Training (with power) for an Ultra Event

daveryanwyoming

You should be able to do quite well on 8-12 hours per week if you use them well. I know a CTL of 80 doesn't sound high enough but it still represents a fair amount of accumulated training. FWIW, my CTL took a big hit last August when I started a new job and was down to 79.6 the day before LOTOJA (and bounced up more than 10 points with that one ride).

Stay focused on core aerobic work with a heavy diet of SST/L4 and try to get at least one long Tempo ride in each week. Avoid padding your week with junk miles, if you get on the bike try to ride Tempo or maybe high L2 or better. Sure, if you can, try to get in a few longer rides between now and September but ride them with focus and don't beat yourself up if you can't get a regular diet of 5 hour rides.

That and figure out how to feed yourself for a fast 10 hour event. Remember you can't replace all the calories or water you'll burn in real time (I know several local riders that have tried in LOTOJA only to suffer really bad GI distress late in the day). The Hammer Nutrition website has some good info for really long events.

I got in again and will be riding that same race. My mileage isn't much higher than last season but I have been doing one day a week of long Tempo where I go out for basically as long as I can with the condition that it doesn't degrade into slow touring. I started these at around 50 miles a few months ago and my longest long solo Tempo day was 108 miles a couple of Sundays ago. It's still not the foundation of my training but these long steady Tempo rides do build some CTL and leave me feeling pretty good.

Frankly if I'm going to do better than last year I doubt it'll be based on pure endurance. Power to stay with the leaders or a good chase group on the major climbs is key. The crux sections are Strawberry pass just over an hour into the ride, Geneva pass a couple of hours later and Salt River pass which is still in the first two thirds of the ride. Make it over those with a good group and you'll do fine.

Look me up on race day(Orange Fitzgerald's team kit, blue Orbea)

Good luck,
-Dave