TDR 2012

[Foster]

Ride your bike really fast while breathing through a coffee straw...

Well unless you drive somewhere there is really no way for you to train at altitude.  You could sleep at altitude though.  Look up hypoxic tents.  They are pricy but it allows you to sleep high(as high as you want really), train low. 

[THE LONG RANGER]

You'll probably acclimate during the race. The elevations you're going up aren't super high. Banff is at, what? 4,000 feet? Get there a few days before. The highest pass is in the 11,000 foot neighborhood. If you have the form to do 2700 miles on a mountain bike, I don't think it'll be a problem. I'd be more concerned with something like the CTR. If you're sensitive to altitude, perhaps "plan" on bivvying at the lower elevations.

Re: training for climbing with nothing to climb - It's a strength to weight ratio thing, right? You wanna be strong, without being too large. Andy Schleck is an amazing climber, Fabian Cancellara is not. But Fabian Cancellara can destroy most anyone on a flat course. Why? The weight penalty is more when going up things. I'd exploit any hill you can find, though and do repeats. Work on spinning higher revs and put some weight in your bags to give you some, ahem, "gravity". But again, if you're in form for this distance, you'll be fine. The passes are pretty mellow. Lofty, but mellow.

[Foster]

Good call on the starting altitude, I forgot how low banff was.  4000 shouldn't be a problem for most people I am assuming.  Luckily I go down in altitude by 4000 feet just going to banff and won't have to worry about sucking wind so much in the beginning.

[phil_rad]

Some good climbers have come from flat lands, riding against the wind is great training. Not much you can substitute for altitude, but don't worry, the TDR starts fairly low and by the time we hit some serious altitude you should be acclimated. Just give yourself a few days in Banff to adjust.

[bmike-vt]

banff is at 4000... nice. i'll plan on doing some more fast hike training up our highest peak... 4,393'.
 

thank justin for the training primer.
will be watching this thread... for 2013.


curious what some of the gradients are like? and lengths.
might have to revisit the TF files and do some studying.

we have high single and double digit grades, all relatively short (by western standards).

[Foster]

Does anyone have a seat that they recommend?  I am looking for one that is comfortable for hundreds of miles and yet still light.  I can for-see having ass problems sitting on a bad seat for 3000 miles. 

[THE LONG RANGER]

curious what some of the gradients are like? and lengths.
might have to revisit the TF files and do some studying.

A lot of the tracks are old narrow gauge railroad beds, ripped up. For example: Boreas Pass in Colorado, Outside Breckenridge. Very long and lofty. This is an extreme example, but I bet it never gets past 6% grade.  Remember: that the GDMBR was created with Adventure Touring while taking Gallons of water and BOB Yak's, etc in tow, so there's nothing technically  Craaaazy going on. It's super enjoyable for cruising, though, I have to say. Going up, still happy to have a small gear, but that's more because of exhaustion - what the GDMBR lacks in grade, it makes up for the number of bumps, which, when you're racing it, is frickin' nothing to scoff out. If you like cruising for untold hours though, this is certainly your race. Not many "walls".

The exceptions to this rule are things like the singletrack portion at the end of the Canadian Flathead section, which is comically steep and Fleecer Ridge. Those you're better rather to hike. The singletrack portion in New Mexico, North of Silvercity is pretty chill, speaking in Singletrack Talk. Watch that downhill. A little bumpy

[phil_rad]

Does anyone have a seat that they recommend?  I am looking for one that is comfortable for hundreds of miles and yet still light.  I can for-see having ass problems sitting on a bad seat for 3000 miles. 

Foster, seats are a very personal item; hard to recommend one. Are you having problems with your current saddle? If not than why not stick with it, never change a winning team ;-) Other than that you need to do a lot of testing. I've never done it but there are shops that have a measuring system to find out which fits your butt; http://www.sq-lab.com/index.php?lang=en. I like the 1990 Flite the best, fairly light at 235 gr but still comfy enough for endless hours on the bike. You will have a sore butt after day one so find a good chamois cream. A&D works great for me, cheap, easy to find almost everywhere in the US, hard to get here in Germany though.

