Hi - have read some posts about 100 mile rides. If someone could provide advice please.
Have been using TR for most of the winter. Just finishing a general fitness plan by month end. FTP at 201 - am 60. Did 100m when i was half my age. Decided to do another on a random date in September. Don’t race - it’s all recreational for me. But would like to build to have a good ride through improved power and cardio.
Plan builder has me doing 4 hours per week progressively towards mid september. Looks fine but i’m thinking it’s not enough training as it keeps the saturday ride my longest at only 1:15. As the weather gets better will go out and do a long ride each weekend - typically 50 to 60km ish ( about 35miles).
How do I, should I, modify the plan for longer rides to get me to the goal/event. Feel like I’m not using plan builder the right way. I set up the event and then said build me a plan and this is what I got.
Just my .02 (and I’m no coach), but I would add one long outdoor ride a week to your existing plan. Ramp it up weekly until you get to around 75-80 miles in length. I know a lot of folks succeed on long race/ride days with only low volume and shorter training sesisons, but I’m not one of those people.
If I have a century ride coming up, I need to get in those 50, 60, 70, 80 mile rides in my legs. It builds a certain durability that I just don’t get on shorter rides. And it helps sort out fit, comfort, clothing choices, fueling strategies, etc.
Again, maybe it’s because I’m an old guy (57), but that’s how I trained when I was younger and it’s sort of burned into my brain at this point. But long days call for longer training sessions (in my mind anyway). I don’t think you need to actually ride 100 miles before your event day, but knowing you can ride 75 miles without being wrecked and in pain is a huge mental boost and will give you confidence that you can handle the 100 miler.
Looking at your training plan I see you set your availability to 40 mins on Sundays… Not sure if this is the only available time you have for Sundays but these would be a great day to add in those longer outside endurance rides for your sets days are looking as you have Mondays off.
On Saturdays right now you have interval sessions, so I would keep those.
All that in mind, we could, however, move things around to fit things better:
Monday: OFF Tuesday: Interval Day Wednesday: OFF Thursday: Interval Day Friday: OFF Saturday: Endurance (you can swap this for a Solo Ride and ride outside) Sunday: Endurance
I’d say consider supplementing your plan with an extra long ride each weekend. The plan builder gives you a great baseline, but if your goal is a 100-mile ride, gradually extending your longest ride from 1:15 to closer to 2 hours could really help
