Tour Divide Basics: Training

[Roland Sturm]

There was an old TD Basics thread, but it ran out of steam last year and became more and more arcane. So back to basics: What are you doing when to get in physical shape for TD? Fitness is about the most basic issue for this type of adventure.

TD is a rather different animal from anything else I've done, much longer but less intense than other races, yet more intense than bikepacking (where I averaged more in the 60-80 miles/day range, including a trip along the GDMBR in WY and CO).

So far this year, I've managed to get to about 10-12 hours a week, mainly on the mountain bike, and I'll slowly ramp it up, both total volume and max on a day. Typical long rides so far are in the 4-5 hour range offroad, about 1000-1500 feet of climbing per hour (that's just how our hills are, not much choice). Longest off pavement ride this year was a 9 hour loop last month (http://www.julianactive.com/Julian7500.htm), which I'll do again when the snow is gone (it was in the 70s when I rode it last month, now it's all snow). At the latest by April 9 (at least one other TD starter this year is signed up as well). At least once a week, but usually 2 or 3 times, I try to put in a faster ride with 30-60 mins of threshold intervals (cranking it up on climbs) to avoid getting too much into the slow steady mode. Hopefully, intensity makes up for relatively low volume - it sure is a lot more painful - but just can't do 20 hours. Nothing harder than threshold intensity, though, sprints is not something I need to work on for TD.

[THE LONG RANGER]

(I'll start this off by saying I'm a rookie, but)

I've started to post my "training" regime here - I'll post a weekly breakdown of what I've done, plus any interesting rides a little more in full. Been training in earnest for a good two months, starting from a good base of rides, hiking and gym time. I'm 180-something lbs. and could afford to lose around 15lbs, but I doubt it'll come off.

Depending on  what bikes are available to me, what the weather is, how I'm feeling, what I'm feeling like doing and what other resources are available (weather, friends what to go on a ride, a car is available to go into the mountains, someone dares me to do something), I'm keeping things very flexible, with also the hopes that I don't get dead BORED of just cranking out miles on a bike. Which I don't want to do. I get bored easily and would rather die than do the same workout twice in a row.

I've found I've been spending ~30 hours/week on, I guess you'd say, "training", but I'm trying not to record, chart, graph and take too much data points down on what I'm doing, except just mileage, as there's too many variables in effect: I can go faster and farther with less time taken on my fair-weather road bike, than I can on my touring rig, haulin' a trailer. My one goal is to maintain a constant state of movement. Even on busy days, where I have things to, you know, DO, I'll always take a bike and trailor to do my errands and kill two birds with one stone. I don't own a car and even, "rest" days sees me doing some leisurely miles through the greater downtown Denver area. I wouldn't have it any other way.

A typical week is something like this:

Sun:   Rest
Mon:   Ride 30-50 miles
Tue:    Ride 30-50 miles
Wed:   Ride Gym, maybe ride 30 miles, run a few miles,
Thur:   Rest?
Friday: Ride 30-50 miles
Sat:     Long ride > 100 miles, or full day hiking

No week is ever typical. This week, Sun/Mon were rest days from not sleeping for the past week and Tue. Was a 7 hour ride, 9 hour hike, Wed, I barely got up out of bed and today (Thur), I'll take a small recovery ride and figure out what zany thing I'll do Fri or Sat. Probably a ~120 mile ride in the mountains if the weather holds, or go snowshoeing with a loaded pack all day in RMNP. If I had the equipment, I'd be doing winter ascents of the 14ers around me.

Gym time is a little difficult to describe and probably will go away, once the weather gets better here. I'll typically run a few miles to the gym, and then (heh) warm up on the rowing machine. Most of my work targets the core or is plyometric/explosive in nature. When I use weights (instead of just my body) it's always very low.  Try not to take more than 45 minutes of actual working out (not including rest), until I finish, I do another round of the rowing machine and run home. All told, it could be around 3-5 hours, before I hit the shower.

The other thing to mention, I don't have my Tour Divide Bike yet - I just can't afford one, yet. Once I do and the weather is nice, it's really just going to be a lot of riding, with as many bikes I can get a hold of, doing as many types of riding that I can, as much I see fit. I'm slightly worried that my being green in mountain biking will play a part in the hardships I face at the Tour Divide, but I'm also not 2 hours away from the route and I can go and recon it, anytime I can find a ride. Even now, I can probably snowshoe some of it, just to get the cues in my head.

