10 Tips to Prepare for Your First Ultra Ride

After I'd ridden a few centuries I was intrigued by the challenge of a 200K...and then a double century...and then the 1,200K (750-mile) Paris-Brest-Paris...and then qualifying for the RAAM...and then finishing RAAM.

I will share with you my accumulated wisdom in a three-part article:

1. Preparing for Your First Ultra
2. Nutrition During Training and Your First Ultra
3. Riding Your First Ultra

Event Selection

When deciding on your first ultra event, pick a ride that is challenging, and also exciting—that will keep you motivated as you train. When you pick your event, considering the following:

? Do you have a yen to travel, to have an adventure, ride different roads and see new scenery? If so, you'll have to deal with the logistics of getting to the ride. Or are you more comfortable doing a ride close to home, which is logistically simpler and may allow you actually to train on parts of the course?

? What is the longest ride you've done before in terms of time? You can certainly train up to ride 25-30 percent longer and even 50 percent longer if you have enough time to train; however, twice as long is probably too big a jump for your new longest ride.

? How much time to you have to prepare? During training you want to build up to a long ride 2/3 to 3/4 the duration of your ultra ride two weeks before the big event and then taper to the ultra ride. You can increase the duration of your weekly long ride by about 10 percent per week without risking overtraining.

? What is the event like and can you train in similar terrain and conditions? As you peak for your event in the final weeks, you want to train as much as possible on a similar course—if you live in a relatively flat area, then an event featuring sustained climbs probably isn't right for you.

Vary the Intensity

In a recent study experienced cyclists spent 80 percent of their time riding at a conversational endurance pace and 20 percent of their time riding hard. After a detraining break the same riders rode about half the time at an endurance pace and the other half of the time they rode a little harder, but didn't do any intensity training. They showed significantly greater improvement following the first protocol.

More: The Science Behind Mixed Training Intensities

Train for Endurance

You are preparing for an endurance ride and you want to train your physiological and metabolic systems to ride at that pace. By riding at the classic easy conversational pace you:

• train your body to use more fat for energy, sparing precious glycogen
• strengthen your heart to pump more blood per heart beat
• increase the number of capillaries in your muscles where the energy is produced for your muscles
• improve your pedaling economy
• improve your ability to dissipate heat

If you are trained by perceived exertion, you should be able to talk in complete sentences the whole time, although you probably won't be able to whistle climbing a hill.

If you are training by heart rate you should ride at 76 to 94 percent of your lactate threshold (LT), staying in the lower part of the range unless you are climbing.

If you are training by power you should ride at 56 to 90 percent of functional threshold power (FTP), keeping your power in the lower part of the range except on hills. You don't get these training benefits if you ride somewhat harder—endurance training should feel like it is almost too easy!

More: 12 Training Tips for an Ultra-Distance Ride

Don't Neglect Power

Although most of your training should be for endurance, you also need to build your power. Once a week do a mixed-intensity ride. Warm up thoroughly; do your main set alternating hard and easy riding and then cool down. How hard?

• Your legs should definitely be complaining and you shouldn't be able to talk.
• You should be at 95-100 percent of LT if training with a heart rate monitor.
• You should ride at 91-100 percent of FTP if training with a power meter.

If you have both a heart rate monitor and a power meter, train by power for both your endurance rides and your intensity workouts. Power is more accurate; heart rate can be affected by riding temperature, hydration status, excitement and other factors.

Start with a few short efforts of five minutes or so with about the same amount of recovery and build to longer efforts with about half the recovery time. You can do structured intervals, hill repeats or just sprint with friends to different points on the ride. After a month or so you can start doing two intensity workouts a week.

