Audax Riders….How to train for a long event?

So I’ve been talked into doing the Dragon Devil, some clever-clogs has decided we need to do 300km next year. No I know thats not “long” amongst proper randonneurs but its going to be a challenge for our club.

Can any of you direct me to a training plan for this kind of event or tell me what you do? I followed a professional plan for a multi-day event last year, I was surprised at the distances it recommended (shorter than I’d thought) and nothing beyond around 2hrs in the month leading up to the event. Am sure there’s more to it than just riding myself into the ground hour after hour.

Thanks

I did a 250 mile Manchester to London in 24 hours charity ride in June, having only ridden a road bike for the first time in the March, for me, the key was a few things, most importantly it is a long time in the saddle, make sure your bike fits well (yes I had a bike fit!), that you have a saddle that you can spend that amount of time on and that the bike is set up for comfort, so larger 25c tyres etc.

Fitness wise, I did 1 long ride of 60-80 miles on a sunday initially, then in the lead up to the events, did 6 100 mile sportives in the 9 weeks prior, with the final few big rides i rode to the event and back as well, so 120 – 140 miles in all.

During the week, I did 1 60 mile round trip commute, then 3 spin bike sessions (finding it easier to do interval work on them than real bike), so that I built up strength and better threshold tolerance as well as staminour.

I feel though that if you can ride 100 miles in 5-6 hours, then you can ride further at a decreased pace if you keep eating and drinking and the bike is comfortable.

This was just my way of going about it though.

I had been doing regular 60-80 miles rides for the first few months of the year and then on a whim did 135miles. Things i noticed, if you keep the speed down, ie comfortable it isn’t that hard physically. Your head matters ALOT!, i did experience a little shoulder pain, but nothing to bad.

Just eat, and plod, decent shorts, make sure saddle and such like is comfortable, decent shoes and pedals. Basically anything that niggles on the average ride won’t be just a niggle!!!!

nothing beyond around 2hrs in the month leading up to the event.

I’d agree, certainly nothin that requires real recovery. You need to be fresh. I made that mistake this summer, long rides too close to d-day. Was ok on the ride but knew I could have been fresher.

Old roadie wisdom (he wouldn’t mind me saying that, the old roadie in question!) says long-term fitness for long rides, long term fitness is lost more slowly than quick, short-term gains (ie intense turbo work). So lots of long, zone 2 stuff to build efficiency then power/threshold work about 8-12 weeks out to tune up. ‘Base then Build’ cycles.
I found low RPM zone 2 climbing (7-9%, big ring, slowly turning it over at a low intensity) during those base mile rides helped keep my MTB SS strength up and worked well longer-term. Something recommended in a training plan example loaned to me by a rider who’s very capable on that kind of distance/duration.

300km is no easy ride. Hoping to do more of that kind of thing next year. Good luck!

mrmo – Member
I had been doing regular 60-80 miles rides for the first few months of the year and then on a whim did 135miles. Things i noticed, if you keep the speed down, ie comfortable it isn’t that hard physically…

And that’s the secret.

Train for an Audax? That’s an odd one. They’re nothing like a long normal ride, checkpoints, navigation etc put paid to that. the common path is to just ride the distances leading up to 300km, training and Audax just don’t seem like bedfellows.

Edit, that plan was almost certainly for a competitive event. The Audax isn’t like that. I assume you are aware of the cap on top speeds?

I had been doing regular 60-80 miles rides for the first few months of the year and then on a whim did 135miles. Things i noticed, if you keep the speed down, ie comfortable it isn’t that hard physically. Your head matters ALOT!, i did experience a little shoulder pain, but nothing to bad.

Just eat, and plod, decent shorts, make sure saddle and such like is comfortable, decent shoes and pedals. Basically anything that niggles on the average ride won’t be just a niggle!!!!

^^ things rings true for me (I’ve been audaxing a couple of years – including some of the really stupid distances).

