Long Distance Competition/Ultracycling, Randonneuring and Endurance Cycling - How does your training look the week before a brevet?

do you just rest? do you just ride like normal?

for me, i like to have a LSD 60-100km ride on the saturday before the brevet (e.g. week before), and then maybe a 40 minute hard ride on wedsnesday. (this is of course assuming i've built the necessary base previous to this). this is for a 200k, for 400k+ i would probably do more like 150k the week before the ride.

besides that, i did some yoga/stretching on our Wii Fit at home a few nights this week. actually not a bad workout for your core and such (and it keeps track of your weight too).

last year i used to "keep on going" leading up to brevets, e.g. not taking it easy at all. i had this idea in my head that if i rested, i'd lose all the gains i'd made. so i would just keep commuting all week, and don't think it ever actually helped me do any better on the rides (or hurt, really).

so this year, i'm taking a different approach. we'll find out how it goes tomorrow!

so what kind of training/riding (if any) do you do the week before a brevet?

Generally speaking, you want your training to build up over a long period (e.g. 8-12 weeks). The week before the event you'll probably do something 70-80% of the event's distance, then taper during the final week.

It takes about 2 weeks of inactivity to really start losing fitness. By resting for a few days, you give your body a break; you get mentally primed for the event; and you can carbo-load.

thx for the response, but i'm not asking how tapering should be done, or what a base is.

i know what the literature says about base & tapering, but i also want to know what real randos are actually doing.

I don't know if I'm a real rando yet (600k in 2 weeks to get my SR). I do the longest training 2 weeks out. I'm planning 120-90 this weekend, medium 50's and hard 30's next week. Then 90-70 next weekend. I'll step it down during that following week(a few fast climbs, but mostly medium-slow), something like 50-30-off-30-10-ride.

I used this approach for 300k and 400k, and I felt like I could dunk on Charles Barkley by the end of the week. It's something of a challenge not to go out too fast when your legs feel that strong. So, without science to back it up, I think the approach is solid.

p.s.--Good luck tomorrow; how far are you going, and what is the forecast?

i know what the literature says about base & tapering, but i also want to know what real randos are actually doing.

Before last week's 100k of weatheriffic doom I hadn't been riding outside for 10 days, and my longest stretch on the trainer was 20 miles.

You saw how bad I looked at the end of that ride... so don't do that. :lol:


I took Monday off, only because I had destroyed my rim on Sunday's ride and Tuesday/Wed/Thursday I was back to my usual 25 - 30mi r/t commute. I took today off like I always do on Friday, and I feel that aside from this horrible chronic cough (I'm pretty sure it's allergy induced asthma and I'm seeing someone next week about it) I feel confident about tomorrow's ride.

p.s.--Good luck tomorrow; how far are you going, and what is the forecast?

200k tomorrow with ~9000' climbing (if the online calculators are right.)
Forecast is 30% chance of scattered showers, starting temp 37F, high temp 48F. Winds under 5mph.
Way better than last weekend.

...Winds under 5mph...
:thumb:

No worries, then; good luck to both of you.

:thumb:

No worries, then; good luck to both of you.

Seems from some other conversations that the highest point has the possibility of light snowfall. I won't believe it unless I see it.
I refuse to believe it will happen 2 weeks in a row!

i know what the literature says about base & tapering, but i also want to know what real randos are actually doing. I'd imagine schedules get dictated by each situation.

Things like whether or not you are traveling very far for the start of the Brevet or event. And then again, at different stages of their life, different riders have different perspectives toward their goals for a given event. (like whether they are racing it, or just going out for a good time)

From a "racing" perspective, I like the idea of continuing some "enforced" sub-maximal riding, and at least one, in not two days of no riding at all in the last five days before an event.

Generally speaking, you want your training to build up over a long period (e.g. 8-12 weeks). The week before the event you'll probably do something 70-80% of the event's distance, then taper during the final week.

It takes about 2 weeks of inactivity to really start losing fitness. By resting for a few days, you give your body a break; you get mentally primed for the event; and you can carbo-load.

Just curious, is this your opinion or can you point to studies backing this up? I've always been curious about this, but my gut tells me fitness would start leaving sooner that that.

