`Epic' v. `Intelligent' Training

I'm concluding these days that I'm just a slow learner.  

We moved from the densely populated flatland of Chicago Illinois to the sparsely populated mountains of Prescott Arizona six years ago.  

My Illinois training was very inconsistent, resulting in middling to poor performance on occasional organized rides and events (Tour of the Mississippi River Valley [TOMRV], Balltown Classic, a few club century rides, and more distant events like the Ride Across Indiana [RAIN], the Assault on Mt. Mitchell, etc).  

Putting in long hours and miles of training in Chicago meant driving for sixty miles to get out of the city.  And one can do only so much useful training in the basement.  Even after I made the switch from upright bikes to recumbent bikes I limited my rides to less than 200 miles.  

When we moved to Arizona the terrain was `exciting' and more challenging.  And, because I reduced my working days from 5 or 6 days a week to 2 days a week I had more time to ride and train.  I immediately became infected with the `how high can you climb' bug.  My training goals changed from `miles' ridden to `feet' climbed.  

My Arizona training consisted of `epic' rides.  Thirty miles and 2,500 feet of climbing.  One hundred miles and 8,800 feet of climbing. While it is important to gain skill and capacity for climbing on the bike there is a potential down side (pun!).  

Climbing big hills and mountains restricts your riding to `grind up' the hills and `coast down' the hills. Neither of these episodes in your training does much for building stamina.  `Grinding' requires a steady, sub-threshold pacing.  And `coasting' is nothing more than ... nothing.  Too inconsistent for balanced training.  One does not develop overall cycling capacity with `epic' training rides.  

The RACE AROUND IRELAND piqued my interest when I investigated the course route, i.e., terrain, weather, distance, etc.  A cycling acquaintance (Valerio Zamboni), with significant ultracycling credentials, entered the RAI six times and finished five times.  Corresponding with Valerio he encouraged me to consider RAI.  

Mounting the challenge of entering and finishing RAI involves significant investment of time and money.  Completing 1,336 miles of cycling with 66,000 feet climbing within a five and a half day time limit is daunting.  I traveled to Ireland to drive the RAI course recently and was pleased to find that it didn't include the bruising long or steep climbing of Arizona.  The roads are good.  The weather is wet and windy but doesn't involve dangerous 120F desert heat.  

In other words, a balanced training regimen would go a long way toward successful accomplishment of this challenging athletic event.  

Mindful that I had come up short on several past cycling challenges, and with the helpful advice of several cycling friends (Allan Duhm, Dennis Johnson, Paul Carpenter, Keith Kohan, and more) I am training like never before.  

First, no `epic' climbing regimen.  It is unbalanced and does little in the way of building stamina. Second, I have developed a three-part `formula' for my RAI training: consistency, volume and intensity.  Third, the training course is weighted toward `miles' rather than `feet climbed.'  The hours I put into any one training session include continuous pedaling effort, instead of the `grind' and `coast' circuit.  

Consistency requires me to train 4 and 5 days each week.  Volume comes next, i.e., carefully introducing the amount of time and number of miles I train during each training session.  Finally, carefully introducing very measured intensity to my training.  Too much volume and/or too much intensity can result in `overtraining,' that is, tearing down instead of building up fitness, stamina and capacity.