Next month, I'll probably also join the local randoneurs and do some brevets, etc. I may tag along with my roommate to some crits and put myself in some Cat 5 races, just to get acquainted with riding with a bunch of roadies in tight corners. Just anything I can do to keep it fresh, mix it up, keep having fun and not have it feel like this boring burden. Camping in less than perfect conditions is the least of my worries. I can fall asleep in, on or around anything and anywhere. Love the cold and love to be dirty! I can also literally eat anything.

[Roland Sturm]

Very impressive, and 1200 miles this month will get your legs into shape! Otherwise you'll have to refund donations if you don't make it that far! That adds up to what? 20-25 hours a week (including off the bike training)? Although I will cut my work hours officially to 30 starting this month, my training volume will still be at about 1/2 of yours. But then, I realistically plan for 25 days, hopefully can do it faster. Breaking 20, which is your goal, is not a consideration for me, just wouldn't be possible. I spend more time planning for the scenario that that a 25 day schedule is too hard for me and I need to go slower.

Mostly I'm going up and down the mountains here, did a 5 hour ride with my son over the weekend (he was suffering, that is  too long for a 15 year old, but then he wants to try the Julian Deathmarch next month). I'll do a (road) double century this month (and will do another one in May) to do some long distance. Just a different training thing to spin the pedals consistently than spending the same hours on dirt roads or trails.  

[THE LONG RANGER]

Very impressive, and 1200 miles this month will get your legs into shape! Otherwise you'll have to refund donations if you don't make it that far!

Heh, indeed. My not-so-secret plan is to give all the money to the non-profit org, if I fail, but something tells me I'll make it with a little bit of padding. Saying that, I'm 6 days in, with only 146 miles, but those miles are all from the same day!

That adds up to what? 20-25 hours a week (including off the bike training)?

It was around 39 hours this week. That is quite a bit and it's becoming a game of prioritizing my time and not being wasteful. In fact, this whole project has been an exercise in being mindfulness, working on economizing everything and being very frugal with my resources. Don't forget to train the mind. I'm lucky to have a very flexible work situation and a very understanding ladyfriend.

From what I'm starting to feel, the amount of training one does for this type of thing is really going to vary wildly and there's def. smarter ways to train than others. I don't know if 40 hours a week is really needed, but these hours include easy days and high intensity days.

[BobM]

In fact, this whole project has been an exercise in being mindfulness, working on economizing everything and being very frugal with my resources.

Sounds like excellent Divide training right there.

Bob

[Roland Sturm]

Hard to imagine better preparation than lots of hours for this type of event. 1200 miles is serious time and distance. This month, I have done a bit over 1000km, which is only half, and don't expect to increase that much more.

By now, I'm up to 15 hours of a week, including 1-2 hours of other stuff (rowing, weights, stretching), and I'm quite happy getting that amount in. Obviously the most specific training for TD  would be more hours, but even with my reduction in work hours until June, that is all I can put in, plus an occasional extra long ride. On Saturday, I rode 200 miles, although on pavement, so that was 13 hours in the saddle. Maybe better preparation than I really wanted: It was raining for most of the time, a few hours of full storm, too cold to stop for long, and multiple mechanicals (including 6 broken spokes, but I made it to a bike shop before it collapsed completely). No mud, though....

But with much fewer hours than you, I'll try to make up with intensity, especially on days where I just have an hour or even less. Oddly enough, the only time I got really sore (not just tired) was from a 20 min day. Warm up/cool down and 6x 30 secs full out intervals, that was it, yet 2 days of sore quads. So my legs found those 3 minutes harder than a 200 mile ride, funny how narrow training specificity can be. Hopefully improves some relevant fitness even though there is not much use for sprints in TD.

[BobM]

...So my legs found those 3 minutes harder than a 200 mile ride, funny how narrow training specificity can be. Hopefully improves some relevant fitness even though there is not much use for sprints in TD.

LOTS of high-intensity climbing on the route.  Your quads will thank you for each additional fibre you add to them.

Bob

[THE LONG RANGER]

But with much fewer hours than you, I'll try to make up with intensity, especially on days where I just have an hour or even less. Oddly enough, the only time I got really sore (not just tired) was from a 20 min day. Warm up/cool down and 6x 30 secs full out intervals, that was it, yet 2 days of sore quads. So my legs found those 3 minutes harder than a 200 mile ride, funny how narrow training specificity can be. Hopefully improves some relevant fitness even though there is not much use for sprints in TD.

Indeed! Your training differs very much in mine, which I think is fine. Even though my, "long" rides are between 12 and 16 hours, I have yet to break through 200 miles. The longest ride so far has been 170 miles, on a road bike and I believe that took >13 hours, not including a 2 hour break before the last 3-4 hours. You are riding much more intensely than I am and I think the idea of maybe being more interested in time spend, or time spend over distance would be a better indicator then just purely distance.

