With the summer here, it's time for trips away to places with awesome riding. Trouble is, like last year and every one before it, my body isn't ready for it.
The climbs are longer and steeper, the descents are longer and more physical, and I'm riding more than one day successively. So at some point during the day my energy is depleted and I start riding badly, and there's no point going away for more than three days at a time.
What do people do to prepare for this? Say if you live in the southern flatlands but do a week in the Lakes, Scotland, or even lift-assisted places in the Alps. Riding the gentle local road hills and short blue-type bridleway descents more times a week isn't going to cut it. Places I can drive to on a weekend day are more like those destinations, but still a big gap, and only reachable once a week.
I'll guess it involves some type of cardio training so the climbs don't exhaust me as much, and something else to be more resistant to being worn down by descending.
running, off road if possible, and plank and push/pull ups (or trying to pull up 🙂 )
I tend to just ride harder on my local trails. They're about 1 minute of descent and maybe 3 minutes climb so I'll do three laps at full pace.
Just ride. I'm recently back from 13 days 300 miles 30 000ft of climbing towing a trailer mainly off road including a fair bit of hikabike. I'm 61. Ok i was fairly ruined when I got back but recovered in a day. No training indeed I had hardly ridden for a month before i went
I think the key is not to try to hard the first day or two - just pootle forget about full on attack.
Plenty of picnics, plenty of water, plenty of stopping to admire the view
Are you me?
I live in the (relative) flats of Kent, with just a 500ft hill nearby with some local mellow trails, then actual MTB trails about 45 mins drive away, and I do a few 3-5 day trips to the lakes, peaks, Scotland etc. every year (I'm in Aberfeldy for 2 weeks in just over 4 weeks!).
My solution to be fit enough for summer has been hitting zwift pretty hard with training plans with 3-5 workouts per week. I've increased my FTP loads thanks to this (by nearly 30%) and didn't suffer on a 3 day trip including climbing snowdon a few weeks back.
I'm probably going to start including running outside again along with 2-3 rides per week, just to mix it up a little, and then come this winter I'll be back on zwift and will start doing some resistance band strength work as I'm weak in my upper body.
I'll be booking a week long trip to Torridon in May next year so that'll give me something to aim for.
In short, Zwift has been an absolute gamechanger for my fitness.
TBH you just kinda manage mostly and get on with it. The banter, the laughs and the mates just drags the legs out with you 🙂
I’ve got a 3 dayer a few weeks.
I’ve been doing a sweet spot base low volume trainer road plan on my turbo trainer and adding in mtb rides twice a week on top. I’m on the final part of the plan which has several vo2 workouts a weeks at the moment. I’ve never been more cycle fit than I am now - I can go harder for longer and have a better ability to do bursts of power as trails vary - particularly if you need to put power down for a short period of time for a technical feature / steeper bit of trail.
I’ve also been ramping up my weight training the last few weeks with a focus on legs to build strength and endurance. Got a full day at bike park Wales, an Afan Masts day and a Forest of Dean off piste day planned over 3 days back to back.
Hoping I’ve done enough to be able to really enjoy it all!
Zwift racing, some training and ride as much outdoors as I can plus running for cardio. PT session for strength. On a recent 2 day two I was consistently the fastest going up and also the least when out. The next fittest rider again zwifts and does weights.
I think the PT has given a noticeable change. I've done trips before with a similar level of cardio fitness but got tired on downhills. This trip that did not happen, even on long descents at the end of the day.
Most long trips that I do nowadays I find that Prime deliver some different legs on night 3! Day 4 and subsequent days are then a joy.
Having a power meter and heart rate monitor will help for training and doing the trips, so you know what you can sustain.
You don't need mountains on your doorstep to do constructive training that will help on mountains, it might seem weird, but there's nothing stopping you using big gears on almost pan flat terrain, perhaps with a headwind.
As I've found this week, turbo sessions are great for convenient training, having done plenty over winter I've done very little since mid March and of late I've been concerned I'm not doing enough z4+ outdoors which will naturally mean previous gains will start to decline. Long steady rides will likely be less boring and more comfortable outdoors, but summer turbo can be great for relatively intense short sessions.
This week I've been using the free RGT Flanders route. On Monday I did short z5 intervals up the route's inclines and then z1/2 between, Tuesday I tried to pace a whole lap like a TT/ FTP test, yesterday I did a handful of z5/6 ~3.5min intervals and a longer z2 crusing after. ~30/30/50mins.
Apparently you get more gains from z5 intervals closer to 8mins, to begin with you might want close to double the interval duration as recovery and then gradually try and throw the odd interval after an equal or even less than equal recovery period.
Short Zwift races work well too, sub 20mins, work up to doing multiple races in a day such as https://zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=3023251 at 1200 followed by https://zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=3023254 at 1215.
You can ride hard on short hills just don't do the stop and easy up thing most people do at the top. Keep going hard. When I was riding fixed wheel (on road) this was very apparent. People would chill at the top and if on gears spin but if you kept pushing hard it didn't matter that it was flat you were still going hard.