I think Richard has a point that the amount of training that we do is going to be largely determined by our goals for the ride. Personally, my goals for this year aren't that aggressive -- have fun, finish and be in good shape to finish a 1000k in June. Ideally, my times will be better than past, but that isn't a priority if it gets in the way of having fun.

So, this year, in the week leading up to a 200k yesterday, I went snowshoeing and did an 8 mile hike in the Pemigewasset Wilderness and just did my 6.7 mile commute from Monday to Friday. In the weekends prior, I put in a 40 mile and 70 mile ride, and also commuted all winter long. The last time that I did a proper century was probably six months ago in October.

The last few years, when I had a 13 mile commute, my usual training regimen before the year's inaugural 200k was to do a 70 - 100 mile ride the weekend before and commute every other day.

My time for yesterday's 200k was roughly in the same neighborhood as my 2006 and 2007 results, though still about 90 minutes higher than my all-time best 200k time, which was for a ride in late April 2008, where the temperatures are warmer and my legs had been warmed up by a fleche and 100k in the weeks prior.

So yeah, make of that what you will.

For me it really depends on the length of a brevet how much riding I do the week before. Before last years 400km I just went out and rode 2 50km's and commuted to work otherwise just resting and building up strength.

I'm not a real rando, but I do some long distance riding. Every century/century+ training schedule I have seen always suggests to taper the milage the week of the ride. So you can still do a longish ride like a century or so the weekend before, but then that week taper it down, so that 2 days before you are maybe doing 20 miles and the day before just a quick 10 mile easy spin to keep the legs loosened up. That way you'll have tons of stored energy for your ride (assuming you are eating and sleeping right, too).

I have tapered a couple times before big rides, and it always seemed to work for me as I had a lot of energy for the ride. I sure wouldn't go out and ride long and/or hard a few days before a big ride.


Just curious, is this your opinion or can you point to studies backing this up? I've always been curious about this, but my gut tells me fitness would start leaving sooner that that.
I'm not the OP you are addressing, but I recently took a 8 days away from cycling and then jumped back in to where I was. The first day back I felt sluggish and slow, but the second day back I felt like my old self. And by the week's end (last Saturday) I rode a century in the hills (I'm used to flats here in Houston) and haven't felt that good after a century in a long time. So I don't have any studies, but from my own experience, even taking 8 days off I didn't loose any fitness, so the "after two weeks you begin to loose fitness" sounds about right to me.

So how did it go MattM?

For me last year I would ride through the week and it didn't seem to make a difference to slow down my already slow self but I was only doing 200ks or less. On a 165k ride I had ridden 300 miles in the last 6 days before the start of that ride and I did fine except my right ankle had an issue up a really steep hill that at least one person walked. I believe i would have had the same problem not matter how much or how little riding I did. Except for my ankle I was ready to go for more riding without any issue and actually was doing long rides the next day.

This year for my 200ks I did mostly the same thing however \ for my 400k I tried to take it easy. I rode 370 miles the week before and then just did 2 easy 46 mile round trip commutes the week of. I might have had a little more energy on the outbound leg or maybe it was the slight tailwind and huge amount of riders instead of being alone. Otherwise no real difference. Due to twisting my knee and hurting my other ankle I took it easy the next week but within a day or two I did a 30 mile ride and I commuted a couple days later that week without issue.

I'll probably rest up before my 600k just in case it does make a difference.

So how did it go MattM?

i finished, albeit not strongly, but it ended up being my fastest 200 so far (9:40 overall). my bud robert and i ended up in one of the lead packs after the big downhill at the start, but we couldn't hang on to them forever, and let go after 30 miles or so.

i probably spent too much energy trying to make it to the start in time from seattle (~25 miles)... next time i need to take it easy on the way to the ride!

as far as my "tapering" last week i think did me well, i think. but the biggest thing that screwed with me on this 200k was not eating a big enough breakfast (just bagel w/ cream cheese, banana). next time, big breakfast! (duh..)

posted some pics on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/seabikr...7615805856298/

and there are more here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/seattlerando/