Training for a Gran Fondo

[jpwkeeper]

Originally Posted by bobqzzi .

In my opinion, the following would be important in this order:

1. Upping the intensity of your daily rides. Since your time is limited, you need to maximize it. By increasing your LT through targeted L4/L5 rides, you will greatly ease the metabolic cost of slower rides. If, for instance you could do 18 miles in an hour of effort, riding at 15 for much longer times will become easy. It also will reduce redlining on the hills. Intensity of training is much more important than length.

2. A weekly long ride is important, but you could cap that at 3 hours, then just increase intensity and be okay. Much of the longer ride is just getting the various body parts used to being on the bike that long.

3. Lose weight. As others have said, it makes a massive difference on the hills. I will agree that this is much more about calorie consumption than exercise. A simple review of the math will show that. A side benefit is there are many proven health benefits for reduced body mass.

4. Slowly lower the stem on the bike. Look into getting some premium slick tires (but not for training, save them until just before the event). Those 2 changes will get you about 90% of the improvement a dedicated road bike would.

1. I agree with you there (although 18Mph is...not in reach at the moment). Should I up the intensity of every ride, or still have recovery rides in between? So maybe something like:
Monday - Long
Tuesday - Recover
Wednesday - Intervals
Thursday - Recover
Friday - Time Trial type run

Where one of the recovery days is off the bike and the other is an easy ride?

2. Right now my long ride is around 80-85 minutes. I'm going to work on lengthening that over time, but I'm going to hit a schedule wall at around 1:45 until I can free up some weekends, which might not be till spring.

3. Yeah, I know. I'm trying to lower my portions and/or make healthier choices in general.

4. This is a new one, and really interesting advice. With lowering the stem do I need a more narrow saddle? I'll also look into the slicks (mine aren't knobby, just old-school type treads, but even so).

Thanks for the tips. Every day I feel more and more like I can actually do this ride.