My Three Most Important Aspects in Training for a 1200km Brevet

John Lee Ellis - 24-Dec-2011

  1. Volume - A friend suggests that the three most important training aspects should be, (1) ride, (2) ride, and (3) ride (as per Fausto Coppi's advice, I believe). Well, riding lots counts at least as one of the top three. Sounds dreadfully simple, but it works. Putting kilometers into the legs and time on the bike has a host of benefits and cures a host of ills:

    • cardiovascular fitness
    • strengthened tendons, ligaments, musculature - reducing risk of injury
    • toughening contact points (derriere, hands, feet)
    • mental acclimatization

    How much riding? I've heard 5,000 miles (8,000km) over the half year leading up to a 1200k. A fair proportion should be in endurance rides (200km or greater) but the important thing is just to do quite a lot of riding.

  2. Strength/Intensity/Speed - I lump these together - though the training for each differs, and the training may actually conflict. But I combine them because any combination will offer similar benefits on the 1200k.

    Speed training may mean riding with a fast group, doing sprint repeats, or club time trials. Strength/intensity can be gained with fast group riding, or something as simple as climbing. My training includes lots of climbing both on short rides and endurance rides - long canyon climbs in the Rocky Mountains, shorter ones in the foothills. This forces me to ride with intensity just to keep the pedals moving, and is strength training, too. I do this mountain training even for the Colorado Last Chance 1200, which is a lightly rolling ride on the plains. Benefits:

    • If you're faster (whether climbing or on the flats), you can bank the time gained as sleep (making you more effective while riding), or perhaps cut out a sleep break altogether (less time for total fatigue to wear you down).
    • If you're stronger, hills will take less out of you, adverse conditions such as wind will drain you less, and you will be able to ride within your comfort zone more of the time, which is a survival factor on a 1200k.

  3. Adversity/Challenge - The fact is, on most 1200k's things will go wrong: there may be mechanical or physical problems; you will experience low points; and conditions will be difficult (hopefully not all at the same time!). You don't want to engineer catastrophe on your training rides. But you should take every difficult situation that comes along - a hail storm, cold weather, hot weather, winds, a sore neck, indigestion - as valuable practice in working through the difficulty ... and mentally acclimating and toughening, so that meeting the challenge becomes an automatic reaction.

    If you follow #1, you will probably encounter challenging situations, just because you're out riding so much. If that's not enough, you may also wish to add challenging rides - whether they are long ones or not - that take you out of your comfort zone.

    And "adversity/challenge" training need not be on your road bike. Mountain biking, mountaineering, sailing, skiing (nordic or randonnee), or other such activities can be ideal for taking you out of your comfort zone and giving you the opportunity to grow stronger thanks to working through a trying situation: ingenuity, perseverence, and sang froid are the keywords.

Runners-Up ... as important 1200k training aspects:

  • Nutrition on rides - It's not only finding what nutrition works for you, but practicing the discipline of maintaining a nutrition level to get you to the finish line. If you are "finishing on fumes" at the end of a 400k or 600k, maybe that's not good practice for an event longer than that. When I was doing a lot of double centuries, I got to the point where I'd think, "Only 100km to go - I can just coast (nutritionally) from here." That may have been true in fact, but it's not the best training.
  • Efficiency at controls - Like nutrition, this is a matter of planning, experience, and most of all, practice. There's lots of socializing you can do on the bike rather than standing around chatting as the clock ticks away. There are lots of moments you can waste because you didn't plan as you approached a control what half-dozen things you needed to accomplish, and in what order.
  • Riding with people - Many endurance cyclists are loners ... some by personality, and some because of their event format, whether it's solo touring, triathlon, or ultracycling races (which generally prohibit drafting or pacing). Get used to riding efficiently with a group ... and in reading which riders or group of riders are dependable vs. those that might be risky riding companions. And learn the skills of how to be a dependable peloton rider yourself.
  • Riding alone - Alternatively, you may be great at riding efficiently with others. But on a longer event, you may well find yourself riding alone for significant periods of time. Maybe your sleep breaks didn't correspond with your pals'. Maybe you had some equipment or digestive malfunction and you waved your friends on down the road. Maybe your goals were more/less agressive than your companions'. In any case, train and practice fighting the winds alone for hours and hours, not just a mile or two at a time at the head of a paceline; thinking to yourself rather than chatting with riders beside you; and confronting tough moments all by yourself. That's a part of randonneuring.
  • Night riding - perfecting equipment and skills - Some folks like climbing; some don't. Some folks are enamored of night riding; others could do without it. But on a 1200k, chances are you will have some ... or maybe a lot, depending on your goals and on the event format. It's easy to put off perfecting your lighting equipment and getting acclimating to hours in the dark, but the 1200k is not the ideal time to perfect these aspects.
  • Sleep quota - learning what your minimum quantum of sleep is to function well on multi-day events - Some riders can ride a 600k through (or halfway through a 1200k) with no ill effects. For others, more than x hours (24? 36?) without sleep makes them risky on the road, bad navigators, and slows their pace, and induces a sleep deficit from which they cannot recover effectively for the remainder of the event. Found out where you stand.
- jle