bing181 said:I'm no racer, but do about 10 000 km's a year with a few highlighted rides through the season.
I've been working on "building" for a series of event rides through April May. These are 130 - 150 km rides, with a reasonable amount of hard hills and shorter climbs.
So far, have been doing L4 2 x 20's 2 or 3 times a week, and a longer ride or two around that. This coming week, I have some free time and could put in a "big miles" week. But wondering if it's worth it, and what if anything would be the benefits?
Any advice or suggestions appreciated.
The benefits include training your muscles to store more glygocen for your longer highlighted rides, getting used to being in the saddle for long periods, mentally preparing for longer efforts including working on your feeding and hydration strategies, and burning a lot of calories which can be a plus if you've got a few kilos to lose. You'll probably also encounter a lot of varied terrain on your longer rides which is a plus for developing bike handling. Plus it's a lot of fun and satisying to go out and really go somewhere. Which in the end is the reason a lot of us ride bikes.
IMHO I'd say definitely do some longer rides before your 150 km events just for the confidence and saddle conditioning. But I also wouldn't do too many of them unless your spare time includes sufficient time for recovery. I've become a big fan of SST and L4 work which it sounds like you're doing a lot of, but some longer rides here and there are a great addition to that base program as long as they don't leave you too wiped out to resume training.
Have fun,
-Dave
