Thoughts on season planning for multi-day ultra-cycling races/events
/A bit of background, for those that don’t know me (Greg Grandgeorge). I’m an ultra-cycling coach who has been fortunate to coach some top finishers in TABR, BNUS, RAAM, RAW, TD, Big Sky, BC Epic, NSBR, and HooDoo over the past years… including Kraig Pauli, Evan Deutsch, Janie Hayes, Keith Morical, Heather Poskevich, Deanne Herr and Sarah Cooper. There are a lot of potential strategies for planning your season for a big race like Trans Am Bike Race (TABR), BIKE NONSTOP US (BNUS), or any other multi-day race, and likely there isn’t one “right” way that will work best for everyone. That said, here are some of the things that have worked well for athletes I’ve coached and may be helpful to you as you plan your training for your event.
At a high-level overview, the most important scheduling concept is consistent progression of training load. Progression, meaning we want to increase constructive training stress over time to allow your body to turn that stress/work into physical adaptations (fitness) for your race. Consistent is a key word here as well, as nothing sabotages fitness gains like inconsistent training. From observation, it takes nearly twice as long to gain back fitness lost by an extended break from training… 10 days of missed training takes around 20 days to get back… so after 30 days your fitness has gone nowhere. Progression does not mean that each day has to be higher than the previous, or each week necessarily greater than the last (more about building in recovery strategies later), but that the general trend of load needs to increase over time, to constructively build fitness, and avoid excess accumulated fatigue. Consistency doesn’t require perfection. You don’t need to hit every workout perfectly, and you may miss a workout occasionally with travel, fatigue, or illness. That said, the most successful athletes show up day after day, executing the vast majority of the work to reach their goals. The key is to build your plan with realistic expectations of the training you can handle physically, and around your work and personal life schedules as well.
Typically, you will start building your schedule around your current fitness level and then target to peak training load about 4-6 weeks out from the race. Why peak that far before the race? Most fitness adaptations take time to occur, in the 30-42 day range. By peaking a few weeks before the race itself, you can give your body a chance to turn that final high workload into useful adaptations. This also allows you to drop back some of the training volume as you get closer to the race start, to shed fatigue so you can start the race feeling good. One scheduling mistake (or maybe better said, less optimal) I see at times is people peaking a week before the race. Generally, this isn’t enough time for the body to adapt, and simply results in the athlete starting the race tired, but not necessarily fit. More about tapering later.
There are a lot of ways you can progress training load. Before talking more about that, it may be good to discuss “training load” as well. Personally, I like to schedule athletes using “Training Stress Score” (TSS) and “Chronic Training Load” (CTL), as these concepts help me to better understand the interaction of both training intensity and duration (see the hyperlinks for more information). For a long discussion on different training models and adaptation strategy as a whole, see this paper. TSS and CTL are metrics used in the TrainingPeaks application, which is what I use personally. I have no vested interest in this app/service, and there are certainly other apps/software packages or strategies that can work equally as well (I’ve even created schedules with modeled TSS and CTL using a spreadsheet before most of the annual training plan tools were available)… use what is easy or makes sense for you. For more on some of the acronyms or terms that I’ll use in this article, see this article or this reference. When looking at training load, it may come as a surprise to some, but I don’t track the athlete’s miles… miles don’t matter to me. Why? Your speed (and therefore miles) is extremely dependent on the type of bike you are using, hills, wind, clothing, weight, etc. For example, the same athlete can ride a fat bike in the snow for 3 hours to go 20 miles and do exactly the same amount of work (in kJ) as riding on a TT bike for 3 hours to go 65 miles… same actual physical stress, but dramatically different miles. I’ve also seen some athletes focus so much on miles, that they end up doing rides that are so low in intensity (to hit a mileage goal for the day or week), that the benefits of the additional time may be questionable or even detrimental. Questionable if the time on the saddle doesn’t produce either physical adaptations or at least some needed experience/confidence with long rides (see this paper on skiers with long-duration training and limited adaptation effects), or detrimental if the durations get so long it impairs the athlete’s recovery. For my use, training load is then a function of the duration of training and the relative intensity at which the workout is completed.
