Long Distance Competition/Ultracycling, Randonneuring and Endurance Cycling - Training for 24 Hour Event

Hello,

Does anyone have any good training plans for riding a 24-hour event? This will be my first 24hr event and I will not be racing simply riding the entire time. Only goal is to ride the full 24 hours and surpass a distance goal that I have set for myself. I have seen two 16 week programs online, one of them being a slightly modified Bicycling Double Century plan.

Any other resources out there? I am looking for weekly mileage totals more than tips to surviving as I have used weekly mileage guides with great success to knock out tons of centuries.

Thanks for the assistance.

Welcome to the club! What ride are you training for? If it's the N24HC, I'll see you there.

I'll defer to others here on formal training programs. I've never had one. I just ride a lot and have fun and it all seems to work out. I exist to piss off the Richard Craniums of the world. Yin and Yang.

One thing they'll all tell you, though, is to make sure you're doing some good, high-quality, super-intense work above your AT. Whether it's intervals or hill repeats or going out and riding with the fastest people you can find once a week for 90 minutes (I do the later -- more fun!), some riding like that is key to really being successful in ultra-distance events. Just riding the same pace all the time isn't going to get you very good results, if part of your motivation for riding is to get a certain kind of result....

Also, I don't think it's necessary to "train" at any distance much above 100 miles. Anything longer than about 200K does too much damage and takes too long to recover from. If you were inquiring about RAAM I'd feel different about that advice (hell, I wouldn't be administering advice about how to train for RAAM -- let's be serious here), but for 24-hour events and randonnees, anything longer than 200K is the event. It's not training. If you're very comfortable riding a century -- I mean, if you can rip one off, get home, mow the lawn, do the laundry, and then go out to dinner at night with friends and be totally normal and social -- then you're going to be ok doing a 24-hour ride. As for a weekly mileage total, mine look something like this throughout the spring and summer:

M commute (9 miles)
T commute (9 miles)
W commute (9 mi.); race training ride where pros show--total butt kicker (35-40 mi.)
R commute (9 miles); easy ride after work, 25 mi.
F commute (9 miles)
Sa long ride. Century. Some randonneuring event if there's one locally.
Su maybe a long ride. More likely these days (post Octopus Baby) 25 miles on the bike path.

So those are my half-assed thoughts on training. Works for me. Got a couple of RAAM-qualified plaques doing that.

What I do feel competent to advise on is the recon. I'm a big game player and treat a long ride like playing a game or going to war. Find out and read everything you can about the event and other 24-hour rides. Search BF and other interweb resources for everything you can find out about the N24HC, Davis, Texas, the Iowa/Illinois ride (which has changed names a few times), Saratoga, Sebring and every other 24-hour event you can find. Read it all. Think about it. Pay special attention, of course, to anything written about your event. If you haven't mined the UMCA site yet, definitely spend time there. Get the back issue of the UMCA magazine that has the "Insiders Guide" for your event in it. They really do have amazing information in those (Paul Carpenter's on Texas from last year would have saved me a ton of pain there a few years ago!). Show up to your event early and check out the course. For example, at Michigan, pre-ride the mid-day loop (~21 miles) and the night loop (~7 miles). Knowing what the course looks like is key. Talk to people about their experiences and what they'd recommend or do differently. Most competitors will openly share info with you. If the event is drafting legal, then try to find some people to work with early on. Stay the heck out of the wind unless there's a good reason (you're working in a group where others will also take a fair turn at the front). Do not attack. Do not bridge gaps. Do not climb hills in the big ring.

Training programs are only part of the puzzle. I do enjoy going out and blowing away people who ride a lot more than I do, who are in way better shape, and who actually fine-tuned themselves to be in a state of high fitness at the peak of their program for whatever the big event is. And then they go and take all those months of hard work and throw them away by riding inefficiently or without some plan or purpose. One thing you'll see in the drafting-legal events is all the big dogs sitting toward the back, letting all the new guys and gals -- many of whom are in amazing shape and just want to show the world what kind of shape they're in -- just kill themselves in the wind and beat themselves against the hills. By nightfall many of those folks are all done -- packed up and gone home. The big boys then come out to play. Remember, racking up a big mileage total means still being there on the road riding after 12 or 18 hours. God-like fitness can be squandered in a lot less than 12 or 18 hours.....

Best of luck!

I'll defer to others here on formal training programs. I've never had one. I just ride a lot and have fun and it all seems to work out. I exist to piss off the Richard Craniums of the world. Yin and Yang.

Same Here.

Thanks for the reply, I really appreciate it. I am going to be participating in the 24 Hours of Booty in Columbia, MD at the end of September. It is a closed loop course of about 3 miles. I am sure I will be sick of doing loops by the end of the ride. I am currently doing 200+ mile weeks and think I probably just need to ramp up my long distance rides on the weekend.

