Quest for the Cal Triple Crown

[spingineer]

So I set a goal for myself, to complete the California Triple Crown. My schedule is to do Solvang (end of March), Davis (mid-May), and Grand Tour (June).

I've been training pretty hard ... several 80 mile days on the weekend, combined with hilly 50 mile recovery the following day. However, I've completed Palm Springs century in February, and Solvang century in March. Not feeling as fresh at the end as I would like. So this is only after 100 miles ... how the heck am I going to do 200 miles??? It doesn't look good. Am I biting more than I can chew here?

[ken cummings]

Slow amd steady. Food and water. the UMCA (Ultra marathon Cycling Association) site has a world of advice. Machka's long distance forum should help. Chuck Bramwell has a Triple Crown web site which can help too. As the great Eddie said, "Ride lots."

[DanteB]

So I set a goal for myself, to complete the California Triple Crown. My schedule is to do Solvang (end of March), Davis (mid-May), and Grand Tour (June).

I've been training pretty hard ... several 80 mile days on the weekend, combined with hilly 50 mile recovery the following day. However, I've completed Palm Springs century in February, and Solvang century in March. Not feeling as fresh at the end as I would like. So this is only after 100 miles ... how the heck am I going to do 200 miles??? It doesn't look good. Am I biting more than I can chew here?

50 mile hilly recovery ride? What kind of recovery ride is that? I’m no expert about doubles, but I’ve done 14 doubles and 2 triples in the last 3 years. My recovery rides are usually ½-1 hour long and I barely take my HR over 100 bpm. A recovery ride is supposed to be an easy ride that just barely gets the blood flowing to washout the toxins you build-up during hard rides but not hard enough to build more.

Maybe you’ve over trained and are tired. Over training is a common mistake. It can be a death spiral, the harder you train without recovery time the deeper the hole you dig. You don’t get the results you want so you train harder and dig a deeper hole.

My training schedule usually has Monday off. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are 1-2 hour rides with some kind of intervals. Friday a ½-1 hour recovery ride. Saturday a long ride and Sunday a 1-2 hour spinout ride. I started my training for Solvang in December and have slowly been building up my Saturday mileage. I’ve been doing 2-4 hour rides until last Saturday when I did a metric century. Yesterday I did an unsupported century and next Saturday I’ll do a seven hour ride. After next Saturday I’ll start to taper until Solvang, this is the schedule that works for me.

Are eating and drinking enough when you are doing your centuries? You need to start eating and drinking as soon as you leave the start line. I try to consume about 350 calories and 24-28 oz. of water per hour. Good luck at Solvang!