Although, a good chunk of my longer rides are in the mountains. For example, the 136 miler yesterday had a total of almost 20,000 feet of elevation gain. That could be why it took 10 1/2 to finish! (also this is not a typical ride - it was a def. a Personal Challenge Day)

But, other than the Merckx-ian, "Ride Lots" advice, intensity is a good idea. One of the ways, as you've shown, to ride far in a realistic way is to ride it fast. Unless you're beginning from no base, you're going to see more results by starting fast and going longer than the reverse in terms of speed and distance. Or, that's the theory!

I'm personally playing with the idea that: I'm starting out as a slow-poke and there's only a few things I can work at with the amount of time I've got until the start, so I've chosen climbing as the vector that will give the best payback. Helps that it's also my favorite thing to do on a bike. Some people are going to be way faster at me at just blowing through things like the Great Basin and that's cool. I'm personally a Billy Goat.

Back to intensity and saving time and even weight training: I also do think it's a good idea to do lifts that aren't bike-specific. There's the theory that if you don't mix it up, your muscles get used to the type of training you do and they don't respond well to your training - you don't make gains and you're wasting your time. That may well be. I'm nothing but a enthusiast when it comes to having my body perform crazy things, so I won't contest that part, but also think about injury-prevention. What has side-lined me in the past has been IT Band Syndrome, which I was giving funky exercises to do, to help regain some muscle balance. 

Along with injury prevention, also think about getting your core in shape, since the hours on the bike are so long, if you grow uncomfortable with your position, you're not going to want to ride. If those small core muscles get fatigued, your body will call upon ever larger muscle groups to keep going, until you're just a mess of fatigued muscles on a bike. I can go through details of what I do, if you want. I think some technical single tracking could help on this, as well Also think about things you can't control: what if you get horrible saddle sores and you have to ride the majority of the day without sitting? Are you able to survive a day like that? Remember there's potentially parts that of the route that will be too-muddy to ride and almost too muddy to push, unless you want your drivetrain destroyed. Got the endurance to carry that machine for a few short (or long?) stretches? All sorts of unknowns that if you aren't prepared can sap up time. The time adds up.

And if you really want to fatigue your muscles in a relatively short amount of time, as I said before: plyometrics! But DO NOT DO THEM, if you have not trained with weights before. < 2 months before the Tour Divide is not a time to start that path. Even being used to them myself, I'll feel <20 minutes of plyometric work 3 days afterward. No Joke - if you have no readied yourself, you can terribly injure yourself doing them. But boy are they incredible!

Oh, don't everyone forget there's that "roughin' it" part of the race. Get out there and do some sub-24s, over-nighters and long weekend rides. "Shake Down" is not what you want to do - you gotta get that gear, "Quake-downed". April is going to be a phase for me where I'm leaving the road bike for the randonneur rides only and being on the MTB as much as possible. In my sub-24's/overnighters, I'm just going to bring some choices of gear that I think may work and try as many possibilities of things I already have, to see what works. That just means and extra backpack of Stuff, but I'm curious to what works the best for bivvy sleeping. I'm really curious on perhaps a tarp setup and protecting my whole head from cold - may try a thin balaclava. My current bivvy isn't too fun to zip up completely.

[Marshal]

Oh, don't everyone forget there's that "roughin' it" part of the race. Get out there and do some sub-24s, over-nighters and long weekend rides. "Shake Down" is not what you want to do - you gotta get that gear, "Quake-downed". April is going to be a phase for me where I'm leaving the road bike for the randonneur rides only and being on the MTB as much as possible. In my sub-24's/overnighters, I'm just going to bring some choices of gear that I think may work and try as many possibilities of things I already have, to see what works. That just means and extra backpack of Stuff, but I'm curious to what works the best for bivvy sleeping. I'm really curious on perhaps a tarp setup and protecting my whole head from cold - may try a thin balaclava. My current bivvy isn't too fun to zip up completely.

You seem to have a very methodical approach, both to training and gear selection. 

I am always amazed-and re-amassed at how much one can do without clothing/bivy wise.  And this may not apply, but for me I tend to use everything I bring—but if I do not bring ‘extra’ things I do not seem to miss them much.  Ie: A bivy where you wear ever piece of clothing to bed and wind up right on the edge of comfort becomes quite comfortable after a few hard days

Oh—the thin balaclava works great—but a helmet scull cap + a head band pulled over the ears provides the same warmth for the bivy and doubles as daily ride gear—ie” eliminates the need to carry a separate balaclava

[Roland Sturm]

I guess this topic just doesn't have the same appeal as talking about tires or other equipment choices for that tour! The thread is still on the first page, so what have people done when not shopping for tires and titanium stems?