I am doing a really hard hill day once a week, and have been throwing in intervals, time trials, etc. to really work myself into a lather. Plus I love your idea of riding with those that are much faster, I have started to do that and it is quite humbling, but at the same time a blast.

Thanks again for the advice, I am sure I will keep working on tweaking my plan until ride day.

...I am going to be participating in the 24 Hours of Booty in Columbia, MD at the end of September.....

Cool ride; I did the one in Charlotte last year and it was a blast. Few words of caution about it, though. It's tough to rack up a monster total at a charity ride. This this is definitely a "ride," and not an ultra event or a race. The course is packed with ungodly numbers of people, most of whom have very little riding experience. Be very careful if you're actually trying to ride quickly. I ended up riding 300 miles last year (and packed it in once I got to 300, with 3 hours left on the clock). Most of that got racked up at night after most folks turned in for the night and it was safe to ride with a purpose. I probably was only able to do that kind of mileage because it rained most of the event, which kept the number of people on the course significantly less that it could have been.

Anyway, good luck and have fun. The support at that ride was just amazing and it's all for a wonderful cause.

Does anyone have any good training plans for riding a 24-hour event?No, because whatever works well for one person probably is inappropriate for some one else. You already know you have to customize your training to meet your needs.

Generally speaking, the only training rule that works across an entire training population is the principle of exercise training specificity. In this case, the role of "specificity" comes into play as a means of adjusting to all the situations, or "all the loads" - you will encounter while attempting your 24hour race.

The simple part of this program, is simply to go out and ride as much as you can at or near the pace you expect ride at during the 24 hour race. But the trickier, additional aspects of training would involve starting rides just before sunset and riding well in to the night - so as to learn with coping with changing nature of the day and night riding.

Of course other factors such as your clothing and lighting selections as well as experiments with nutrition all need to be tried before race time. So in the case of 24 hour racing, much of your success is maximized by simply riding a lot. But to assure success, all the different details of the event need to be experienced and overcome so as to prepare you for the conditions of race day.

There's no use is focusing on riding strength unless you are absolutely sure all the ancillary details of your attempt are honed to perfection. If that happens to be your case, then ride a lot - and mix in some intensity at whatever ration you can tolerate without cutting your ride volume down.

Maybe I should I write a book.

I'm no expert but I've participated in the National 24 Hour Challenge for the past 9 years. Once I exceeded 400 miles. The first thing that I would suggest is to get in as many 100 mile rides as possible and if your lifestyle permits, try some 150 mile rides. Get highly organized, learning how to manage your fuel, hydration, energy output, and transition times.

I used a training plan from Training Peaks - Coach Lynda Wallenfall's 24-Hour Personal Best. It's a tough 12-week program, designed for mountain bikers but I had no problems doing it on the road, and I feel it really paid off.
Edit: although as someone else mentioned, for something like Booty, you're more in need of just saddle time as opposed to speed - you won't be able to go as fast as you want with 1,500 people on a 3-mile loop.

The first thing that I would suggest is to get in as many 100 mile rides as possible and if your lifestyle permits, try some 150 mile rides.Thats a good point as well. It's the "thirds" rule - try to do training sessions at or above race intensity for up to one third of the goal.

If you want to try for a quad century - typically - really hard 135-mile rides are required.

But again, the real bottom line - train so you can "stay on the bike" more than 23 hours out of the 24 - that is anyone's best strategy.....

Let's not confuse the race intensity of a 24 hour challenge with the race intensity of a road race or crit. If you go out with the same intensity as you would during a road race you may not last through the night. I find that the intensity of most racers ends up being less than that of a organized tour, except if you're one of those who are able to reach mileages in plus 450 range. In a 24 hour race, the fastest and strongest don't necessarily fare well. Many tend to burn out. I think for most, the race is won in the middle of the night, with the advantages going to racers who didn't burn their legs out when everyone is looking. Like the last poster said, staying on the bike is key.

Thanks for the reply, I really appreciate it. I am going to be participating in the 24 Hours of Booty in Columbia, MD at the end of September.

GMMan, as I was reading your initial post, I had this weird feeling that you were talking about the Booty ride! :) I'm signed up for it as well; it will be my first 24-hour event, also.

I've done a fair number of centuries, and lots of reading on the topic of ultra-long distance riding, including accounts of people's experiences. I think I have my food and drink routine down fairly well, and I commute regularly, so dark isn't scary for me (nor is bad weather). And this being a short loop means that my car will always be nearby, and I can load it with whatever I think I might need.

Truthfully, what worries me most is the mental issue -- how many times can I do a 3-mile loop and not go bat**** insane? :D There's a group in the DC area that used to do (maybe they still do, I'm not sure) what they advertised as "The World's Most Boring Century," every New Year's Day -- 33.3 loops around Hains Point Park. I joined them one year but due to other commitments later in the day, I only did about 40 or so miles. I really can't see extrapolating that to 24 hours . . . :lol:

So you're coming to Columbia, MD all the way from Texas? Cool!