Any plan is better than no plan
For some of you, preparing for a bikepacking event is new. 3,000 km is a long way, so the more prepared you are the more enjoyable your trip will be. As the saying goes: Any plan is better than no plan.
Most people do around 3,000 km of training in the months leading up to their ride. However, you can get away with much less (virtually none) if you have a strong cycling background, simply by starting slowly and building your fitness up during the ride.
All the same, you should be comfortable riding at least several hours a day by the beginning of your tour.
- Pre-test all your equipment on multi-day train rides. This will teach you a lot about what gear you need and don't need.
- Multi-day training rides will help you learn about the routines you'll need to ride day-after-day. Especially washing every night and packing up every morning (without loosing gear).
- Don't start with any brand new gear you're never ridden with.
- Don't start with any food/drink you've never tried before.
- You're training rides should focus on your weakness. Strong road riders may need to work on mountain biking skills. Mountain bikers may need to work on how to churn out the 'boring' kilometers days after day.
- Training is only one part of your preparation - learning how to adapt to changing trail/route/food/accommodation circumstances is also important.
- If a storm comes your way - sometimes the smartest thing is to stay put and not ride for a day.
A simple training plan
Adapted from an article by Jeff Lyall, 2016For some of you preparing for a bikepacking event is a bit new. 3000 kms is a long way, but the more prepared you are, the more fun it will be. There is a saying that goes "any plan is better than no plan".
Here's a very basic plan to get you started. It's a safe plan with lots of recovery for people with limited time.
For winter riding, when the weather is rubbish, you need to start small. I believe in lots of rest. The best recovery is actually not riding.
Phase 1 Starting week:
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Mon
Tue - 1 hour
Wed
Thu - 1 hour
Fri
Sat - 3 hours
Sun
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The pattern is - hard, easy, hard, easy, hard, easy. There is no improvement without recovery.
All of these rides can be on the flat, until your fitness improves. Then as your confidence increases you can head for the hills. As Arthur Lydiard used to say "Hills are the short-cut to speed". You wont need speed, but the strength will help heaps.
As the weeks go on you will notice that 1 hour is a doddle. As spring come on there is a lot more light available in the day. This is when you can get out of bed earlier. Getting out of bed earlier is a skill that you can apply to other areas of your life, too.
The 1 hour rides morph into 2 hour rides and the 3 hour ride becomes a 5 hour ride. Gradually...
Phase 2 (A month later).
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Mon
Tue - 2 hour
Wed
Thu - 2 hour
Fri
Sat - 5 hours
Sun
Riders over 40 need to ramp up the hours slowly, because as you age recovery is harder.
If you get tired, you will become grumpy. If you find your self getting grumpy - it's because you're over-doing it.
Before long you are doing 2+2+5=9 hours a week. 5 hours is a very good ride. 7 hours kinda feels like a days work, but if you go somewhere new to explore and you are not just riding around in circles then its all good. You might be able to sneak out for some longer adventures with friends.
A couple of times you might like to get up REALLY early and do a 3+2+5 = 10 hour week.
Back to back over-night rides are good, like you will do in the TA. It's important to test any new gear you have.
Tue - 2 hour
Wed
Thu - 2 hour
Fri
Sat - 5 hours
Sun
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If you get tired, you will become grumpy. If you find your self getting grumpy - it's because you're over-doing it.
Before long you are doing 2+2+5=9 hours a week. 5 hours is a very good ride. 7 hours kinda feels like a days work, but if you go somewhere new to explore and you are not just riding around in circles then its all good. You might be able to sneak out for some longer adventures with friends.
A couple of times you might like to get up REALLY early and do a 3+2+5 = 10 hour week.
Back to back over-night rides are good, like you will do in the TA. It's important to test any new gear you have.
You might end up doing as much as 3+2+5+5=15 hour week.
Phase 3 (3 months later).
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MonTue - 3 hour
Wed
Thu - 2 hour
Fri
Sat - 5 hours
Sun - 5 hours
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You do not need to do any racing to do a bikepacking event. It wont do you any harm, but if you do decide to do some racing, ride to the event, race, and ride home.
Group rides can also be good for motivation, especially before work where you might struggle with the early morning starts.
You don't need to ride a loaded bike all the time but its a good idea to do some loaded riding towards the end of your training so it's not a shock to your system.
You could do your long ride on a Friday night to test your lights and then you'll have a whole weekend to recover.
Don't stress about kilometres. Its time in the saddle you need to experience. Sort out your nutrition and how you will carry your liquids, spares, tools etc.
Even though you could well end up riding as much as 10 hours a day in the TA, its not as hard as you might think. You will have lots of breaks, and it feels more like you are riding two 5 hour days with total recovery in between. You will be surprised how easy it is without the day to day stresses of work.
Some maxims:
• If in doubt, leave it out.
• Don't do your easy rides too hard and your hard rides too easy.
• You can recover from being under-trained, but its a lot harder to
recover from being over-trained.
To summarise - Build up slowly. Hard/easy. Test your gear, most importantly your saddle.
One last thing. Your comfort on the bike is in my view more important than your fitness. Make sure your bars are not too low, or too stretched out. Also, make sure you have multiple hand positions on your bars. You need to be able to mix it up, or you WILL get hand numbness, and being fit wont help at all. Do some research on this. Bar ends, drop bars and aero bars can all help. It will be the best holiday you ever had!
Does that sound mad?
• Don't do your easy rides too hard and your hard rides too easy.
• You can recover from being under-trained, but its a lot harder to
recover from being over-trained.
To summarise - Build up slowly. Hard/easy. Test your gear, most importantly your saddle.
One last thing. Your comfort on the bike is in my view more important than your fitness. Make sure your bars are not too low, or too stretched out. Also, make sure you have multiple hand positions on your bars. You need to be able to mix it up, or you WILL get hand numbness, and being fit wont help at all. Do some research on this. Bar ends, drop bars and aero bars can all help. It will be the best holiday you ever had!
Does that sound mad?
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If you are young and reckless and have youth on you side, you don't need to do any of this. Just eat lots as you go.
Bikepacking.com has an article on training for the Tour Divide.
