It's been several years since I last did an MS Ride. And honestly I never properly trained for those. This time I'd like to be as prepared as possible. Anyone know of any good MS Ride training plans? It's 175 miles in two days.

Thanks

I've done several Tour de Cure (diabetes) and MS rides. They are non-competitive with plenty of rest stops, so I don't do a lot of training specific to those rides. In the two months leading up to the rides, I try to do one progressively longer ride a week with at least the last couple being centuries. On other riding days I do some hill climbs and sprints mixed into mid-distance rides two or three times a week. Just as important is to take a couple of easy days (nothing but relaxed recreational riding, or off the bike entirely) at least once or twice a week to allow adequate recovery. Overtraining is just as bad as undertraining, so make sure you plan for adequate recovery. In the last days before the event, take it easy. If it is a choice between one more day of intense training or one more day of rest, choose the rest. Hard training stresses your body to trigger adaptation, the actual improvements come during the recovery phase.

Good nutrition and plenty of sleep are very important. Also pay attention to your on bike hydration and nourishment, don't try something radically different on the day of the event, everything should be very familiar and well tested.

What distance are you currently riding on weekends? During the week?

And when is the ride?

Right now my riding is pretty sporadic. For the most part my longest ride is Wednesday. 30 miles. With a few 8-12 mile rides in the morning. 2 times a week. Haven't started weekend riding yet since I'm currently working Saturdays. But I will in a few weeks.

Some pretty good advice here thank you.
Though being in South Florida, what are hills? LOL

If you lack hills, you may substitute wind

1) Start increasing your long ride by 10% ... or a bit more if you're feeling good. So next week, go out and do something in the neighbourhood of 33 or maybe 35 miles. The following week you might try something up around 36-38 miles. If you're feeling really good, maybe even 40 miles.

2) Ride more often. Aim for at least 4 days a week, preferably 5, perhaps even 6 days some weeks. But if you're feeling really tired, take a couple days off.

3) Try to get some back-to-back long rides in there. So in a few weeks, you might try 50 miles on Saturday and 50 miles on Sunday. A few weeks later, you might try 75 miles on Saturday and 75 miles on Sunday.

4) Vary things ... ride different terrain, ride in different weather conditions, ride different speeds, ride different routes.

5) Throw in some other activity as well ... stretching (yoga/pilates), a bit of walking (you might go for a brisk 30-min walk at lunch), some core work.

6) While you're increasing your distances, experiment with nutrition. Find out what works for you. Start with 200-300 calories per hour on rides over 2 hours.

7) On all your rides, aim to drink one 750 ml bottle of water and/or sports drink every 1 to 1.5 hours.

Yeah. We certainly have wind here.

Excellent and informative post. Thank you very much.