Old 01-14-11, 02:30 PM
  #7  
MDcatV
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Originally Posted by Smallguy
so my question is if my events will never be more than 2.5 hours at this point is there much point in doing 3 or 4 hour rides or longer?

I see some people posting 5+ hour rides in the training status thread, how does this help for shorter events?

would you get more out of a 5 hour ride or 2 X 2.5 hour rides if you events are only 2.5 hours?
i dont think there's a magic bullet for this, but in my opinion, if your event is 2.5 hrs. it will be beneficial to ride 3 to 4 hours during base in order to physically prepare for 2.5 hrs. fitness wise as well as just being able to conduct yourself on the bike for a period of time (practice drinking, eating, pee, saddle/comfort issues, stretching, etc. while moving)

shorter events are still aerobic events, so a longer ride will have benefit. where folks get into trouble is continuing with long rides when their race season starts, thus showing up on race day with fatigue accumulated from rides that arent doing much for race specific fitness.

if you have time to do a 5 hr. ride i think it better than two 2.5 hr. rides (done on the same day), BUT i also think that if you have time limitations, five 1-hr. rides (over 5 days for instance) is better than one 5-hr. ride (obviously 1 day).
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