I’ve got a 200 mile event in June 2025 and need to start preparing and training for it.
The last time I completed a ride over 100 miles was back in 2018 but since then I’ve been doing regular rides around 30-40 miles three or four times a week. As you can guess, I’m out in shape to complete a 200 miler.
What would be the best place to start with TrainerRoad?
Which plan would you guys go for?
Also, any suggestions for off the bike training?
Let the TR planner do you a plan.
But the long & short of it is that the more time you can spend on the bike, the better.
Do as much time on the bike as you can. Between now and then, increase the length / time of your individual rides and do more of them. Mostly stick to lower intensities, so that you can recover to do another ride sooner than if you were smashing yourself silly at high intensities.
Don’t go crazy with the rate that you increase the length and frequency of the rides. If you can keep adding just a few miles to the longest ride you do each week, you will get there.
Make sure your position on the bike is very comfortable for that distance too.
Others may have different ideas, but my suggestions for off the bike training would be getting the bike out of the shed and swinging your leg over it.
As noted, the Event Planner in TR is a good place to start.
That said, you’ll want to augment the plan with occasional / weekly long rides. The volume in the TR plans just isn’t enough for really long rides.
TR will never give you a 5+ hour day on the bike and you’ll need multiple of those as you prepare for such a long day.
That’s interesting.
The last time I used TR the event planner wasn’t there. I’ll have to get signed up again and have a good look at it.
What’s the setup of the ride, unsupported or supported?
Are you aiming for a time or just finishing?
Will you be solo or riding with others?
Are you expecting to ride entirely in daylight?
It’s supported with stops approximately every 50 miles. Should be a small group, probably no more than five of us, the aim is just to finish but ideally around the 14 hour mark so no chance of it all being in daylight.
I’d use TR plan mon-fri to build fitness, then a long ride at the weekends to build out that fatigue resistance and also test out kit, position, nutrition, etc. Would also supplement with some strength training and/or some yoga/pilates type stuff. Blockers that will stop you completing a 200 mile ride tend to be things like saddle sores, cramps, bonking, lower back or knee pain,etc rather than insufficient fitness. So those long rides and those supplementary exercises are as much about identifying and eliminating those blockers as they are about building fitness.
You don’t need to build all the way to close to 200 miles. But personally I would want at least a few rides over 100 miles to build confidence and figure what works for you. Though also worth noting that those rides can take a lot out of you, particularly if you aren’t disciplined about keeping the intensity in z1-3, so build up gradually and factor in recovery when you do the longer ones. E.g. If you were on 4 week blocks, then maybe do the really long rides at the end of the 3rd week before going into a recovery week.
Agree with everything said above, but just wanted to drive home the importance of getting long rides in, yes you can get a long way on TR LV, but nothing is substitute for long rides
Over last winter I was doing lots of 70/80 miles with occasional 100 , with no real issues, doing a 200 last April, around the 130 mile mark I start getting foot pain, 160 miles I took my shoe off and bloody sock, got the end, but was limping for a week
Issue has been fixed with a bike fit
I’m not saying you have to do 200 to be ready for a 200, just the more comfortable you are with yor target distance, the less room for surprises you are
I used TR in large part for my recent double and ended up with my first DNF ever. Not all of that is because I used TR but I do feel it wasn’t the right approach for this kind of event.
In my experience, TR is not adequate at all for ultra endurance events. It doesn’t factor in the course or distance in laying out your plan other than estimated time and TSS. That’s too high level to prepare you for all the saddle time, nutritional strategy, and hours of training you need on your bike leading up to the event.
My advice? Follow a double century training plan and focus on getting outdoors to ride, dialing in your bike, course, pacing and nutrition strategies. Rely on TR just for midweek workouts.
If 14 hours in June that can be done in daylight, if in the northern latitudes.
As others say, have a longer ride weekly, and ensure that’s up to around 5-6 hours minimum about 6 weeks out from your event. Shorter higher intensity stuff during the week.
If you have food stops every 50 miles, what will be provided there, and have you tried those food stuffs when riding before? What will you eat / drink between food stops?
Sounds like an Audax, or Chase The Sun? Either way the time doesn’t suggest race pace, so try and pace it steady, keep fuelling and don’t get sucked into a faster group than is sensible and you’ll finish! If you want to finish in the fastest possible time there are probably other considerations, but on a ride this length stops are likely an easier place to save time rather than riding faster,
I trained for this same style event last summer. I had TR set for mid volume rolling road race. Then every weekend for about 8 weeks I was doing 90-140 mile rides to get my nutrition dialed in.
TR will try to put a bunch of vo2 max stuff right before the event if you have it set as a road race. Just ignore those. Taper your volume and be rested for the day of.
As other athletes mentioned, Plan Builder is a great place to start! Plan Builder will take care of most of the details so you don’t have to fret about them as much. I think marking your target event as a “Gran Fondo” in Plan Builder will set you off on the right track.
I also agree with other athletes here that it can be useful to get out on some longer rides when it’s possible to do so, but I wouldn’t go overboard with them. Longer rides can be great in helping you figure out your nutrition/hydration and pacing strategies and they can also help you figure out tweaks you may need to make with your bike fit, but they can also be very taxing. Doing long long rides (I’m thinking 5+ hours in this context) every weekend may not be sustainable and could even have a negative impact on your training and fitness if they result in unmanageable fatigue.
Personally, I’ve found that once I’ve built up sufficient fitness to ride for about 100 miles, I don’t have to do anything crazy or special to get up to 200 miles… In my experience, it becomes much more about dialing in your pacing, eating enough, and drinking enough. Trying to maintain a positive mental state during such a long ride can really help, too!
As for off-bike training, I think focusing on core strength work and stretching/foam rolling will be most helpful for you. A strong core can help you feel stable/solid on the bike for such long durations, and stretching/foam rolling will help with injury prevention. Both of those things will help you feel more comfortable as you ride.
Finally, as you approach the day of the ride, taper your training down and trust that your fitness will be where it needs to be. You’ll want to go into it feeling well-rested and fresh. Well-rested and fresh would mean you’d be feeling good, so the challenge then is to remember not to out-pace yourself!!
Hope that helps you out – feel free to let us know if you have any additional questions!
200 miles is just 200 miles. Figure out a pace you can handle for 100 miles and just go a little slower and you can do 200.
I would also recommend doing a few very early rides, for nutrition, pre-ride logistics and heat difference.
Not sure about that. I’ve done quite a few rides in the 150-250 mile range and they tend to uncover durability (not fitness) issues that don’t show up in 100 miles. That slight ache or tightness in your knee (or lower back, neck, wrists, etc) that shows up towards the end of 100 miles has the potential to escalate to a major problem when you double the distance.
Totally agree, like I said above, was comfortable with 100, 130 started getting fot pain, had nothing to do withj fitness, or the pace that I did it, was just durability of being in the saddle for that long (was over night as well so the pace was slower)
Ive completed LoToJa 3 times since 2021 and train with a buddy who has done it 5 times. Its 203 miles with 9000 ft of climbing in Utah / Wyoming. We train in Texas.
I suggest the following:
Point 7 is the most important. My 200m event was the easiest century followed by the second easiest because i was rolling in pace lines the entire time compared to every training ride i’d done by myself directly into the dead air.
If you’re rolling with a friend its worth practicing a few long rides to figure out when somebody is fading and how to flick each other through.
I think point 7 will definitely be getting utilised a lot!