Quite simply, the overall goal is to consistently increase load over time, to have the best fitness possible with the time you have available to train. A critical point, though, is that you need to effectively manage your fatigue. Why? Probably the most important thing my triathlon coach told me years ago before I started coaching myself, was fitness wasn’t built from exercise… rather, it was built recovering from exercise. If you do not build recovery into your schedule, both over a period of weeks and even within a week, you risk the possibility of overtraining. When this occurs, fatigue is high, adaptation stops, performance generally declines, and risk of injury increases. True overtraining can take weeks or months to recover from as an athlete. How can you build recovery into your schedule? Most coaches build recovery (or step-back) weeks into training schedules. Traditionally this may be building training stress for 3 weeks, and reducing both volume and intensity in week 4, to help shed accumulated fatigue. There isn’t anything magical about a 3 build/1 week recovery schedule, and you can utilize different strategies. Generally, for ultra-cycling athletes that have a high capacity to absorb loads, I’ll use a 3/1 format. For those that show more signs of fatigue, I’ll use a 2-week build/1 week recovery strategy. Many times I use both, with a 3/1 earlier in a training plan when volumes are lower (e.g. during the winter), and then move to a 2/1 when the volume gets higher as we get closer to the race. From a practical standpoint, I’ve found that the long ride on recovery weeks is often about half the duration of the last week in the build cycle (to manage fatigue or TSB values), although you may need to drop a bit more when you are getting close to your peak weeks. In terms of dropping intensity during recovery weeks, I find that most athletes tolerate tempo level work, so I will include a bit of tempo work, but generally keep the average intensity of the entire workout reasonably low… 75% or lower intensity factor as a rough rule of thumb.
Besides managing intensity between weeks, it’s also important to consider recovery and load within a single week as well. Most of my ultra-cycling athletes train 6 days a week, with one day of complete rest. Within the 6 training days, I have a mix of intensity, endurance, and some recovery days. From a practical standpoint, typically the longest rides are done before the rest day. The reason is that in general athletes are tired after a long day in the saddle, and the likelihood of being able to do a quality workout the next day is low… better to completely rest. How much intensity and how it is scheduled depends on the athlete, the race/event, and projected fatigue levels. I’ll add a bit more about intensity later, but in general, most weeks have 2 to 3 higher intensity days, with the balance being endurance or recovery days. Intensity can create accumulated fatigue rather quickly. Generally, it’s best for most athletes (in my experience) to provide at least 48 hours between higher intensity sessions. For example, if we schedule Monday as a rest day, then Tuesday, Thursday, and possibly Saturday could be higher intensity sessions. Typically, this might mean that Wednesday is a general endurance ride, Friday is an endurance ride (or recovery ride), and Sunday is a long endurance ride. If the intensity is really high (e.g. FTP or higher focus), it may take even longer to recover, and sometimes this warrants having 72 hours between high-intensity sessions (e.g. Tuesday and Friday high intensity, with Wednesday recovery, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday endurance). The point is that it’s good to think about how much fatigue the workout is likely to create and ensure you are giving your body the chance to recover and turn your hard work into adaptations. It can be helpful to look at Training Stress Balance (TSB) to help anticipate fatigue within the week, as well as between weeks for your monthly loading.
Why does intensity matter, and should I include it in my training schedule? Higher intensity work drives different adaptations. Yes, endurance work is critically important for ultra-cyclists and is the foundation of any training plan. That said, higher intensity work helps to increase a cyclists’ threshold power, increase stamina as well as improve fat oxidation rates. Why are these important? Although a lot of multi-day racing is done at relatively low intensities, increasing threshold power helps to increase overall speed. For example, let’s consider two athletes with the same weight and same aero profile, with the first having a threshold power of 250 watts while the second has a threshold of 300 watts. If they are both riding at 45% of their threshold power, Rider 1 will be riding at 113 watts and Rider 2 at 135 watts. How much does that change speeds on a flat road? At 165 lbs and a CdA of 0.38 Rider 1 will be at 15.8 mph and Rider 2 at 17.0 mph. Climbing a 5% grade, Rider 1 will be at 5.4 mph and Rider 2 at 6.4 mph… obviously this makes a big difference when riding across the country. (Here’s a tool if you want to calculate bike speed from power.) Higher intensity riding also improves your ability to hold power longer, called stamina. This is important when riding extended mountain grades in the West, or even the repeated short and steeper climbs in the East. Higher intensity work (at the right targeted zones) can also increase fat oxidation rates. This provides more flexibility for your body to use either stored fat or ingested fat, with less reliance on carbohydrates for fuel (and a lower likelihood of bonking). What types of workouts are the best? There isn’t “a” best type of higher intensity workouts… it depends heavily on the athlete and their specific race. In general, I find that if I am focusing on building power, FTP or VO2 type work often can really help, but it’s really important to manage fatigue. Often this is best when the overall volume is still reasonably low (for athletes with more history/experience). As a whole, sweet spot and tempo work are more manageable for most athletes. Tempo work is pretty well tolerated by most, even when fatigue is higher, as it tends not to create as much residual fatigue. (Note when I refer to tempo training, I tend to think about it in a narrow range for cyclists… 78-82% of FTP… at or slightly above lactate and/or ventilatory threshold 1, and well below sweet spot). Sweet spot work does need to be managed from a recovery standpoint, and it is less effective if the athlete’s threshold power is close to their VO2 Max. But, both of these can be useful in developing power for many, as well as improving stamina and fat oxidation, with less risk of accumulated fatigue than FTP or VO2 work. For more on training zones and the adaptations that can occur, see this article by Dr. Andrew Coggan or his updated zoning discussion here.