Recover Fully

Your muscles only get stronger when at rest, not when training! In addition to training hard, rest hard:

• While training include no more than three hard days a week. A hard day is either a long endurance ride or an intensity ride.
• Each week go for a couple active recovery rides (or hikes with the family or after dinner walks with your significant other) and take one day completely off the bike.
• Be sure to drink enough non-alcoholic beverages after a ride. Weigh yourself before and after a ride and for every pound you've lost drink a pint of fluid.
• Eat high-quality carbohydrate to replace the muscle glycogen that you've burned and eat a salty snack if you have sweated a lot.
• At each of your meals cover your plate with carbohydrates of different colors—vegetables, fruit, brown rice, whole grain bread or cereal, potatoes or whole grain pasta—and think of protein as a condiment.
• Every four weeks or so cut back your training volume by about 25 percent for an easier week and enjoy extra time with your family.
• Taper for two weeks before the big event. You can't get any fitter at this point, but you can be fresh for the ride. During the two weeks continue your intensity rides, but only about half as long. The weekend before the event, your long ride should only be about half the duration of your longest training ride.

More: 7 Recovery Strategies Used by Pro Cyclists

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Train Specifically

For four weeks before you taper, peak for the event by training as specifically as possible:

• Start your weekend long rides at the same time as your ultra event.
• Carry all of the clothing and equipment you'll need on your ultra ride so that you get used to how your bike handles.
• If possible, train on similar terrain. If you preparing for a hilly ride but live in flat country, use the wind as your friend. Ride into it to simulate climbing and then turn around and enjoy the tailwind like you are descending.
• If possible, train in similar conditions. If the ride may be rainy, choose to go outside for a rainy ride. If may be windy, get used to it by riding in the wind.
• Practice pacing yourself. Even though you feel fresh early in the ride, back off a little so that you are still riding well late in the ride.
• Practice good time management. Stopping for bathroom breaks and supplies is important (you've got to eat and drink!) but don't waste time. As one RAAM winner told me "If you're not on the bike, you're not going anywhere!"

More: 4 Ways to Speed Up Your Century Ride

Set Up Your Bike for Comfort and Reliability

As your time on the bike increases, bike weight and aerodynamics become somewhat less important and comfort becomes more important:

• If you have a very lightweight, narrow saddle, but it isn't comfortable you'll find excuses to prolong the stops.
• If you are riding narrow tires pumped very hard your hands and butt will feel more road shock.
• If you have a tight, racing cluster to save weight your knees may be talking to you on climbs later in your event.
• If you have minimal spoke count wheels and break a spoke during the ride you'll be in trouble because this can't be fixed in the field.
• During your taper inspect your bike fully and put on new tires, rim tape and tubes.

Get a Bike Fit

If your bike is set up for speed you may want to get a new bike fit. Tell the fit technician the kind of riding that you'll be doing and ask that the bike be set up for that. For example, you may want your handlebars higher and/or closer to the saddle so that you aren't as stretched out on the bike. This will keep you back, shoulders and neck from getting tired and stiff.

Specialized dealers in many countries offer bike fits by technicians trained by Andy Pruitt at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine (BCSM). Ret?l, founded by experts from the BCSM, has fit technicians around the world. Both the BCSM and Ret?l work with many racers in the pro peloton.

More: 10 Bike Fit Myths Debunked

Choose the Right Clothing

What works for a 6 to 7 hour century probably isn't enough for an all-day ride. It may be chilly when you start. Keep your knees covered until it's 60 degrees, since the knees have very poor circulation and are prone to injury otherwise. Knee warmers, arm warmers and a windbreaker are often all you'll need. You could also stuff a couple of layers of newspaper under your jersey as added insulation and then throw them away.

I often start with thin polypro glove liners under my cycling gloves and a thin polypro balaclava under my helmet. If it might rain, take a raincoat--riding for a few hours in light gear in the rain is tolerable, but riding all day is no fun without a good raincoat. I also carry a shower cap from a motel--a good emergency head cover in the rain!

Test Everything!

Use your training rides as experiments. Pay attention to all of your equipment and clothing. If something doesn't meet the performance requirements for the ride (for example, wrong gearing) or is the least bit uncomfortable, experiment until you find the solution. What is a minor problem for a few hours could become a major pain on an all-day ride.

I once asked Lon Haldeman, who has set seven transcontinental records, what is an ultra ride. He told me that when he was 10 years old he rode his coaster brake bike five miles to the water tower in the next town and thought he was a long-distance cyclist. The next month he rode 10 miles to the next water tower. Have fun meeting the challenge of your next water tower!

More: 8 Ultra-Distance Cycling Events to Consider