer race times (4 hours). I've been thinking about doing the long "slow" rides once per fortnight to gain endurance.
I do plenty of hills (1 good session per week) and shorter (2 hrs) hard rides weekly as well as a race or mtn bike ride.

If I’m correct here and should do the long rides should they be at my comfortable pace or that of someone a little faster? I.e. so I’m stuffed at the end of it?

[Alex Simmons/RST]

It's hard to give specific training advice, so if that's what you've been reading, take it as general comments, not what is specifically going to work best for you. People usually don't do long rides because they don't have the time, so they use (or try to use) the limited hours they have as best they can by upping the intensity.

Still, if you are not improving, then something needs to change. Longer rides might be the answer, but it could be a few things.

If you've been doing the same rides, then you may have simply plateaued. If you are doing 4 rides/week, you might need to consider riding more frequently.
Doing one longer ride is a good idea but it depends on what you are trying to achieve and what other training you are doing. Long rides don't need to be slow.

[one_damo]

I've started to use this as a guide for my Fitz challenge training (165km).

http://www.adventurecorps.com/way/fivemistakes.html

There are other links via google "cycling endurance training" or similar.

My other personal rule in training is to train solo if I want to get something out of the ride.

[ireland57]

The end result is I want to be able to do well in our endurance events and the short XC races. These vary between 1 ¼ to 2 hrs (XC) and 2 x 8 hr team and 1 x 12hr solo per year. More will be added as the body adapts.......if.

I’ll probably do a couple of road hillclimb TT’s too as they are fun as well as hard work.

I’d also like to be able to do longer club rides (over 4 hrs) with some of the faster chaps without hanging off too far.

I increased the amount of training (measured by RPE x mins of training) in June and July (due to enthusiasm; no other reason really) and am tired now; have been for a few weeks.

I expect I’ll sort this before too long and will be back on track.

On average I ride 4 times per week and 5 – 6 hrs per week.

I vary the rides a lot to keep my young fella interested and for that reason there’s no strong structure to it at present.

We do club mtn bike rides, chino road rides, mtn bike races. There’s no set day for a specific training ride.
We ride hills on both bikes when it suits, usually once per week.

Thanks one_damo. Very interesting. Still reading it.

[orphic]

You might find these articles from Mark Fenner useful. They are geared towards training for a 24 hour race but realistically I think the training will help any endurance type event.

http://www.enduropulse.com.au/index.php ... a-articles

It's hard to know without knowing your background. I personally feel that getting a long road ride in each week is useful, just beause it gives you the hours on the bike. I recently completed my first enduro (6hr 40mins solo) and don't think I could have done it without the ~300km/week I've been doing on the road for the last 6 months. If you look at the times of most people doing enduros you will find that lap times do seem to get slower. I haven't done anything like that in a team before but I imagine that fatigue still sets in and standing around in between laps doesn't really help? If I was in a team or pair I would want to be doing a short warm up before each lap. I really made sure my pacing was right in the race I did and it left me feeling fresh and wanting more at the end (maybe a sign I could have gone harder).

I am very new to this, so take all of this as a simple opinion from a person who has limited experience but spends a lot of her time thinking about it

[ireland57]

Cheers for the articles.

It doesn't matter to me whether someone is new or not; everyone who thinks about it has something decent to contribute.

Standing/waiting/sitting around between laps in an endurance event is not easy.....but it's ok.