In addition to gradually building training load, it’s also beneficial to build race-specific practice sessions into your schedule. Although this can be simply doing other races leading up to your event, often I think race simulation workouts may be better for many athletes, as they typically do not require tapering or as much recovery as a true race, which translates to better fitness adaptations over time. How can we build it into the training plan, and what are things we should consider? The first is obvious… simply incorporating progressively longer single-day rides into your training schedule… 8, 9, 10 hours, etc. This can give you a chance to practice your nutrition/fueling, work on gear, etc. Likewise, we can also stack endurance rides over a series of days, to better simulate race conditions. For example, we could do an 8-hour endurance ride on Saturday and a 4-hour endurance ride on Sunday. This helps prepare your body (and mind) for what it feels like to get back on the bike after a long day of riding (creating resilience… being able to ride day after day). Depending on your work schedule, this can also be a Friday night, Saturday, Sunday plan, where you ride away from home, practice sleep strategies, check out gear, practice nutrition, etc… simulating your race situation before getting into the race itself. Stacked rides can provide you the chance to test things that are more difficult in single-day rides (e.g. charging devices, lighting, sleep gear/strategy, etc.). Because stacked days create more acute loading and fatigue, it is important to be thoughtful about when to use them and to give yourself adequate recovery afterward. Some thoughts on key items to consider in your race simulation training:
· One of the important aspects is working your planned nutrition into your long workouts. For shorter events, you may carry your nutrition (or have it in a vehicle for supported races), but for longer unsupported events, you’ll likely be buying your food along the way. Your gut is trainable, meaning absorption rates of nutrients and water get better with practice. If you are bringing your own nutrition (or in a supported event), make sure you are using that over your long rides. It’s not unusual for athletes to get taste fatigue… meaning after a while the thought of drinking another of the same bottle or eating the same food item may begin to create nausea. If you are an unsupported racer, you should be practicing with items you can buy at grocery stores, convenience stores, or restaurants similar to what you will find on your race route. You need to know what works and doesn’t work for your stomach and consider how many calories per hour you need to take in on average, to meet the demands of your event. Your long rides give you a chance to work this out before the race.
· Check out your gear. Ride with it and understand how your bike handles loaded, where you should pack your things so you can find them easily, what you need to carry, what isn’t needed, what works well, and what doesn’t and needs to be changed. Within this category, consider and practice with your electronics for navigation, as well as testing battery usage (in warm and cold conditions) as well as working out your electronics battery charging strategy. Do some riding in various weather conditions, day and night, to check out rain gear and cold weather gear, to match the conditions (the best you can) that you’ll face in the race. Consider what you’ll do for bike maintenance, and practice this between rides as well.
· Night riding. Obviously, this creates the opportunity to really test lighting (and charging of lights or your dynohub operation), but it’s also good to practice riding into the night, as well as starting early when it is still dark, so you know what to expect from a fatigue standpoint. For some of your long or stacked rides, practice finishing in the dark and starting in the dark.
· Sleep. There are a lot of theories on sleep. Many try to target sleep around 90-minute intervals, to help wake around natural sleep cycles, sleeping 3 hours, 4.5 hours, or 6 hours per night. Likewise, napping can be effective, at either less than 30 minutes or again a 90-minute interval to match sleep cycles. It can be beneficial to try some of these strategies in your practice rides, on a limited basis. For example, if you do an 8-hour ride on Saturday, you can potentially ride into the night, sleep 6 hours, and then start in the dark the next morning (depending on dusk/dawn timing), to both see how your body feels and practice some night riding. It is important to consider your recovery when doing sleep practice like this, so you are not chronically short on sleep, risking compromising your benefits of the work done over the weekend. Ideally, you can make up lost sleep with a nap later on Sunday as well. It’s worth practicing… but not on every long ride and every stacked race simulation weekend. Sleep is critical to your recovery and needs to be a high priority during your training season (see this paper on optimizing sleep hygiene), and it is very important to get back to your good sleep routines as quickly as possible after race simulation weekends
.· Stops / Routines. Race simulations can help you become more efficient off the bike, if you think about your strategy and practice it. Often the biggest difference in total finish time is time off the bike. It’s hard (practically) to gain more time by riding faster after stopping longer. Each minute wasted during the day often means less time for sleeping that night. Race simulation rides give you a chance to create and refine your own strategies. Some common tips are to think through all the things you want to accomplish or get before making stops (e.g. bathroom, food, water, clothing change, etc.). Track your stopped time on some of your long rides, and proactively consider ways you can speed your stops… convenience stores can eat up a lot of time. Likewise, it’s often better to do three things at one stop, rather than stopping three times to do one thing each time. Routines can be helpful, and they can be created and practiced during your stacked rides. Examples are what steps you will take when you get to a hotel (or wherever you sleep) before going to bed, and what steps you need to do before leaving in the morning. For example, decide what electronics needs to be charged, what bike maintenance needs to be done, what self-care needs to be performed, etc. before sleep, or what will be done in the morning. Even if you practice your sleep strategy at home… make it as race-like as possible… don’t eat food, use any gear or clothes, that you didn’t carry in on your bike, just like you’d do in the race. If you are planning on sleeping in a bivy or tent, make sure you practice it sufficiently to be able to put it up and take it down quickly, when you are tired and/or in difficult weather conditions.
