3 Key Areas To Train For Ultra – Full Training Plan For Endurance Cycling, Races, For Beginners Up

Hello and welcome back to the channel! In this video I am discussing training for ultra racing. It takes time so let’s get cracking as time is running shorter than we think!

This ride – https://www.strava.com/activities/10695893589

https://www.instagram.com/andyc_ultracycling?igsh=dTg4eWFzODZybWQ0&utm_source=qr

0:00 Intro
4:54 Race Season’s Coming Fast!
7:29 Basic Weekly Structure
9:17 Calculate The Timeline
10:08 Consistency
11:12 Volume Increase
12:11 Diet
15:16 Summary
17:26 SO MUCH WIND!

So as I’m about to go through this process myself I’ll explain how I structure my whole year in terms of training big rides big miles youve got an event coming up and you want to be competitive or just do yourself proud this will give you a bit of an idea of

The sorts things that’ll make a real Difference Hey heyy hey heyy [Applause] Heyy good morning welcome to another Ultra cycling related video if you watched any previous ones thanks a lot for coming back if this is your first visit my name is Andy and I’m an ultra cyclist on the south coast of England videos I make are about Ultra cycling training and

Adventures at the moment I’m in the thick of my training for the transcontinental race in July a race from the rubay Vel Drome into Asia so if you have endurance goals of your own subscribe follow along I’m sure there’ll be something in there for you if not maybe you teach me something

As of right now being the beginning of February still very much in the base building phase of my training to be honest itching to do some big miles but today got 100 miles out to break him back feels like I rode this in the last couple of weeks but actually remember it

Being the 11th of November so time flies that’s kind of what I’m going to talk about in this video actually Race season is closer than we think it is I don’t know if you heard the term feeding the rat but mine’s been aning at me for a while

Now and it’s coming pretty soon not sure what yet but more than 100 miles that’s for sure it’s looking pretty decent now today really by British standards roughly 10° little bit drizzly what we call it mizzle kind of halfway between mist and I really light drizzle it’s really good

At soaking you right through but it’s easy enough now actually so got my fingers cross it’s warm enough now for no jacket this is uay so a good time to test this one I was given for Christmas from map as it’s pretty handy second zipper so if you ate tons of minced pies

At Christmas it will fit around your belly I think that’s what it’s for Anyway I got this Jay for riding through the night and something I’m going to be doing a lot of in the races I’m at this year obviously you need to carry everything you need to survive but really as little as possible it’s something like this keep me really warm it’s fleece lined

Windproof the two Zips adjustable heat dissipation for one garment should save me carrying several others I think map is not the cheapest brand sure there are lots of others that are pretty similar but a setup like this for riding through the night and chillier conditions definitely recommend

It as I alluded to earlier I had a bit of a realization this week we Thursday sat on the trainer just finished my workout and I thought I wonder how many weeks it is till my first race it’s 16 weeks so although it’s February now we’re just out of the woods really terms

Of Christmas and winter Christmas isn’t that much of a distant memory so that month for me went really quickly that 16 weeks leading up to my first race 1,000k race roughly it’s going to go really quickly my training Works in four we blocks so I got four training blocks that’s

It so that got me thinking I need to start planning ahead the lead up into that event I’ll start planning now to ramp up my training in my volume to give me time to taper off and try to be as fresh as possible for the event so in this video

I’ll talk a bit about how I plan that me personally and just what works for Me Hey This is a question that’s come up in the comments a few times actually so as I’m about to go through this process myself I’ll explain how I structure my whole year in terms of training big rides big miles building up to races tapering into them the events we ride in Ultra are

Pretty big so the training plan has to be pretty big too way I structure my training as a rule of thumb ongoing is in four we blocks so ride hard for 3 weeks then have one week of easier to allow for Recovery what constitutes as hard can

Change through the year at the moment all through winter I’ve been focusing on intervals building my FTP I’m coming towards the end of that now now and had some really good games I’ll still follow the same structure it to just shift more towards volume and distance the way that will pan out for

Me in terms of a basic structure basically be a long ride at the weekend from Zone 2 on a Tuesday probably and then an interval session on a Thursday the interval session will be just to maintain my threshold power zone two really to recover from the long ride at the

Weekend long ride of the weekend for fun that’s putting it in really basic terms to be honest that long ride the weekend will vary and we’ll get longer as the summer goes on could be a a 24-hour effort it could be 2 days with a bivy somewhere

