Training & Nutrition - Longest training ride to prepare for MS 150

If you were training for the MS 150, how many miles would your longest training ride be?

I'm doing the one from Houston to Austin, where the first day will be 84 miles and the 2nd day will be 73 miles, for a total of 157. My longest training ride yet was 70.5 miles, on March 19. In the weeks leading up to that, I went from 35 to 47 to 56 for my weekend rides, then did the 70 miler.

I'm going back and forth between doing an 80-90 miler in one day, or a fast 40 miler on Saturday and then a hilly 50 miler on Sunday. I have yet to do long rides on back to back days. Leaning towards the 40/50 on both weekend days, because I've already done 70 miles as my longest training ride. Most MS 150 training programs cap their longest at around 70. Do you think that doing one more 80-90+ miler is unnecessary at this point? The MS 150 is in 2 weeks.

The rule of thumb is to do 70% of the target distance on a training ride. So you should be set. The MS 150 is a two day event. I have never had difficulty recoveing over night to do another long ride the day before. If I am beaten up from the ride the day before, I will walk around until my legs stop feeling dead in the time after the ride. I think the light exercise accelerates the recovery. At least it works for me.

It never hurts to train for a longer event than you are going to undertake. So if you want, go ahead and do an 80-90 miler. But I think doing a somewhat shorter ride on Saturday and another on Sunday would be a better simulation. Back to back 50s or metrics would do well.

With 2 weeks to go, you're pretty much going with the prep you already have. I'd do your plan B - more important to decide on the pace you need to do on Saturday to get up and ride again on Sunday. Any fit issues you encounter are going to be magnified on day 2.

I went with plan B, back to back weekend rides. 36 miles on Saturday at 18.7 mph (a few months ago, I could only pull 15 mph!!), and 51 miles on a hilly route at 15-20 mph. I bonked at mile 47 on the 51 miler, though.

Now it's time to taper down and get as much rest as I need... whatever I did the last few months is what I gotta roll with in the MS 150. I'm happy about the 3 mph gain in my average speed, but I'm not so sure about my endurance. So I'll hold back a bit on the first day, not go flat out in the beginning so I conserve some energy for 2nd half of day 1 and then day 2.