Originally Posted by
Rowan
Homey, this is what the OP said. We don't actually know how many training miles a week or month he is doing. But certainly, if he is making the observation that his peers are doing many more miles than he is and finishing at the pace he expects, there has to be something to it.
Yeah, there probably is something to do with it but I don't think it's the quantity of miles. I've never see where just riding miles for the sake of miles is useful and I think you would agree with that. What does that do for you except train you to ride at the speed you are doing those miles? The problem is that everyone of us rides long distances slightly slower speed than we would shorter distances. The reason is that at shorter distances we can ride at, near or occasionally exceeding our LT without blowing up. You can't do that on long rides, you'll be in big trouble in a big hurry so we slow down and settle into a comfortable pace. The real key to going faster over long distances is to raise that level so that your comfort zone also raises. You have to do that with speed work. There is no other way. I've seen too many randoneurs fall into the I need mega miles trap and still can't meet the control times. And, they wonder why? I do know some guys who do a lot of miles and are fast too but they also do speed work and their LT is higher because of it!!!!!
When I'm talking fast here that doesn't have to mean the first to finish. It can mean just training to raise your average speed from 15km/hr to 20km/hr, whatever it takes to get you where you need to be.
You guys know me, I've ridden a 1/2 dozen 1200ks, raced 4 RAAMs, 8 FC508s and a boatload of other ultra events with one transcontinental record and a couple course records and I've never ridden more than 10kmiles in one year. Usually between 6-10k. I can name off the top of my head a number of other people way faster than me who do the same. If we can race 3000mile races with half the annual mileage as some of these people who barely meet control times tell me who is doing something wrong? I'm a big guy and not what many would concider "fast" over short distances but I can ride long distances at a pretty good clip because I've trained my body to do that with short specific training, not long sustained efforts. Hope that makes some sense to you. We've (you me, Machka) been doing this for a long time and we build conclusions on what works for us and those around us. Maybe we have to agree to disagree on this one?