I’ve been asked about my training on my training log, and then asked about how the top riders train.
I’ve looked at a few of their blogs, Rob Dean, Matt Page, Charles Newton Mason, Nathan Judge and Zoe Frogbrook and none of them seem to give much away.

My own training is little more than extending my commute home whenever I can. I don’t do any proper long rides on my own, rarely more than three hours. I sometimes go on forum rides where I’ll ride hard to the meet up, cruise round with everyone else, then ride hard home. All together, I’m doing about 700km a month, commuting, training and racing. On a good day, I can get a top quarter finish.

I know there’s a few proper fast guys on here, so how do you train ?
Have you got a proper programme planned out in advance ?
Have you got a coach ?
Do you monitor HR & V02 and use that data ?
Or, do you just ride as far and as fast as you can, whenever you can fit it in around the rest of your life ?

Hard graft.

Tallent.

More hard graft.

http://40psi.wordpress.com/

http://www.twinklydave.com/

I hear that diet is important… 😉

I work as a ‘sports scientist’ with one of the riders on your list and I know that ‘we’ measure VO2 and the like in the laboratory, and ‘they’ train with a power meter on their road bike.

Meat features heavily in their diet.

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

and pies 😉

Harry, I was hoping for a bit more detail than that.
Both of those links are more a series of race reports than a training log.
Still interesting stuff, just not what I’m after.

Captain, should I be eating more chips then ?

and how to train for a 48+ hours http://www.davebuchanan.co.uk/

Different things work for different people. I know some top soloists who are incredibly strict on their training, and others who just ride their bike lots and lots and lots, and indeed some who don’t really ride all that much. Natural talent and physiology comes into it of course.

It’s generally a long term thing, a couple of years to build up to that level at least, and most are very fast riders anyway.

Come race day a lot of it is mental too. I don’t know how much time you lost at the weekend stopping, but don’t! Have food and drinks ready trackside every lap, stop, take what you need, pedal off. If you start getting off your bike and faffing, and stopping just for 20 minutes here and there, then you start haemorraging time. You can easily lose a couple of hours over the course of 24 against someone who just plods on.

I think Jase just lives two lives. By day, he’s relatively normal. When it’s dark, he rides his bike.

He doesn’t sleep.

willing to bet that stretching and injury prevention feature highly …. 😉

Are 24hr solo rides that important?
I thought they were for the people who were not tallented enough to compete in proper bike races, and just chose the 12 & 24 events as an ego boosting exercise.

I use a powertap and that has changed the way I train and made a big difference.

I don’t have a coach, but do get tested in the run up to big events to monitor “stuff”. Much more than just V02 max.

I will plan the training myself, maybe a week at a time and use the data taken from the powertap to decide what workouts are needed.

I’m not sure if anyone else trains in the same way. I like science, I like numbers and it works for me.

Hi Matt 😉

try mailing iDave, his company were offering some sort of offer on a training/motivational package a while back as I recall…

……can’t imagine too many top athletes are going to blog or tweet their sucessful training methods

“I thought they were for the people who were not tallented enough to compete in proper bike races”

unfortunantly – it seems that if your fast at 24s your fast at 2 hours …. assuming your geniunely fast and not just a successful plodder (ie dont actually stop)….

matts both faast and a plodder = full of win … i was just fast between stops 😀

24 Solo not a training plan but gives you an insight into what Matt, Ant and all the others go through at times.

I rode 12hr at this year’s solo champs in Scotland and both Matt and Ant “danced” passed me at about the 6 hour point, Moonman, trust me those two were having a proper race.

Think you’ll also find that both Matt and Ant don’t do too bad in the BMBS either.

Having has the top lads peg it past me 22hrs into 24/12 they’re just hoofing fast regardless of time of day or the fact the track’s become 3 inches of slippy clay.

I was genuinely awestruck by their ability to go so fast when all I wanted was my Mum and for it to stop.

Lord knows how they train. More efficiently then me – patently.

mooman, you ought to go for a ride with some of the team guys, I don’t as I’d get ‘owned’ 😉

My mistake, I think you will have ridden with one or two of them

From following their Twitter feeds, Facebook updates & speaking to the likes of Rob they seem to ride A LOT. When they are not working (appears they commute to work by bike most of the time) it seems they are out on their bikes at every opportunity regardless of the weather.

Basically they live to ride their bikes.

I admire such dedication.

That Dave Buchanan site looks interesting, although I was after a general idea of what other people do, not paying for a tailored programme for myself.
We’ve got the STW Endomondo Challenge where you can keep track of everyone else’s daily mileage.
You can click on any member’s name on FetchEveryone, a running forum, and check on their training and race results, with splits and all sorts of other data.
It would be interesting to have something like that for 24 hour racers, just to see how many miles, and at what pace, they’re doing between races.

