Endurance races and training

I found there is no need to ride 4- 5 hours for 100 mile races for me. 3 hours at 90% FTP is all I needed with some L4-6 training. Thing is using heart rate, in all that time on the bike it will drift. I notice on long rides, heart rate goes up power goes down. My advice, ride as hard as you can for 2-3 hours and keep it a steady effort. Also get Andy C. book, training and racing with a power meter. You dont have to have a PM to benefit from the book.

zaskar said:

I found there is no need to ride 4- 5 hours for 100 mile races for me. 3 hours at 90% FTP is all I needed with some L4-6 training. Thing is using heart rate, in all that time on the bike it will drift. I notice on long rides, heart rate goes up power goes down. My advice, ride as hard as you can for 2-3 hours and keep it a steady effort. Also get Andy C. book, training and racing with a power meter. You dont have to have a PM to benefit from the book.

Gotta agree with Zaskar and disagree with your local bike guy. You don't need rides that are 5 hours long to prep for 120 km races but you'll definitely want L4 and even L5 intensity in your workouts. Andy has some HR to power estimates in his book for the training levels, but I'd forget the HR and go as Zaskar suggests by what you can do for the distance. It'll probably work out to be as hard or even harder than your current rides(not many folks can go above L2 for 5 hour rides) but not nearly as long.

You might consider the following sort of "hard to easy" training week:
M - rest
T - L5 or L4, (that means 3 to 5 minute intervals or 10 to 20 minute intervals as hard as you can do them and stay steady for the target durations) total time 1.5 to 2 hours
W - L4 (same 10 to 20 minute intervals as above) total time 2 to 2.5 hours
Th - L3 (just go steady fast or block them 45 minutes to an hour and a half per block with some easy cruising in between) 2.5 to 3.5 hours total ride time
Fr - rest
Sa - L4 or L3 ride
Su L3 or L2 ride

That's roughly the schedule I've been on this year switching things around a bit if I'm targeting VO2 Max (more L5 work) or FTP (more L4/high L3 work) or sprinting (add a dedicated L7 sprint workout). I've been working variations on that theme for 31 weeks now including indoors all winter(shorter durations) and it's paying off nicely. I recover well, usually feel like I could have done more and really like the fact that by starting hard each sucessive workout is mentally easier and typically more fun. Get the hard stuff out of the way when you're feshest but make sure you keep that day short so you have some juice for the following days.

Good luck,
Dave

O.K. so everybody here knows I spout off a lot and hold some pretty strong opinions regarding sweet spot training over traditional LSD based early season training. A friend talked me into a long ride today and since I'm on a CTL build and intentionally digging a deep training hole before tapering for an upcoming stage race I decided to give it a go.

Up till today I haven't scheduled a single L2 ride and haven't ridden over 60 miles on any given day. I only broke 200 miles for one week and that's because it ended with a stage race. I've been doing L5, L4 and L3 work with some sprinting and whatever L6 I get in races and the few group rides I've done.

So we set out at 8 this morning for what we call Round The Block, it's 106 miles(plus another 5 or so getting to and from our meeting place) with over 5500 feet of climbing and two big mountain passes including the 8500' Teton Pass into Jackson Hole. Five and a half hours later we pulled back into town averaging over 19 mph with just the two of us and I felt great. I glanced at my PM on climbs and during long pulls and kept things in L3 while I was at the front but the ride ended being L2 overall with descents and sitting in. I don't remember ever finishing a century feeling so fresh or being able to pull at over 22 mph after 100 miles with big climbs.

Anyway, I'm totally convinced in the "build power then endurance" approach now. Being able to pull fast and stay in L3 was something I just couldn't have done without all the L4 and SST work I've been doing and by paying attention to feeding and staying hydrated I never came close to bonking even with my lack of big miles.

Well, I guess I'm blowin' my horn a bit but the point is that I really don't believe you need a steady diet of big miles to be able to handle big miles.

-Dave