I’ll guess it involves some type of cardio training so the climbs don’t exhaust me as much, and something else to be more resistant to being worn down by descending.
I have found that if I want to ride multiple days in a row on a trip, the best training is to make sure I regularly do 2/3 days in a row back home. Day 2 is always the toughest, but provided I've not been silly on day one and totally destroyed myself, it's manageable.
Other than that, taking proper care of yourself in terms of feeding, watering and sleeping is probably boringly helpful.
Training plans for going on holiday 🤣
Just ride your bike a bit more and may be do a couple of hangover rides as practise.
You laugh but if trips are limited (and outdoor time at all for me currently) then you want to get the most out of them. Being fitter and stronger helps with this.
yes but all you need to do is slow down a bit on your multiday trips! I have done loads of long tours some with some really tough riding and its no issue I have never trained. I just get out there and pootle along for day after day.
make the most of what you have - time, resourse and geography.
help prepare for a multidayer by doing an evening ride, and then a morning ride straight after for example.
Maybe after your current one day a week ride on a saturday, could you squeeze in a 1 hour hard local effort sunday morning? just round the road if necessary. Or even a run or gym cardio if that suits better.
My local including the vertigo inducing 30m total vertical of the Swinley clubhouse trails, I'll often on a solo ride deliberately do continuous laps with a hard effort climb, so that I can practise descending while tired. Its not quite the same but it helps.
I ride or try to at least twice a week all year, yoga push up routine every day and 5 k weekly run. If it's a really big trip boring time on turbo for few days as well to get legs used to multiple days. Ride DH in Spain 6 days on trot every winter just the general buzz and love of it kept me going and joy of dust no mud. Just back from bikepacking in Scotland took me 2 days on couch to recover.
Physical job keeps me fit or knackered not quite sure now at 51.
Still doing it so must be working but everyone's different, horses for courses as they say.
Reps on whatever hill you can find locally. Aim to build as much ascent with your reps as you are likely to get on your trip. Once you're doing that maybe try again the next day.
As well as the suggestions above, don't overlook core work, upper body, arms & grip; all easy to train for at home and will assist significantly in making your being dynamic and resilient a lot easier.
There are loads of options- Balance board work; complex planks; press ups onto dumb bells trying to roll away from you on a hard floor; use your imagination or a more enduro training focussed set from an online instructor.
Trail running but not on easy tracks; dynamic & nimble are your objectives.
Ride lots - doesn't matter what, just saddle time. Commuting is good.
Places I can drive to on a weekend day are more like those destinations, but still a big gap, and only reachable once a week.
Obviously, it depends how far you need to go - but ride there, do the ride, ride home again?
Plenty of pressups and core work so you can keep a strong position on the bike on big days.
yes but all you need to do is slow down a bit on your multiday trips! I have done loads of long tours some with some really tough riding and its no issue I have never trained. I just get out there and pootle along for day after day.
I found myself getting thigh cramps pushing up the final climb of the final day of 90 miles and 14k ft of climbing, not sure I could have gone much slower! 🤣
After that trip (which I massively suffered on) I vowed to get my fitness sorted for this year, which I've done thanks to Zwift. It makes a huge difference having the fitness to not be suffering on the multi day trips.
Just ride more and put more effort in. You can spend ages working on training plans and turbos, etc, but just get out and ride more 😃.
A bit of CrossFit (or similar functional fitness training) never hurt anyone’s fitness either and being generally stronger with improved upper body and core strength will always help unless you’re Chris Froome
TBH you just kinda manage mostly and get on with it. The banter, the laughs and the mates just drags the legs out with you 🙂
This, plus drinking heavily in the evening and hopefully getting the fittest rider hammered to slow them down.
More sensibly decent base level with regular riding and dig deep when away.
It's amazing how much more effort I can put in if it's not the dull old local.
And don't forget to laugh at your Garmin 'suggested recovery time" after the first 6 hour, 1000m of climbing day when it suggests 47hrs recovery and you'll be doing the same thing the next day, and the next day 🤣
As above I'm in Scotland for 2 weeks in 4 weeks time, I've been a bit lax the last few weeks in getting out (fitness still there from earlier this year though) so I'm going to ramp it up each week until I go, I won't be riding every day when I'm there but I will be riding a fair number of the days!
Cheers, that's a whole lot to digest.
You're a dedicated bunch. Exercise is boring for me, but I can get started with the press/pullups/planks at home. Riding more, and not stopping for a drink at the top and bottom of every trail is also achievable. I probably need to do something to make going for a ride easier - currently it's a bit of a PITA.
have a better ability to do bursts of power as trails vary – particularly if you need to put power down for a short period of time for a technical feature / steeper bit of trail
That's a classic ballsup of mine - not having the strength to do something that I could have at the start of the day. Fallen off multiple times while near stationary due to this.
Spin and core sessions.