Yeah, njee20, stopping between laps is my big downfall. I was asking more about between race training than race day tactics, but spending 5 hours, that’s nearly a quarter of the race, stationary at SITS probably lost me a few places.

I think once the “season” starts the big boys are just topping up their fitness / recovery – most the training is done over the winter with base level mileage.

See I think all the top guys are actually worse than me. I do bugger all training, in fact I’ve been off the bike for about 2 years, however in a 24 hr event I can manage 5 laps as opposed to them doing 24 ish, so proportionally I am better than them when you count the amount of effort put in to training 🙂

Mike Hall’s blog, detailing some of his preparation for Straphpuffer, etc.

http://velobang.wordpress.com/

I know he went from being a very keen amateur to cutting out the excuses and properly going for it a few years ago, and this blog was meant to detail this. He was always a bit of an animal on the bike anyway, I know he does a lot of road miles and lives in places with lots of hills 🙂

if you want to borrow my copy of twentyfour solo mail me you adress graham and i will chuck it in the post. i seem to recall that chris eatough never did more than about four hours during training.

If you start getting off your bike and faffing, and stopping just for 20 minutes here and there, then you start haemorraging time. You can easily lose a couple of hours over the course of 24 against someone who just plods on.

This makes sense. Every adventure race/sportive I’ve done I’ve been very surprised with the amount of time I’ve spent at transitions or feed stops by the end.

Get a Pit-Bitch

but spending 5 hours, that’s nearly a quarter of the race, stationary at SITS probably lost me a few places.

Gee from these parts came 3rd at Mayhem 06 in his first solo attempt, he stopped for two 15 minute breaks throughout the whole event. You gave away at least 4 laps, how much further would that have moved you up, more than a few places I’ll wager!

I thought they were for the people who were not tallented enough to compete in proper bike races, and just chose the 12 & 24 events as an ego boosting exercise.

Can you and mtbmatt have a race please, and can we all watch? 🙂

I think the key is not stopping for too long. For me, if I stop I always find it hard to get moving again 😆

I would also love the watch Mtbmatt V Mooman race.

Hi Graham 🙂

I’ve only been taking my training seriously this year, and have been following a training plan from Chris Eatough for 20 odd weeks – I’ve learnt a lot about myself in this time.

I’ve learnt what works for me, and am finding that quality, and length are hugely important for me – but at different times.

I’ve been doing a mix of short rides (2 hours’ish) with tempos, intervals, XC race simulation in the week and long’ish rides (8 hours+) at the weekends; these deviate from my plan – but I think for me thats the point, the plan was a starting point to find what works for me, and it’s been money well spent.

The other important thing I’ve found is to know when to rest, and know when a recovery ride will be better.

I know you’ve said you don’t want to pay for a plan, but I’d advocate buying a single plan and picking a single event to train for – you’ll find out a lot about how your body responds to different training methods – which is invaluable.

Following a plan also pushes you to ride when you really can’t be bothered, but when you get out you’re so glad you did.

Just to clarify – you do know me, I’m Zoe’s partner – I was supporting Twentyfour12 this year 🙂

Just a little plug, as he’s a really nice chap… http://chriseatough.com/?page=plans

i seem to recall that chris eatough never did more than about four hours during training.

I can’t imagine that is true. I would say he would have been knocking out the hundred milers most weeks in the run up to a big event.

Not specific to 24 hr racing but free training plan Fullysussed Jay didn’t ride the 24 solo but did take the win in 12hr Vets.

I’m just a rider.

We train hard, a lot. But if we didn’t like the training, then we couldn’t do it. Up to 3-450 miles a week depending on the time of year, and this reduces as we do more MTB obviously.

It’s horse for courses come raceday. Some like short races, some like long. Some of us have a VO2Max as great as the short course and pro roadie boys, and just use it differently. If you train for a specific event you get better at that event, and others suffer, generally.

If you spent any time with any of the racers at the 24’s or 12’s you would see no inflated ego at all (not any more). That’s why we’ll race each other one month: knocking ten bells out of each other: and the next, we’ll be supporting each other. It’s a very sociable scene and almost remiscent of family values.

I haven’t raced this year as I have had other things to do, and I’ve missed it. But a fair few of the 24hr and 12hr crowd came along to support me and make sure I trashed myself properly. Thanks guys, I think.

Most of our hard training is done in the winter, and is based on increasing our Threshold power, basically by working hard and breathing out of our arses for parts of our 20-30 hours a week, plus job. We already tend to have really good base engines from a season’s racing (or long distance riding). Heart rate, Power meters (brlliant) and Perceived exertion all play a part in what we do. We love gadgets.

