I’m going to try and do a few 12 hour events this year and so training has started early.

I’m not a big fan of the strict timed intervals favoured by the likes of Carmichael’s TCC. I don’t have long stretches of straight uninterrupted road to carry them out on.

So I’m looking for some ideas on more natural types of workout to do. One workout I’ve found to be good is the simple hill repeat. Go up and then down, repeat 3 times.

Cheers in advance!

ride more, 12hrs in the saddle I would have thought you’d be better off working your base fitness doing longer slower rides than hill reps.
FWIW i didn’t do any training for my first 12hr at 24/12 and still did ok, and I’m no whippet. depends on whether your after a podium or just to get round without suffering.
not sure if any of the threads are still available post server wobble but there was lots of advice from the enduro guys on here last year that i read up on (and subsequently lazily ignored!)

I’ve never done aything longer than the Kielder 100 but I never bothered with long slow training rides, they are dull and in winter, cold. Just focus on long rides and try and keep the pace up then either increase the pace or the distance. Short fast/hard rides are good too if you are limited for time.

If you are going to reliably go out and train then stay clear of repeats. Try and plan routes that have plenty of hills in and attack each one. Riding up and down the same hill would kill me through boredom. I found my best motivation came from doing fun rides that were hard.

http://www.bikejames.com/

should keep you busy.

Thanks guys. Mixed feedback as ever, but then that’s what I was looking for.

fatmuthahubbard my problem with long slow rides is time, I’ve got a family and business to look after so reckon I can do 6 hours a week absolute max. I’m not looking for podiums, but equally I don’t want to just get round, I’d like to feel competitive. I’m 40 this year so may have some kind of mind life thing going on! 🙂

I’m trying commuting as a way of simulating longer rides, with a morning and evening ride. That seemed to work last year.

jonb I’m definitely in your school of thought, reckon short periods of high intensity will help boast fitness in the long run based on my short training hours. I kind’a like the reptitive hill thing, feels like mental training for the round and round nature of events like Bristol bikefest, but will try and get some fun rides in with mates too.

trailofdestruction your link is interesting, was thinking bike workouts but good to have some stuff I can do off the bike with weather being what it is!

The Loco Bm Endurance team are Chris for their plans:

http://www.chriseatough.com/?page=plans

Just ride.

The best training for a 12 hour race would be to work on your head. That’s what’ll keep you going after 8 hours.

Dunno how to do that, mind you; hypnosis?

Agree the just ride bit, but I aslo found a big difference to my riding endurance after doing some core and upper body strength work. At the end of a ride I felt far less ‘beat up’ and seemed able to keep a better posture etc.

As for training on the bike, hill repeats will build your muscle (depending on how you ride them) and power output – but do you need that for a 12? I found a decent length route (2-2.5hrs) and set myself marker points (24 mins to the top of the first big climb) etc. so I could track my improvement over time). If you have the time it might be worth borrowing a technique from the ultra-running community, where people rearely run the full distance in training, but simulate the fatigue by running long two days in a row. No idea if that would work for cycling mind.

I think the best way is to ride long ant low intensity, but as said above, it’s dull and hard to do in winter, especially on an MTB where hills and terrain changes make keeping in a zone almost impossible.

LoCo did you say you use those plans yourself? At $100 I’d want to be sure they do the business! But the 12 weeks for 100mile looks like it might be just the ticket. By the way, I keep meaning to come and see you guys for a tune up, probably pop over March time now.

ChunkyMTB I’ve definitely done the just ride thing, and know where you’re coming from, when weekends/evenings were my own it worked, but with limited time I find when I just ride my fitness drops, and when my fitness drops my enjoyment drops and quickly lose motivation to just ride.

ScottChegg I do find riding at this time of year, with rain, wind and dark does give you some mental preparation! But hypnosis sounds much more pleasant 🙂

phinbob thanks for the comments, I’m definitely think the idea of simulating fatigue is a good one. I’m hoping back to back commuting will do the trick. I can easily get a good 1h+ ride into work sorted, same on the way home, it all adds up. Also my hill repeats tend to be spinning rather than grinding, original idea was just to get more climbing into my local rides, as while I’ve got hills nothing that big unfortunately on the doorstep.

Thanks again for the comments, really useful stuff!

I am afraid I would go for the 12 hours practice rides either day or night (I am retired so I can fit them in!) and of course a few short rides. If you get two 12 hour rides before hand that will sort out your head out. I would not worry about any pain afterwards other than trapeziums and arse (in my case). Running or walking for that matter is an impact exercise and 12 hours of running at least will wreck your legs. I once did a 100k (took me 24 hours) run and walk mainly off road. Afterwards I was going to get a bus and train etc home 30 miles. I couldn’t even walk away from the school where we finished, had to call a taxi. Took a week to recover if not longer. Did a 50 miler a month latter easy peasy both body and mind were much better able to take it. As someone said it’s your head you have to train first. At the end of the day it gets dark Opps gone of the subject. If you train at night or race at night you must have good lights if not you will end up applying the brakes on the down hills. I use trail tech which I am more than happy with. Do not think about cycling without the padded shorts. As I have been hospital for a while I have only done 60 milers recently. I did about 100 miles a day along the west coast of US about 15 years ago although with wind behind me so not that hard. Anyway, I really think you should consider getting a few 12 hours rides in. JB

phinbob – Member
Agree the just ride bit, but I aslo found a big difference to my riding endurance after doing some core and upper body strength work. At the end of a ride I felt far less ‘beat up’ and seemed able to keep a better posture etc.

Not sure why you would think this would have much benefit? As riding itself will train the right muscles. As I weight train about 4/5 days a week I actually think that weight training has detrimental affect. Although I do do total body as in a 6 day routine. As stated phinbob I suspect you benefited more from the cycling, as in more cycling leads to easier cycling and less muscle pain. Most pain in cycling comes from the unnatural position? Particularly the head /back position

LoCo did you say you use those plans yourself? At $100 I’d want to be sure they do the business! But the 12 weeks for 100mile looks like it might be just the ticket. By the way, I keep meaning to come and see you guys for a tune up, probably pop over March time now.

I’m on the Loco team and I can vouch for the Chris Eatough plans and their effectiveness. Did my first 24 hour solo at the Twentyfour12 in 2010 and came 4th, won a 12-hour pairs event, and had the fastest time at the Afan Monster 100km.

Previously I’d made my own training plans and had decent enough results to show for it but nothing compared to last year’s.

Definitely worth considering if you’re serious about following a training plan, and Chris Eatough is a nice guy who is willing to help out with problems etc.

I hear you OP.

Not read all the thread but you need speed work to get your fitness up, some distance stuff is good too but you don’t want to be doing lots of 12hr rides or you’ll lose your speed.

You only need to ride 12hrs once and once you can ride 4 you can prob ride 12 if you pace it right.

Stuff like hill reps etc is good I think, as long as you have variety and recover enough/not too much. If you can try to mirror the prescribed intervals with what you do but don’t get too stressed about detail – I imagine the detail these guys go into may help, but only with a few %, an like you, I find that level of prescription mindnumbing.

huw thanks for the recommendation, made 4th place in the Afan Monster (100km) based on my own fairly random plan last year so good to know that Chris’ plan made a difference!

cynic-al thanks, I’m looking for ideas to keep things interesting more than anything, and I definitely get the feeling lots of long low intensity riding is effecting my speed.