Justin and I seem to be approaching our training from different angles and I very much enjoyed his blog, seems like excellent preparation to me. Justin, with those miles in your legs, I probably meet you in Colorado, although I hope closer to WY than to NM.

I continued my lower volume, higher intensity strategy given that I can't put in the same amount of hours/miles. A bit like reverse periodization, starting off with harder and shorter efforts earlier this year (threshold and VO2 max) and going a bit longer last month (tempo and threshold). Because almost all my riding is on my own (I'm not into group rides or clubs), I also signed up for a few mountain bike races to get a reality check how far I'm behind the leaders for planning. Racing is the best high intensity training there is anyway. Last month, I did an ultra-marathon and a regular XC race, maybe I do another one this month (Big Bear is coming up), but probably I just do a few long fast rides, 100 mile time trial idea, a better preparation for TD than 2-3 hour XC races. So a few of those and otherwise I will enjoy some overnight trips at a gentler pace during the final month, which is more fun and good preparation to have all the gear in place even if it isn't training. I'm going out tomorrow again for an overnighter, this time by myself. The last one was over spring break with my son.

The setup of formal XC races is a bit awkward anyway with USA Cycling rules, the antithesis of grassroots racing like TD. Without an annual license and racing track record, you have to do shorter courses in the weekend warrior (cat 3) and sports category (cat 2). Idyllwild was an exception by offering "open" class that does the same course as the pro and cat 1 riders, just starts a few minutes after them. That was a reason for me to do that particular XC race. Worked out well, it allowed me to claw my way back into the tail end of the cat 1 field by the third climb. I ended up 3rd in my class, and would have been 2nd in my age group in cat 1 (but USA cycling rules mean that you can't sign up without a racing track record and an annual license for that category).

The reality test is against top finishers, which I wanted to see how much time to plan for TC. Against folks like Jeff Kerkove, Tinker Juarez (who is my age), Manuel Prado, I lose about 15-25% of time when I'm at my best, which seems to hold for durations between 3 and 8 hours. With no experience on TD, maybe I'm 1/3 slower than the leaders, which would come to about 6 days. So my plan for 24 days shouldn't be too unrealistic, although extrapolating from short races to this extreme distance is obviously problematic because the decisive issue is no longer moving speed alone as it is for one-day races, but daily riding time. The latter is not something I have trained for a lot, hard to see how one can train for it other than doing similar events. I have done a reasonable number of 8-12 hour rides (saddle time, so excluding any stops), but my best hope is that overall fitness translates into being able to put in long hours repeatedly as well.

[DenisVTT]

My training goal is to ride as many miles from Jan 1 to June 10 as there is in the race. Right now, I'm at about 1,750 so about 1,000 short with one month to go. 1,750 may not seem that much but most of my early miles have been on east coast rocky singletrack in snowy/cold/rainy conditions. Only lately have I started to add dirt roads and some limited pavement. I rode almost 800 miles in April (in about 65 hours wheels rolling) so I think my goal is still reachable. We'll see. That's all the hours I've got anyway.

My strength, if I have one, is a low heart rate. I can ride for hours at a fairly good clip and still average around 105 bpm or less. Downside is that I can't sprint but that shouldn't be a problem most days..  I still need to work on interval training though, and try to occasionally raise that heart rate above 140!

As for gear, it's all color coordinated so I know it will work! 

[6thElement]

Surprisingly similar to me there Denis on the mileages, HR and desire to look good while riding

[BobM]

Surprisingly similar to me there Denis on the mileages, HR and desire to look good while riding

The outfit is really important.  At some of those little small town bars if you come in wearing mismatched lycra they will just laugh at you.  Your best bet is red bib shorts and a red top, covered in logos, and open to the waist to expose your chest.  Combined with a nice pair of wraparound sunglasses, that will impress them!

[DenisVTT]

The outfit is really important.  At some of those little small town bars if you come in wearing mismatched lycra they will just laugh at you.  Your best bet is red bib shorts and a red top, covered in logos, and open to the waist to expose your chest.  Combined with a nice pair of wraparound sunglasses, that will impress them!

Excellent! Looking forward to impress the chicks hanging out at the gas stations' stores!