As mentioned previously, for most athletes it works well to hit your peak training load 4-6 weeks out from your race/event. What does training look like after your peak? For example, let’s say you peak 5 weeks out from your race. Typically, the following week is more about recovering from the big load to shed acute fatigue. The following week (3 weeks out) can be more of a maintenance week, where we maintain training load, rather than build, while incorporating a bit more intensity. Two weeks out we can drop more load, and increase intensity, to begin the taper period. Again, it is important to consider overall fatigue levels and ensure you are shedding fatigue, to feel good for the start. The reason we often maintain or increase intensity during the taper is to help minimize fitness losses as we lower training volume. It is a balancing act for everyone, but the execution can be dependent on the individual. For those that tend to shed fatigue slower, we may peak earlier, with more time to shed fatigue. For higher volume athletes, it may make sense to peak a bit later. The week of the race is generally lower volume riding, with a few shorter and harder tapering workouts… but nothing so hard that it risks creating additional fatigue of stiffness. Ideally, you will have your final gear preparation done before race week (in terms of gear, logistics, etc.) so you can be relatively low stress and can use the extra time for extra sleep before starting your race.
So, what are typical peak values I see for CTL’s (for those who use that methodology)? From observation, I find that most experienced athletes can do most events with CTL’s of around 105 to 120. For athletes that are closer to the front of races, I typically see CTL’s of 120 to 140, and the leaders in the 140 to 180 CTL range. Certainly, there are exceptions to these ranges, as CTL values are relative to you and your intensity, and are not directly comparable to others. We could have two athletes that both have CTL’s at 120, both have identical aero profiles, but Cyclist 1 has a w/kg of 2.0 and Cyclist 2 has a w/kg of 4.0. Obviously, Cyclist 2 will be faster in the race, assuming they execute similarly… simply due to the additional power.
In addition to having a progressive cycling schedule, it’s also important (IMO) to include strength training into your training program. As you increase training load, your body will naturally try to make you as efficient as possible at riding… often this comes at the expense of muscle atrophy in other areas of your body. In particular, it is important to maintain stabilizing muscle strength (cycling is in one plane of motion) as well as upper body strength, to help prevent injury, minimize upper body fatigue on the bike, as well as to help maintain bone health. Typically, including strength-work two times per week can help maintain a base level of strength balance. Practically, these are best scheduled on shorter endurance days, after the ride, to minimize strength adaptation signaling. Typical exercises include a focus on core work, glutes, and hips, as well as maintaining upper body strength with shoulders, back, chest and arms. As part of both strength training and just high-volume training in general, it’s good to ensure you are getting adequate protein intake. One of my favorite resources on the topic of protein… how much, how frequently, when… is located here.
I’ve heard that the biggest obstacle to success is not having a plan, and the second is following a plan at all costs. The point is that it is important to put together a plan to help you succeed with your races, but it’s also important to be willing to modify your plan as needed, based on how your training is going overall. Keep in mind, outside stressors (work, family, etc.) impact your body similar to exercise stress, and can impair your ability to recover (which can impair adaptations or potentially lead to overtraining). It is important that you listen to your body, watch for signs of accumulated fatigue, and modify if needed. This can be an area where a good coach can help. That said, many athletes successfully self-coach or follow training plans, and it can be very helpful during high volume training to both subjectively quantify how you are feeling daily, and compare it with more objective methods such as HRV (heart rate variability) tracking. I have tried several HRV tracking apps and have zero vested interest, but appreciate the simplicity and accuracy of HRV4Training and recommend it to my athletes. Whether you use this app or another, they have a great four-part series on understanding how HRV can be a good tool (in addition to how you feel subjectively) to help guide training, located here.
If you want to create your own training plan, TrainingPeaks has this article on how to create a plan within their platform, located here. Again, you can use other platforms (there are plenty out there), or even a simple spreadsheet. The important thing is to create a plan that uses consistent progression to peak your training load for your race goal, incorporates adequate recovery, includes race-specific intensity, and incorporates the opportunity to practice race strategies.
If you are interested in training plans for ultra-racing and gravel events from T2M, currently available plans (and plans in the works) are located here. You can follow T2M on Facebook here, Twitter here, or Instagram here.