At the age of 60, I’ve signed up for a 7 day charity event from ACT to MCG 2026 - Ride for Lily. It is basically the same distance and elevation as the first week of Le Tour 2025. 1100km, 12500m of climbing. Most days are 150-180km.
I’m using TrainerRoad to develop a plan for the ride and one thing that I notice from it that there’s almost zero longer rides. Like, I think a 2hr ride is the longest.
Question to those here who’ve been/done events/races like this before - “is this normal?”. I “would have thought” that at some point I’d need to spend 6 hours on a bike just to at least feel what it’s going to be like to do it. Does the training “expect” me to work that out and do it by myself at some point?
(If you feel like tossing a few $$ my way to fund research into childrens cancers, I’d appreciate it to make my suffering worthwhile. Jon Eaves in ACT to MCG)
I haven’t used Trainer Road but that does seem quite odd to me. Just logically it doesn’t feel like you would build up the endurance required with your longest ride being 2 hours.
Agreed. In theory, this is a “stage race”, and I can’t imagine myself being able to do “race pace” for 7 days straight on that sort of training load. Or, maybe I’m vastly underestimating my own fitness, and should be applying for some domestic teams right now.
(No, no, that’s not serious, not in the slightest)
None of this is perfect, and I’m absolutely not ragging on TR for this - but it did seem like a bit of an oversight in the “training load” department.
TR plans are notorious for this and it is a massive hole in their plans. The amount of posts on threads in their forum re: training for Unbound, Leadville, etc. asking the same question is substantial. TR knows this is an issue but has yet to do anything to address the lack of scheduled long rides in their plans.
What you’ll need to do is swap out at least one of your weekend rides for a long endurance ride. Don’t overthink it….jsut go out and do longer days at Z2 / Z3 efforts. Given the nature of your event, I’d probably do both weekend days as long endurance rides so that you are building sufficient volume. You’ll also then be doing back-to-back long days, which will help simulate at some of the event.
Then do the planned workouts during the week as scheduled. If you have the time, as you get deeper into your plan, you can even add on 30 min of Z2 work at the end of your scheduled workouts for additional volume.
Cheers. Good advice. As we head towards better weather here (September/October), it’s 100% likely that many of the crew on the ride (who live in the area, along with the founders of the charity) will do a weekly 120km ride on a Saturday morning.
I’m also practical. We all have kids, family, work - so finding the time and space to do 10+ hours of training a week will be challenging. Worst case is I’ll suffer horribly for a week, and then spend a month recovering.
Also, to calibrate your efforts, it would be helpful to ask an organizer or someone experienced with this ride “What should my CTL be going into this ride?” This will give you a goal to build your training plan around. I suspect the number will be a pretty high one, and unless you’re absolutely destroying yourself on those 2-hour workouts (I know TR only by reputation, but it does have a reputation for unrealistically hard training plans), it just won’t be possible to get your numbers where you want them on 2 hrs/day.
There are different training philosophies out there, and AIUI, TR uses sweet-spot training, where you spend a lot of time in Zone 3. The other widely used philosophy is polarized, where you spend a lot of time in Zones 1/2, very little time in Zone 3, and maybe 15-20% of your time in Zone 4/5. This assumes more total volume, but I think it might work better for you.
You’ll also need long rides, not just for fitness, but also to discover and work out kinks in your equipment and fit that only become apparent after a long day on the bike.
Thank you Adam. I know a couple of people on the ride, and who have done it in previous years, and some are considerably less bike fit than I am (but about 25 years younger). If it all goes “pear shaped”, I can slow down. It’s about finishing the event, not about racing for podium. Worst case I slow down to 20-25km/hr and grind it out.
I’ve used TR plans in the past to good effect to train for multi-day stuff. Their main strength is that they can get you pretty fit on a low volume of training so are ideal for fitting around job/family/etc, but you’re absolutely right that you need some longer rides to prepare for longer events. My approach has always been to use the plan as a base and then swap out rides for longer ones whenever time allows.
For what it is worth, i think you can defo train for consecutive long days by doing short trainer sessions.
I have recent experience of this. I have just returned from my annual 6 days biking trip in the French Alps. 6 big days in a row. Pushing on on the Cols with my mates on many of them.
I use TR for most of the year. Never doing more than a 60 mins session. For winter that is nearly all my riding (3-4 times a week). In spring I swap out some TR for some chain gangs and the odd 120min cafe spin. with my club. Despite doing 180km+ days in the Alps, I never do any more than 80km rides at any other time (kids, job, DIY, life etc)
All completely doable and comfortable. And defo not slow. Of course it is probably not optimal (at all) but as long as your bike is comfortable and you eat enough I think you can get away with it* and have a great time. Obvs if you do have time for longer rides it probably helps.
*not sure of your riding history, general fitness etc but some muscle memory and endurance probably helps.
+2 to @VeloBouf plus I’d reinforce the recommendation from @adamrice about the fit and equipment niggles that can surface after many hours in the saddle. How you feel on the bike after 6-8 hours can be very different than an hour or two. Throwing in a longer endurance ride on weekends (when possible) can really help identify potential issues, plus allow you to practice your nutrition and hydration strategy.
You’re taking on a worthy cause and it will be a big ride @jon - you’re more than fit enough (but more fit always makes it easier & more enjoyable) … just need to remember to eat and you’ll be fine!