Whilst I do believe the mantra “Anything is possible if you go slowly enough.”, it’s helpful to be able to build speed up on short rides in between the weeklyish ‘long’ (i.e. 4 hours or so) rides.

Oldgit – the cap on top speeds doesn’t preclude riding at 20mph average in between controls/cafe stops, I think only seriously fast (thinking E/1/2 riders) would actually trouble the max speeds on anything over 200k.

Audax will have controls at cafes every ~50km – 80km. Just ride from one to the other and eat and drink. As said above just keep a cap on your speed for the first 275km. If still frisky you can always pick up pace.

Try and build up to do a weekly 100km ride and perhaps aim to do ~150km (or 100 miles) once a month.

You won’t die or anything. Good luck.

The amount of home cooked goodies at controls make it hard to move on. FTR three of us are doing our SR’s in 2014. Audax and a ten month race season have always made it hard for me to do the amount of Audaxes I’ve wanted to do, but I have two mates right into it, so I just tag along.

Train for an Audax?

Actually, that’s a good point )

Or at least where the appeal is to me. Just do lots of long rides you enjoy and — the training )

Thanks all, lots of experience here as ever.

Just for colour, its not an Audax as such, basically the Dragon++ ie a 300km sportive. 300km and 3,400m climb instead of the usual 210km and 3200m. So longer day on the bike but doable.

Its a pretty quick bunch, do 100-150km rides every weekend in the Surrey Hills, 3-4 sportives, usually all in top 5% or so time wise on those.

At the moment the consensus is continue through the winter as we are, do a couple of sportives a month or so before at full gas then on the day go out full gas -15% and maybe for once do it as a big group….14 of us. Doesnt sound like we’ll go far wrong though I know the temptation will be there to still be doing long rides too near the event. Is on 8th June so from what you guys say we want to be building base Jan/Feb, riding hard and long in March and April, less so in May.

Longest I’ve done is about 210km, but with a similar amount of climbing to yours – my training was basically Sufferfest or similar during the week (to get a bit of speed), and long 100km+ rides (with climbing) at the weekends. Seemed to work as I got a “gold” time!

I’d make sure the last two weeks are very light, with maybe a quick blast on the Wednesday before the big day just to wake your legs up.

One other thing to consider: if you’re packing any spare kilos around the waist…

Audax riders don’t train, they Audax.

Get a copy of the Long Distance Cyclists’ Handbook by Simon Doughty: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Long-Distance-Cyclists-Handbook/dp/0713668326

Best training though is to just ride more audaxes. Start at 100km, build up to 300km over a couple of months.

I did the London-Edinburgh-London this year. My first ever audax, all 1400km of it!
Started “training” last winter. Basically increasingly long road rides, mainly solo, over some big hills.

Read all about it:
http://irbandito.wordpress.com/2013/08/13/lel-2013/

Probably won’t do it again, but its a very nice feeling, churning out 350km/day for 4 days in a row.

I did a 300km Audax this year as training for a 250miles-in-24hr charity ride. Well, I say training, it was more just a test to see if we could do it and how much harder the extra 100km or so would be (it felt quite a lot harder than expected!)

That 300km Audax was my first road ride over 100 miles – not that I hadn’t ridden for long periods before, but it was all off-road (either big rides or 24hr racing). I did a few good long rides in build up, but fitting them in was difficult. Mostly they were riding places when the rest of the family was driving there – which makes for excellent Audax-esque riding with the required route planning and nutrition etc. Along with regular evening mtb rides and some longish commuting (35 miles each way) once or twice a week it was enough. Not that I couldn’t have done with more, but it was enough.

But a 300km sportive is different to a 300km Audax – you can definitely ride an AUdax in cafe-to-cafe mode, breaking it down into manageable chunks with a good feed in between. It takes more control to do that in a sportive environment (I assume, haven’t ridden any, don’t really appeal).

And as above – bike fit and comfort are critical. Don’t use any new kit, consider fatter tyres, considered fatter bar tape (or double taping).

Yes I think we’re def going to have to turn off “going for a time” sportive mode, too far for that.