[mcmurv]

Does anyone have a seat that they recommend?  I am looking for one that is comfortable for hundreds of miles and yet still light.  I can for-see having ass problems sitting on a bad seat for 3000 miles. 

Foster, yea, this is personal, but let me tell you it can ruin your TD attempt as it did mine this past summer with blisters on the inside of both of my legs the size of hot dogs.  I had ridden the saddle I had upto 1,100 miles a month for month 3 and 2 before the TD without any problems, but once on the Divide.....

I have since gone to the Terry TiFly (i think) saddle.  It is prevalent amongst RAAM'ers. I am a big guy. 6'1" 183 lbs and thought I had a big butt.  This Terry saddle is much smaller than I thought I needed and they have a guarantee. I saw a lot of WTB Rocket V saddles this summer.  My recommendation is find one that is comfy and the ride it on at least a 3 to 4 day ride with dirty shorts.  This will tell you if it is the right saddle.

[mcmurv]

I live on the east coast, flat as a pancake. Any ideas on how to train for altitude and climbing? It is almost 6 hours to the nearest mountians.

There is nothing you can do to acclimate, other than be there.  I have experimented with a couple different hypoxic breathing machines and devices over the past 3 years.  They take the edge off, but you can't simulate air density like you have at altitude.  These made it not too painful, until about 7k to 8k.  It just takes time for you body to get accustomed to processing the reduced volumes of air with each breath. 

Being from Texas, everyone's comments on acclimatization is pretty accurate. 

Hills; you can't control head winds.  My recommendation is a trainer.  Set it on an incline and ride with a level of resistance that you can turn for 2'ish hours.  The normal day on the TD is climb for about 2 hours (at my pace), then ride downhill for about an hour.  Cruise the valley and repeat.  You do this at least 4 times per day, until Wyoming and then pick it up again in CO. 

[mcmurv]

About training:
Justin's post (theartist) is fantastic.  However, if your older and don't have the time to get on the bike everyday, build long weekend rides and quality recovery. I was surprised at how long it takes me to completely recover from long (14 to 24 hour) weekends and 400+ mile bike pack trips.  The mental aspect of riding early in the morning in the dark and late at night in the dark is not to be underestimated.  It is much, much harder than you believe.  If you believe you are training hard enough, kick it up at least 2x harder, then you might be in the ballpark.  I was comfortable with my training level for the TD this summer.  However, as Sheila R. has said: "Every day on the divide you think that you have done something that is the hardest thing in your life."  

Another approach is to race into shape.  Go to Banff or AW with a moderate level of fitness and enjoy the ride.

The one thing Justin didn't mention is navigating.  It isn't that hard, but whatever your choice of navigation; cue sheet, gps or combo, train it.  You will learn things about your system of choice on the TD; therefore the more experience you have, the better you will be.  

Eating on the TD is a life changing experience, not having the big climbs to train on, taught me a lot this summer.  Being familiar with what you have to come on the route is important.  If you know you have a 2 hour climb ahead and you are going to burn 500 calories an hour, by the end of day 1 on the divide, you need consume the calories you need 30 to 45 before the climb.  I started playing with this on day 3 and it worked pretty well.  About an hour before a long climb, I would start eating at least 1,500 calories and be done at the lower levels of the climb.  You will learn a lot about calorie quality too.  Candy burns in an instant.  Fruit lasts a lot longer.  

[Foster]

Thanks for the tips.

I checked out the SQ-Lab site and I think I found what might work for me.  They make the 611 active saddle, might try that and see if it solves the ass soreness that I get from my crappy light race seat.

[phil_rad]

Also very important is keeping your bum clean, wet wipes are a must. Neosporen at night along with some A&D ointment works wonders.

[mikepro]

Saddles:

Yes, every body is different.  Personally, I can't stand WTB products, as they don't fit my bod at all.  I also think that besides the cleanliness issue, it's a saddle + shorts combo that needs to be dialed in, not just the saddle alone.

FWIW, I'll chime in with my saddle + shorts combo of choice.  I'm 5'10" 170.  For the 2010 TD, I raced the Specialized Phenom Gel Saddle and Specialized BG Pro RBX shorts (only one pair). http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bc/SBCEqProduct.jsp?spid=54570
Race profile saddle, with a little extra cushion. http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bc/SBCEqProduct.jsp?spid=47289

I had minimal issues the entire ride, and developed no open sores nor blisters.  Yes, it's possible.

