Thanks Swighton, those spreadsheets are interesting. Did you just generate these in Excel or did you use a specialist app?

I wrote a program to generate them for me.

I carried reference sheets that showed where towns were and the topography printed on rite in the rain paper. They are colored by grade and are annotated with distance to the town after next (the number after the POI name). I always brought enough food to reach the next town which saved my butt a couple of times when I got in late or stores didn't exist and I had to press on.

The rule of thumb that I used was that I would travel about 9.5mph overall average and I need 325 calories per hour to not bonk. Divide the distance to the town after by 9.5 and multiply by 325 and you have estimated calories needed during riding. I would throw in 750 calories for night time recovery if I would be sleeping before the next pit stop and 600 calories for breakfast.

I used this in conjunction with a spreadsheet of town details to make adjustments on how much food to bring. For example I would bring less if there was guaranteed to be 24 hour grocery or restaurants.

I really liked having the grade and climb information since it allowed me to reasonably estimate if I would reach a town before nightfall. Do note that having that information can be maddening.

Gallery with full size reference images laid out to print on letter size paper at the following link:
http://imgur.com/a/FI1bj



NOTE: There are a few places I missed on these reference images Most notably the brush mountain lodge and the Montana High Country Lodge. Those were nice surprises. Also some of the places are off route such as Big Fork and Seeley Lake.

Oh one other NOTE: The red, orange, yellow line below the elevation profiles is the grizzly density from the grizzly maps posted on these forums some time ago. I used this when making camping decisions.

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One initial question is: How did you split this between road bike / unladen MTB / fully loaded MTB?
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Unfortunately I live in the heart of a city so it is impossible to find uninterrupted stretches of road for the weekday workouts so I ended up doing most weekday workouts indoors on a trainer. This was good mental prep - especially the 3+ hour rides towards the end. I did use my TD rig on the trainer, I just put a 700 x 32c touring tire on it. Long rides on Saturday and Sunday were almost always on a fully loaded bike. I mostly stuck to road because that's what's available, but a few weekends I traveled to some long gravel loops to fully test the rig / me / gear attachment / etc.

Given how much I hate out and backs, and how hard it is to get in and out of the city by bike, most weekends I would ride the prescribed distance away from the city on road (usually hitting a neighboring state), camp, ride in the local area for the Sunday ride (on gravel / dirt if possible) then have my wife pick me up :]. This was also  a good reason to carry real gear and test it.

If you're indoors make sure you train with cadence and if you can power. It's easy to accidentally train at a high cadence all the time on a trainer and get injured the first time you encounter a big hill that requires a lower cadence. (believe it or not there is a lot of this on the TD). I have a CycleOps PowerBeam trainer which allows you to give it a GPS route and it will vary the resistance according to the terrain. This is great for simulating climbs. I "pre-rode" some of the climbs on the TD (they were much harder in real life, though still helpful). You also can give it a workout such as intervals at prescribed power or a tempo ride.

On Joe Friel's book: I think it is a bit too road racing specific if you applied it directly, though it is loaded with great information and best practices for serious training. Combine it with endurance specific resources and you can make a great plan.

I've had a hard time finding good information on this subject. For TD 2015 I used a plan developed from previous endurance experience, the Cyclists Training Bible by Joe Friel, The Complete Book of Long Distance Cycling, and information I had collected from the Ultra Marathon Cycling Association. There are many good articles on the the UMCA site regarding training, nutrition, recovery, etc.

I have attached the detailed workout plan I followed in 2015 below. My objective was to complete the tour divide in less than 20 days while still sleeping 7-8 hours a night since I get ill if I sleep less than that . I accomplished that so I guess it was effective? I can say that fitness was not a problem for me on the tour and I had no problems with any joints, tendons, or anything like that.

The plan is divided into the typical base, build, peak, and taper phases with the workout selection geared towards endurance. There is however a fair amount of intervals, time trials, tempo, and other high intensity training. It also prescribes strength training for whole body strength, as well as special bike pushing workouts to condition the achilles. Overall it was about 5000 miles of riding over 6 months.

Not in the plan, but I also stretched 7 days a week calves, quads, hams, glutes, ITB, etc.

Obviously my plan will not be directly applicable, though I think it is not a bad starting point and I can certify it worked for me. If you haven't, I recommend reading Joe Friel's book. It will guide you through setting up a personalized training plan geared towards your goals and weaknesses. It also covers other important subjects such as injuries, nutrition, strength training, stretching, training diaries, etc.

Also note: my zones are kind of weird compared to the ones you usually see in cycling training.
Zone 1 - less than 65% of max HR
Zone 2 - 65% to 85% of max HR - build aerobic endurance
Zone 3 - 85% to 94% of max HR - to reach LT
Zone 4 - 95% to 100% of max HR - to develop anaerobic system