If you can train for 10-15 hours a week, then you’ll do fine. Just practice not stopping, or being able to do daft things like put on arm warmers and changing gloves etc whilst riding. Small things make a huge difference. Go ride when you really can’t be arsed, or are “too tired” now and again. This will toughen you up.

One long ride a week and two interval sessions a week, interspersed with a couple of easy recovery rides. The evidence still doesn’t support the use of recovery rides, but we like ’em. They make you feel better.

Cross train a bit for the first couple of years, then at least make sure your core and upper body can take the massive hammering you wil get on a 24hour course or point to point challenge ride. It’s usually the upper body that gives in once you’ve got reasonably strong. Power meters can’t take account of the input from your upper body (which is massive) so that’s one reason why they haven’t caught on in MTB as yet, amongst others.

If you want to improve at the best rate you can, then invest a bit in a coach. They can see things that you can’t as he/she will be more objective about what you are doing.(Matt is the odd one here, as he can). Coaches needn’t be more than about 30 quid a month and there are some really good ones about.

If you need any help then just drop me a line. I’m not a coach, but if I can help someone along a bit then I’ll gladly do so. You’ve already been on my webby.

blanche – Member
I’m just a rider.

We train hard, a lot. But if we didn’t like the training, then we couldn’t do it. Up to 3-450 miles a week depending on the time of year, and this reduces as we do more MTB obviously.

It’s horse for courses come raceday. Some like short races, some like long. Some of us have a VO2Max as great as the short course and pro roadie boys, and just use it differently. If you train for a specific event you get better at that event, and others suffer, generally.

If you spent any time with any of the racers at the 24’s or 12’s you would see no inflated ego at all (not any more). That’s why we’ll race each other one month: knocking ten bells out of each other: and the next, we’ll be supporting each other. It’s a very sociable scene and almost remiscent of family values.

I haven’t raced this year as I have had other things to do, and I’ve missed it. But a fair few of the 24hr and 12hr crowd came along to support me and make sure I trashed myself properly. Thanks guys, I think.

Most of our hard training is done in the winter, and is based on increasing our Threshold power, basically by working hard and breathing out of our arses for parts of our 20-30 hours a week, plus job. We already tend to have really good base engines from a season’s racing (or long distance riding). Heart rate, Power meters (brlliant) and Perceived exertion all play a part in what we do. We love gadgets.

If you can train for 10-15 hours a week, then you’ll do fine. Just practice not stopping, or being able to do daft things like put on arm warmers and changing gloves etc whilst riding. Small things make a huge difference. Go ride when you really can’t be arsed, or are “too tired” now and again. This will toughen you up.

One long ride a week and two interval sessions a week, interspersed with a couple of easy recovery rides. The evidence still doesn’t support the use of recovery rides, but we like ’em. They make you feel better.

Cross train a bit for the first couple of years, then at least make sure your core and upper body can take the massive hammering you wil get on a 24hour course or point to point challenge ride. It’s usually the upper body that gives in once you’ve got reasonably strong. Power meters can’t take account of the input from your upper body (which is massive) so that’s one reason why they haven’t caught on in MTB as yet, amongst others.

If you want to improve at the best rate you can, then invest a bit in a coach. They can see things that you can’t as he/she will be more objective about what you are doing.(Matt is the odd one here, as he can). Coaches needn’t be more than about 30 quid a month and there are some really good ones about.

If you need any help then just drop me a line. I’m not a coach, but if I can help someone along a bit then I’ll gladly do so. You’ve already been on my webby.

This is good advice.

mtbmatt..

Eatough’s successes on the race course are the result of many hours of training but not the type you might expect. Although he spends a full day in the saddle come race time, his training rides are rarely longer than three to four hours. Longer days are tossed into the mix on occasion or prior to a major event, but otherwise he has built up such a solid foundation of base miles and fitness that most of the time is merely spent maintaining that level.

^^^ from bike radar plus it’s more or less what he says on twentyfour solo.

i know what you mean though i find it hard to get my head around it.

Mtbmatt- out of curiosity, I presume you are using the power meter on a road bike, correct? Or are you using an MTB hub and bike form power meter training?

I’d want to know what Eatough did to get to the level he’s at though, it sounds like what he’s doing now is maintaining fitness rather than building his massive aerobic base. What I mean is, does the training he does know work for him now because of his background, or did he do the same training when he wasn’t as good as he is now?

Good thread,

some interesting comments here.

What I mean is, does the training he does know work for him now because of his background

This. Staying at one level isn’t nearly as hard as getting there in the first place!

Rickie Cotter lives round the corner, she paints and decorates full time, rides the rest of the time. Don’t know how she does it, deserves some proper sponsorship for sure.