Still have the same saddle, having put another ~2k miles of saddle time since TD 2010 finish.  I've since bought another pair of the shorts.

[BobM]

curious what some of the gradients are like? and lengths.
might have to revisit the TF files and do some studying.

we have high single and double digit grades, all relatively short (by western standards).

Check out this link and calculate all the grades you want!:

http://eatsleepridegreatdivide.com/

[Marshal]

You can not really “train” for the TDR in the classical sense of --train for a peak physical performance.

However anyone can/must ‘train’ to ride all day long, day after day, and if they plan to “race” do so at their own personal max balance point. 

The best way (only way really) is know/learn how to - ride all day, sleep on the ground, ride all day. Once you can ride all day, day after day—then you should work to refine and optimize.

Remember it is a holistic endeavor with 3 main components: Body/Mind/Gear

All three are equally important and each one, body, mind, gear have to work in harmony day after day.

So simple, yet so hard, so fun to work at it!!

[phil_rad]

"Body/Mind/Gear"

That's it right there. Well said Marshal. Glad to see you adding your expertise to the mix.

Are you thinking about another run? Would be great to have you come along, but leave the Moto at home ;-)

Phil

[BigPoppa]

I would say as far as training:

Treat it like a regular season with four training goals in mind:
-Endurance
-Climbing
-Riding with weight (this cannot be under estimated)
-Gear (Yes, I actually counted the hours I spent working on gear as training)

Endurance: This sounds simple enough but you would be surprised at the amount of people that showed up in Banff who hadn't ever done a sub 24 hour outing (a sub24 is an overnighter that lasts less than 24 hours). You must ride your bike and condition your tendons and joints to handle the stress. The longest ride I did was a three day trip on a fully loaded bike. Worth every revolution of the cranks.

Climbing: This is simple, just ride your bike uphill. Intervals work well. Long sustained tempo works well. Heck anything you do with your front tire pointed skyward works well.

Riding with weight: I got this from a very well known endurance racer. It is important to train with weight. Starting in January before the divide I rode with weight on my bike nearly every time I was out. I even raced with weight. You MUST condition your tendons and joints to handle the requisite stresses of powering a loaded bike (Don't forget to ride with lots of water, that stuff is HEAVY!). Even with my uber light kit, I was still at about 32 pound. An UNREAL amount of stress compared to my ~19 pound XC race machine!

Gear: Gear. Gear. GEAR! I have an excel spread sheet with weights and packed location of all my gear. I used it, modified it, tried it out again, and re-modified it. If I couldn't buy it, I rented a sewing machine and taught myself how to make it. In Banff I was yet again surprised as most people didn't have their 'final pack list' done the day before the start, unbelievable! Trust me when I say I was so thankful for all the work I did with gear leading up to the race. I guarantee I saved ~2 days off my race time just by having a light, well thought out, and trail proven kit from day one.

One other gem that I read from JP once; you don't want to go into the race mentally burnt out. For me that means I was a little over weight (~15 pounds) at the start of the race. Dieting is pretty mentally taxing for me. So, I choose to give myself a break in that arena. It paid off though. I was racing hard right out of the gate and I stayed that way until the end. Other riders had a much harder time because they were over cooked before the race even started.

In the end, Divide training really is pretty simple. Like I read from Matthew Lee somewhere on these boards, you just have to put in the miles.

Feel free to check out my blog. I have lots of tour divide stuff on there, including my daily journal entries from the race. (I'm almost done blogging the whole thing!)

beyondthebadgeblog.blogspot.com

[the_river]

Not necessarily relevant, but in case anyone was interested, I just started up my Tour Divide 2013 blog. Been wanting to do this for years now, and now it looks like it's going to happen! These boards are a gold-mine of information and seem to be a great community. I look forward to spending more time here!

http://folgesvenn.blogspot.com/

[aplummer]

hi i'm in the early stages of planning for riding in 2012 and was wondering what people roughly budget for the period they are actually riding. e.g. for food, repairs, accommodation?.