Some kind of fun but those core sessions in the week will stay the same an hour or so of zone two Tuesday and probably two 15 minute threshold efforts on a Thursday then first thing really is to calculate and work backwards from the date of my first race which is All Points North

1,000k in the north of England I want the week leading into that race to line up as my rest week so there’ll be small amount of jiggery pokery now to make sure that happens then as soon as I’ve done that I’m La of focus on that event

So I’m not exactly sure what the next few weeks looks like just yet but most likely similar structures to the winter these maximum 100 miles on a Sunday training during the week and try to get my threshold off as much as I can last few bits last few Watts for that

Last three training blocks leading into the race I’ll be set at a certain FTP and that I’ll have to try to maintain all the way through which gets difficult I did the same thing last year did a ramp test around March or so before I start ramping up my

Volume what you find as soon as you ramp up your volume by a lot your threshold starts to suffer it’s really hard to have a high threshold and perform at Ultra levels but it’s doable so once I’ve fixed that FTP those threshold sessions on a Thursday will be

Check-ins to make sure I’m not losing any power the two most important things I’ll be aiming for are consistency and volume and that all covers off the first one consistency in terms of volume that will be slowly increasing weak on week as the summer unfolds the days get

Longer naturally ride further anyway but I’ll add in extra rides through the week small Zone 2 just an hour here a couple hours there ramping Up the Volume as much as possible really and as soon as I find I can’t hit that threshold session on a

Thursday I know I’m pushing a bit too much and knock it off a tad as long as I’m resting well in that fourth week and fueling well throughout recovery shouldn’t be such an issue as long as I don’t go too crazy Next thing I need to address is my diet this can be a tricky one it really doesn’t have to be I try to get my weight down as much as possible because power to weight makes a huge difference so now in February it’s too early to think about counting calories

But that’s going to come during February I’m just going to focus on trying to make slightly healthier choices try to get into the mindset of being a little bit better cuz have game weight over Christmas this G and my jerseys are a little bit tight but it’ll come off so

That’ll give me 4 weeks to mentally prepare for the fact that I can’t just eat handfuls of biscuits because I’m bored in four weeks time I have to be a lot more careful so I’ll expect to lose some weight in that 4 weeks but then it gives me 3 months of

Slowly calorie counting to lose weight really gradually and to hit roughly a Target weight like I said it doesn’t need to be that tricky if you’re calorie counting slowly slowly this road is terrible if your calorie counting really slowly losing a small amount of weight each week it will come

Off and it’s so much more comfortable that way if you get to 4 to 6 weeks from your event and you panic at that point it’s really too late it’s going to harm your performance trying to lose weight quickly but if weight isn’t a concern for you

Then forget this part completely it does mean some sacrifice if it was easy everybody walking around with sixpacks and lean but they ain’t when we get into the summer my 40th birthday in July got a few friends who are 40 around the same time it’s always barbecues parties in the

Summer I’m not drinking because there’s a few weeks out going careful on the barbecues get a bit of sticking some cases most people understand that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make I feel so much better when I lose a bit of weight and get fairly lean just

Feel rapid on the bike I don’t know if it’s the weight or the condition of my body what it is it’s a slog to begin with but it’s so worth it I reckon a fair few people watching this have probably been through this process before but if you haven’t you got an

Event coming up and you want to be competitive or just do yourself proud this will give you a bit of an idea of the sorts of things that’ll make a real difference and you can start to see the challenge involved there too February adjusting but as soon as March hits

Trying to maintain that FTP increase my volume fuel well for the workouts but reduce my calories to lose weight gradually recover well do all of that and line up perfectly for one week before my first race it’s not going to go perfectly it can’t it never

Does but the closest I can get to that the better I’ll perform I had quite a few questions from people in the comments how do I structure my training through the year soz there you go you asked for it really boring for a lot of people but hopefully for a few people that’s somewhat Useful A There we are just rolled into Brighton 50 Mi of no Hills Tailwind all the way living my best life so turn around now into the headwind all the way back so I don’t think you better hear me make it a super fast Montage back to Portsmouth see you there yes I’m back in Portsmouth and that’s 50 Mi of headwind Del with wouldn’t recommend it a nearly home hopefully some of you found that useful but anyway going hope for H off have a good week I’ll see you on the next One