Cycling Fitness / Training Advice

Yeah I’ve been off the turbo for awhile,
I’d say I have a above average cadence hence why I ride with a 32.
I guess some of it is flexibility in the hip?
Here’s my hills session this evening

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Yes

my form is messed up and my power drops.

This is what high cadence drills are designed to address.

That would be a low average cadence for a crit.

My average cadence for a 25mi TT is around 100rpm and for proper events, like 24hrs, it's still ~90rpm.

This is what I need to do really,
My legs are happy to stamp out power, but not very regularly!

Ive scanned through this thread and cant find anything specific but I may have missed something if so, sorry for asking again.

Travel restrictions allowing i'm planning on riding the Tour Divide in 2022 , For this year i'm just focusing on volume volume volume , however next year I want to be more focused and structured , i've looked at Kurt Refsneiders site and the training programs he sells but Id be keen to hear others opinions on how they would or have prepared for something like this over a similar time scale.

I know not everyone does a long ride in their week. But if you do, that’s the one to try and spin through I think.

Bonus lfgss rep if you do it fixed on a light gear (it does help).

Lots of questions! Do you mean riding or racing? What's your idea of volume? Do you have a full time job and is it predictable hours?

It’s a low average cadence for anything bar Hardnott Pass.

Going to get some workouts in on Wattbike hub and have a look out for pedalling efficiency and cadence.

Racing is my current plan , volume wise im averaging 400km per week including road and off road. I do have a full time job and the hours are fairly predictable , I appreciate prep for these kind of races is a big topic and is specific to the person but im interested to know what kind of approach people have taken in the past partially to validate my own plans but hopefully learn some new ideas too.

I recommend trying to finalise your kit asap so you can familiarise yourself with it.
Also if bivying etc force yourself to to do it in bad weather not just when it’s nice :-)
Sounds like you are riding a lot. I’d also think about cross training and how that might factor in with any previous injuries to prevent reoccurrence.

Generally I think variety of training is best for such events, as much to keep your interest in training.

Definitely a smart move. It's going to be very hard to recreate bivvying in the rockies anywhere over here but testing your kit in the biggest range of conditions and then factoring in TD weather differences now rather than later will have you in better stead than just rocking up with whatever kit the winner used. (It's very personal. ie. I get double whammy of being a fat fuck but sleeping very cold)

This is a great point thanks , I've done a fair amount of bike packing so i'm fairly confident about the kit that i will take , certainly im gonna make sure everything is as refined as possible and that im used to using it all. Cross training wise iam planning on some work outs that involve carry my bike up rough terrain and continuing the kettlebell training that I already do. Any other suggestions ?

Last years winner swears by calf raises :-)

Right now I live in Japan so i can recreate some fairly alpine conditions and build up my weather resistance. I definitely need to sleep out more though , I have bike camped and wild camped loads in the past but ive been a bit soft in the last couple years since moving to Japan.

Oh cool, where in Japan?
You can probably get the whole range of weather over there if not the altitude.

I live in Tokyo so fairly good access to 800- 1000m hills nearby and reasonably easy access to bigger mountains in Nagano / Niigata.

I'm not sure you're riding enough to include much ultra specific stuff. But the cyclist's training bible is a good place to start.

Be efficient - crappy just spend more money advice coming up - buy a power meter, reasoning being is, if you are going to spend 20/30 hours on the bike a week you might as well make the most of the training.

Weekly periodisation (easy>medium>hard>recovery) and daily periodisation (recovery>hard>easy>hard>easy>hard>easy)

Consistency is key, every day grind. Avoid the 300km Saturday ride and a couple of short rides in the week. It achieves very little

I can manage one hard longer interval session a week, later in the year there would be between 40min and 60min of work at around FTP something like 5x12min with 3min rest or 2x20min with 5 min rest. The rest would be long steady cycling at 75% FTP. Sometimes I can manage 2 of those sessions in a week but I'd be running on fumes and everything else suffers. I also know that for me it is not just the case of make the easier sessions easier to let myself do more harder sessions. I'm yet to be convinced of the value of VO2 work for ultra racing, plus it ruins me and everything else suffers.

Awesome. Japan was the first place I went outside of Oz. Since I was a little kid and we had a Japanese exchange teacher it's always been a fascinating place to me :)

Yeah, head north and see if you still like bivvying :)

Sounds like you're already doing general strength work which can only be beneficial.

How's your bike maintenance skills?

bike maintenance skills are reasonable bar a couple of things that I need to learn like hydraulics and re building wheels , im fairly mechanically minded so I hope this wont be too much of an issue.

Cheers this is useful,

Currently I tend towards daily periodization - rest - hard - easy - hard - rest - long and steady - easy. The hard sessions are normally early morning 80-100km hill smash ups with the road club and the long and steady is typically 2-300 km on the weekend.

Im thinking about a power meter but theres a strong chance my fiance will notice and murder me.

Equally if you do a couple of these races you would maybe save yourself a few days of racing by being a bit fitter. On one of these races I think I eat about £40/50 a day and maybe a hotel on top of that so it might pay for itself pretty quickly!

800-1000m is not a hill...

I’ve just entered next year’s Alpenbrevet Platinum route - 264km, 7170m

Anyone on here done it before? @Brommers?

Looking forward to getting in proper shape for a long day in the mountains.

Yep, did it a few years ago back when it was based in Meiringen not Andermatt. Without doubt the hardest single day I've ever had on a bike. Have fun!