The Bicycling Magazine article didn't really have any new info. Same training programs that are listed in the Burke book and pretty typical tips on eating, hydration, organization, etc.

I wouldn't like a day-to-day type regimentation either (and wouldn't follow it), but I like the idea of week-to-week "guidelines" with flexibility on how to achieve it during the week.

It's actually been fun and educational to put together a training schedule. Whether I wind up following it strictly or not, putting it on paper helped me better understand the principles and get an idea of how much training I should do to adequately prepare for the MS150. If anything it's more than enough preparation since it's a ride, not a race.

What I found most interesting was marrying the Friel and Burke schedules. For example, the 10-week program in Burke's book (and in the Bicycling Magazine article), does a continuous build up over the 10 weeks, every week doing 10% more training miles and 10% more on the week's long ride. In Friel's periodization method, he incorporates "R&R" weeks every 4th week, which makes lots of sense to me both from the physical standpoint, and to help prevent training burnout. Also, Friel's method is based on weekly training hours derived from an annual training hours guideline. Burke's training table is mileage based. It took some reconciling to mesh these two approaches.

So... now I've got a spreadsheet with a training plan that starts next week, marries the two approaches and carries through to the MS150 in late April. I actually set it up as a 2-race season, with the first race being a mock race 5 weeks before the real event, where I plan to do a 150 mile weekend and see how it goes.

I'd be glad to share this via email. If interested just send me a private message. I'll post it here if I figure out how, but probably not.