Long Distance Competition/Ultracycling, Randonneuring and Endurance Cycling - Ramrod Training

RAMROD [Ride Around Mount Rainier in One Day] is the Pacific Northwest's premiere one-day ultra-marathon cycling event. It combines the incomparable scenery of Mount Rainier National Park with a challenging course featuring 10,000 feet of climbing over 154 miles. It is held on July 31st

The above is a quote from the web site :)

Okay so I am volunteering for the ride this year which will guarantee me a spot next year. So yes I have a year to train for it. I like to plan ahead .. what can I say.

The longest most challenging ride I have done to date is the Highpass challenge 114 miles, 7500+ feet of climbing.

My problem is being here in Portland Oregon. It is hard to get a lot of hill time in until usually early April as there is generally still ice in the shady spots on the hills.

When I can do the hills around here it generally works out to 1000' of climbing for every 10 miles ridden. I just did 73 miles and 7800' of climbing yesterday. Which due to and injury early in the season is my longest ride so far this year.

I plan to get up to 100 miles and 10,000 feet by the end of summer. The question is how to maintain as much of that as possible through the winter months so that I can be trained up for this ride by the end of July next year. If I get up to 100 miles and 10,000 feet again next year should that be enough or should I set my goal higher than that to be able to complete the ride?

I have a gym quality spinning bike at home. What drills would you suggest in the months when road riding will not be possible?

If you can work up to 100mi w/10k', that should be enough for you to survive RAMROD. If you want to do better than survive, you'd be well advised to aim for more like 125-135 mi with 12-13k', and be able to do that at a brisk pace.

Scott P
Bend, OR
(formerly of Seattle)
2x RAMROD survivor

ps - I'd take the "premier ultra-distance event" label on RAMROD with a grain of salt. Seattle International Randonneurs have longer, harder brevets than that: a 400k that goes over Snoqualmie, Blewett and Stevens, plus all those lovely "rollers" out by Granite Falls, and a similarly impossible 600k (Stevens, Blewett, White and Cayuse passes). Compared to those, RAMROD would be a nice training ride.

ps - I'd take the "premier ultra-distance event" label on RAMROD with a grain of salt. Seattle International Randonneurs have longer, harder brevets than that: a 400k that goes over Snoqualmie, Blewett and Stevens, plus all those lovely "rollers" out by Granite Falls, and a similarly impossible 600k (Stevens, Blewett, White and Cayuse passes). Compared to those, RAMROD would be a nice training ride.

Premier Supported Ultradistance Event.

I can only offer my own experience on two long rides - the Climb to Kaiser, out of Fresno, CA, with 150 miles and 13,500 feet of gain. I didn't train that hard the first time and I suffered - I had just two weeks of hard riding before the event, and my legs felt like limp noodles at the end of the event.

For my second run, I trained for six weeks, riding most of those days, and riding up every hill I could find on almost each of those days.

For the second time I rode the C2K, I rode 70+ miles twice in the prior two weeks (with 7,000+ feet of gain each time). The other rides I made were much shorter, but were accompanied with lots of climbing. For example, I rode 35 miles one day, and did 5,000 feet of climbing.

So, for me, I only had to train at half the distance of the actual ride to make the C2K without suffering, but I did lots of riding and lots of hills over the course of a lot of days, which built my endurance and my strength.

Premier Supported Ultradistance Event.

Ahh... it all becomes clear now.

Thanks
SP

Not saying that makes it any less difficult. RAMROD is still one heck of a tough ride, but I'm pretty sure I'll be riding that before I take a shot at the 3 Passes 400Km.

Ahh... it all becomes clear now.

Thanks
SP

Hey .. Thier words not mine :)

If you can work up to 100mi w/10k', that should be enough for you to survive RAMROD. If you want to do better than survive, you'd be well advised to aim for more like 125-135 mi with 12-13k', and be able to do that at a brisk pace.
Scott P
Bend, OR
(formerly of Seattle)
2x RAMROD survivor

ps - I'd take the "premier ultra-distance event" label on RAMROD with a grain of salt. Seattle International Randonneurs have longer, harder brevets than that: a 400k that goes over Snoqualmie, Blewett and Stevens, plus all those lovely "rollers" out by Granite Falls, and a similarly impossible 600k (Stevens, Blewett, White and Cayuse passes). Compared to those, RAMROD would be a nice training ride.

Thanks Scott ... I like the surviver part. What do you concider a brisk pace? This will be quite a task for a 50 year old guy that just started riding a year ago, but I like a good challenge. It was a challenge to ride the Tour De Blast that got me started riding last year.

Ramrod has a ton of climbing, but none of the slopes are that steep. Sure, you need some good leg strength, but it's mostly about picking an appropriate speed for the climbs an be able to deal with climbs that take more than an hour. But if you can do a 60 minute climb on a given slope, you can do a 90 minute climb on a single slope.

I mostly survived ramrod last year (in the eastside course) without a ton of training, though the majority of my riding includes hills. I went a little hard but was ultimately stopped by a nagging knee injury, so I only got 120 miles and perhaps 8K of elevation.

I agree with bobbycorno about SIR routes. They do a mountain populaire every September that is roughly half a ramrod (70 miles, 5K climbing), but while ramrod has slopes in the 6-8% range, the populaire has climbs in the 15-20% range.

Premier Supported Ultradistance Event.

the SiR rides are somewhat supported - they had a food/water stop at the top of blewett on that 400k, and another food stop after stevens. but the rides are smaller and there is definitely less support than on a cascade ride.


ps - I'd take the "premier ultra-distance event" label on RAMROD with a grain of salt. Seattle International Randonneurs have longer, harder brevets than that: a 400k that goes over Snoqualmie, Blewett and Stevens, plus all those lovely "rollers" out by Granite Falls, and a similarly impossible 600k (Stevens, Blewett, White and Cayuse passes). Compared to those, RAMROD would be a nice training ride.

i did (well, attempted and DNFd at mile 315 due to a mech. issue) the four-pass 600k this weekend, we did part of the RAMROD course (cayuse pass, from highway 12 up 123). i thought cayuse was an ass kicker, with an eight-mile section that was 6-8%. snoqualmie was easy compared to it. then again i was on a heavier miyata with lots of tools, water, and gear, and it was the fourth pass in 24 hours. for ramrod i'll be using a much lighter bike with less crap to carry around.

btw before doing the three-pass 400k a month ago my biggest climbing ride was the HPC - so for me, that was good training. fixit, i'd check out the oregon rando's routes, i'm sure they find ways to pack on the climbing.

this year will be my first Ramrod, i can't wait!

I have a similar goal -- Ramrod next summer (2009). I met someone the other day who suggested doing RAMROD this year in two days as a training ride -- I thought it was a good suggestion. One could do an ultra-light credit card tour over two days, bringing just enough stuff along to spend all night in a motel in the middle of the route (maybe start in Enumclaw, spend night 1 over at the Southwest corner of Mt. Rainier park).