[6thElement]

With monsoon season in the North Eastern US underway this week, I feel I'm well trained in wet weather riding at the moment...

[THE LONG RANGER]

I'd hate to actually call it training, as that's what actual athletes do but my regime, my Jean-Claude van Damme-esque preparation of defeating the big boss man seems to have naturally progressed as so:

The start of the year was focused on general fitness at the gym, with some focus on speedwork/plyometrics/core exercises/and whatever you call those routines where you do a bunch of things and look silly flailing about and when stop, you want to die. Circuits?  Get that heart workin'

Lots of boring trainer activity, while watching, uh Jean-Claude van Damme movies. Some forays outside; when it's nice out, take the fast bike and go fast, when it is threating to snow/snowing/has just snowed, take a fixed gear bike with no brakes and the biggest tires I can fit on the frame and point to a direction, try to make to the destination. Lots of snow. Fit in a longish ride somewhere. Around this point I stopped drinking booze of almost any sort. I had it coming as I was becoming a embarrassing lightweight.

With the arrival of the mountain bike and the destruction of the fixed gear, I've slowly transitioned into (don't laugh) learning how to ride a mountain bike. The closest trails here are single track, steep and technical (hello, Front Range!) and my knowledge, limited and it's been very sobering and humiliating (in that, like good, educational way) to learn to ride in what's basically an entirely new "sport". Sometime along this, I vowed never to enter a XC MTB race.

Since I live 15 - 30 from these trails, that turns into my go-fast time and the time on the trails turns into my hill work and bike-handling time. Funny how that commute can pack on those miles.

I'm blessed to live in an area that has an amazing array of parks, so it's been a pleasure to extend my rides in an attempt to link up the various parts and traverse whole swaths of area, usually getting a bit lost in the process. These longer rides start working you mentally, since if a storm rolls in/you really ARE lost/you're running out of daylight/you have a mechanical - you need to address it.

Going to fit as many overnighters as I can, but obligations to others will limit that. And I'm broke I'd say I'll hit about 6,000 miles of riding once at the start of the TD. I'm certainly not fast, the bike is not light, and my interest in taking the yellow jersey is far down on my priority list -  I think after "crash nudist colony bachelor party", but I'll make a good go at it.

[DenisVTT]

Training goal reached!

I wanted to ride 2,750 miles (TD mileage) from Jan 1 to Jun 9 and I reached that today. Now to double that in the next 3 weeks or so!

Took me 250 hours wheels rolling, and it broke down that way, time wise:

40% rocky, rooty, hard core east coast singletrack, including many miles in snow.
40% mixed surfaces: combination of singletrack, dirt roads and some pavement.
13% road biking on the road bike
7% pavement ride on the mountain bike

Total climbing right around 200,000 ft.

I live near the Catoctin mountains so that's where many of those miles were done.

How that will translate for the race, I have no idea. Who knows what kind of training is required for something like this.

On the bright side, I will have a green bike (nicknamed Froggy). Not as fast as a black or red bike, but it does match my outfit, including my chammy. I'm pretty sure it will help with the speed.

On the downside, it looks like I caught Lyme disease in the last week. It's happened to me last year already and I was back on my feet after 2 days. This time was similar. Unless it turns out to be something else (tests are underway,) I'm not really worried about it. Besides, lyme is a type of green, right!

My objectives, in this order:

1. Not being eaten by a grizzly
2. Finishing
3. Finishing some time before Labor Day.
4. Before Bastille Day would be even better, and before US Independence Day would be great.

[RyanWriter]

I've got a long, long, long way to go! Right now I'm thinking maybe by 2013 I could be ready but I really have no idea at this point. I've improved my diet, dropped thirty pounds with another ten at least to go, and I'm slowly increasing my workouts but at this stage I wouldn't even say I'd merit being called a rookie! For the past few years I've been riding a recumbent trike, which is a lot of fun, but I need to save up and get at least a decent MTB to start riding. I'm thinking something like a Trek Marlin 29" might be a good place to start. I also want to do more running and other workouts too.

[Roland Sturm]

As SteveW wrote in the other thread, he is surprised how much is written in this forum about bike technology and how little about training, so why not revive this thread? I'm still interested in other experiences. I'm also surprised how quickly the training threads die and how few participate (seems like this one was Justin, Denis, and me). Anyway, all 3 of us did just fine on last years TD, so whatever we did at least worked for us.

[Rob Colliver]

My secret training method for 2011's TD was to build up hours on the turbo trainer through the winter months. When I could ride it for 6 hours, I was ready to go outside and hit the trails and faff about with equipment.

Its all about the legs.