[Scott forty G.]

Hello everyone,

I am currently training for Vision Quest 2011. My problem is that i literally only have 1 day to train every week. I usually ride on Saturdays and put in a 50+ miles or about 8000 ft. of climbing. It will progress to a higher milage/ascent in the next couple of weeks as i get closer to race day. I know that the results i get depends entirely on what i put into my training. But my sole goal for this race is to "finish" meaning making all the cut off times and successfully finish.

My question is, Is this enough? Are my training rides too much too soon?

Thanks in advance for all the inputs
Cheers
B

 

[Lenny7]

Why do you only have one day a week to train?
I would suggest getting a good bike light so you can ride late...if riding early is a problem.
Also, get a bike trainer. Do some late night indoor interval training.

 

[bbense]

I could see this maybe sort of working if you already had years of training to build a good base, but a lot of training is training to train so to speak. In other words, you have to do the long rides to race a long race, but you have to train enough to be able to recover from the long rides.

If you just jump in the deep end with 50 mile rides once a week, you'll either flame out or you'll be able to recover and keep it up. It's a high risk strategy.

Personally, I think quality and specificity of training matter more than total hours, but you have to train to build up to do the training that really benefits you. If you want to finish a long race, long rides that you can recover from are the best training.

- Booker C. Bense

 

[Scott forty G.]

Thanks for the reply Booker.

I don't have a long base of training from the past. I do enjoy doing long rides.

The last six weeks my training ride alternates between to types of rides and both are 50+ mile rides.

For example today i did 10k of ascent in 50 miles on all gravel dirt road then next week it'll be up in the San Diego east mountains between 4-6k elevation on mostly singletrack and but slightly lower ascents (between 7K-8K of climbing). I find riding ST far harder/difficult than riding 50miles of Gravel and higher ascent.

As far as recovery, i seem to be able to recover from them but the lack of experience in training and preparations i can't honestly say if i ever do really recover from them.

You brought up "specificity" and i wonder if riding ST will benefit me on my training rides. I know that the gravel riding will because Vision Quest is mostly Gravel.

So much to think about....

I could see this maybe sort of working if you already had years of training to build a good base, but a lot of training is training to train so to speak. In other words, you have to do the long rides to race a long race, but you have to train enough to be able to recover from the long rides.

If you just jump in the deep end with 50 mile rides once a week, you'll either flame out or you'll be able to recover and keep it up. It's a high risk strategy.

Personally, I think quality and specificity of training matter more than total hours, but you have to train to build up to do the training that really benefits you. If you want to finish a long race, long rides that you can recover from are the best training.

- Booker C. Bense

 

[SoCalXCRider]

Practicing climbing single track won't help too much with VQ. In my opinion, the distance/altitude for that race is not the real problem. Having to do it at a fairly quick pace is the real issue, at least for me. There are two medium to advanced single track drops inside the time limited part of the course, but virtually all the climbing is doubletrack or fire road (except for the final untimed HAB up West Horsethief). Some of that fire road is really only usable by a jeep, and pretty steep. "Gravel" doesn't really do it justice. You might know all that already, but if not I'd suggest you try one Saturday to get up to Blackstar Canyon and do the ride from there over to Silverado Trail (aka Motorway) to get a flavor of what you're up against. Check out the geoladders.com website for more information on the route segments.

 

[ptfmb71]

as SoCalXC rider said.....you need to ride some of the course. What is your average pace or MPH.....just compare that to the cutoff times.
Ride the blackstar loop and if you can get from the blackstar gate to the top of the motorway singltrack in a couple hrs....you should be fine.
some of the climbs on blackstar are pretty steep and that takes a lot out of you.
Vision quest is a tough race...it packs a lot of climbing 11K+ into 56 miles