try to get at least 5 hours a week on the bike....intervals and long easy rides..

you could go as high as10 hours a week...

remeber to back off before the races...

 

Not to be an ass but you realize the VT50 has over 8,000 feet of climbing? There are two things that you need to do, at least. One is to get at least one 2-4 hour ride in every week and I would suggest a 4+ hour ride every other week. The second thing you need to do is find some big and/or long hills and do interval training on them over and over and over again. If you don't keep a certain pace through the wholel race they will "sweep" you from the race, so at every aid station if you miss the time cut you are done. I just trained for the Black Fly Challenge which is 40 miles but only about 2500 feet of climbing and over 10 miles on paved road. This is why I say I'm not trying to be an ass but 2 days a week on the bike is nowhere close to enough, IMO.

 

Not to be too blunt but, you need to:
1) Assess your goals.
- if your goal is to just finish, you might.
- if your goal is to finish and feel well enough to drive home you'll need to change some stuff
2) Assess your situation
- you live in a flat part of NE
- you don't ride very much

That said, you just really need to ride more. Road, I think, is a lot better for strengthening and training, but in the eastern part of MA would drive me nuts. Most road rides don't involve stopping, getting lost, 'safety meetings' and a whole other litany of reasons to get off the bike and stare at the sky. You could just hop in with a local road club twice a week (during the weekdays) and go on long mtb (like 25mi+ fun rides)on the weekend. That would be a great start. Like July. August you'd need to do more .
You really just need volume. If you are only doing 25mi a week, you need not worry about intervals and hill repeats. Just ride, build an actual base. Once you can handle the climbing and distance then you can worry about developing speed. (I know I'm going to get blasted for this, but, at least for me and long haul, I'm right).

As a fun 'fitness' check let me recommend the D2R2 (a dirtroad randonee about 1.5hrs west of you). The little one (100km with 9k of climbing) would be a good interim goal and a decent window into your fitness. I'll be there. Similarly, since you live in the flats, get in the car once a week and head either west or north to do 70-100mi road rides or 25mi+ mtb rides in hills that will at least give you a window into what lies ahead.

Best of luck, and see you in Vermont.

ps. If you would like a tour on either road or mountain in w. mass just holler.

 

You need to ride more.

Two time a week isn't enough. Try and get out four times a week. Do one ride of 2 to 3hrs in length and then the other three can be 1-2hrs.

The gym and running aren't going to help you much more the event.

 

A friend of mine sent me this link and we were wondering if you are really serious.....nothing personal but you really need to ride a lot more. LMN's reply is a good starting point.....you will never improve with only 2X a week.....my own personal advice: get a single speed as a 2nd bike and ride that all week. It will get you in shape fast...

 

i too am a novice and am training for the VT50... I get in at least 100-120 miles a week, most of it on the road...
I too think you need more time in the saddle.. lucky me I live down the street of the VT 50 and pretty much have ridden most of the course (last years, not this years) so I have an edge... there are some sections that I hate, some I love.... so I ride them every week...
JEM

 

You should consider training more. I wouldn't get too caught up being concerned with the flatness of your geographic location. It's about time served, repetition and intensity. 2 months should be enough to build on. Get out to them blue hills!

 

Get a really nice bike

If you don't have time to train for the VT Five-0, I'd just get a really nice new carbon bike and some high octane gel packs. Seriously though, as others have said, long easy road miles are your best way to prepare for the hurt locker that is a 50mi MTB race. Do your road miles (try to get up to 4+hrs ride time), add some stretching and some core strength and you'll be fine.

Good luck!

 

If you want more specific advice than is given here. Try www.lwcoaching.com worked won ders for me and other endurance riders. Good straightforward programs to reach your goals.

 

My 2 cents: ride more. Seriously, what would you do if you were training for a marathon? You'd build up your long runs to about 20-22 miles. You wouldn't toe the line with an 8 miler as your long run. You should get to the point where you can ride for 4 hours (road bike is fine, maybe preferred) without too much trouble. It's hard to do that riding 2 times a week.

I would suggest figuring out a way to ride 4 times a week. One ride should be a long one, preferrably over some hilly terrain. Lengthen this ride until to get to 4-5 hours. Another ride should be some type of hill workout, but not too crazy, given the amount of riding you're doing now.

See you there in Sept and good luck.

 

Thanks for all the feedback. I knew I wasn't riding enough and got some good ideas on how I need to spend the next 3 months.

I managed to get in 80 miles last week 55 on the road bike and 25 off road on mountain bike. Would like to consistently get in over 100.

This my plan over the next month.

1) commute back and forth to work on road bike 2-3x per week 40-60 miles
2) Mountain bike ride with intervals 1x per week - 10 -15 miles
3) weekly single track ride 1x per week - 10 - 15 miles
4) weekly long road ride - 40 - 60 miles

Any other advice is welcome.

Thanks

 

I just trained for the Black Fly Challenge which is 40 miles but only about 2500 feet of climbing and over 10 miles on paved road. This is why I say I'm not trying to be an ass but 2 days a week on the bike is nowhere close to enough, IMO.

I have done both (VT50 & BFC40)...hard to imagine but you could do BFC twice (80 miles) and be finished way before it would take you to do the VT50 once!

My times compared
VT50 in 2009=5:54 (muddy!)
VT50 in 2007=5:41
BFC40 in 2010=2:19

 

Any other advice is welcome.

Thanks

I agree w/the others: more miles, more races, more hills, more saddle time.
Also, get in some long rides with a goal to work on your nutritional/hydration needs. Experiment now so you will know what food/drinks will get you back to the finish!

Some folks are out on course for 10-12 hours, so just realize if you do not put the effort(training) in now you will pay for it come September 26th!

ps: I was riding around 10/hours a week last year to get ready for the VT50. And a lot of it was spent on climbing hills.

 

Well I did it and now I am totally hooked. This past Sunday I did the VT50 and finished in 6:56 competing as a Novice. Very happy with my result, and looking forward to working on improving my time for next year.

I went back and read my original post and laughed at where I was then and where I am now. Guess the thing that motivated me the most was some of the smart ass comments. Over the past 3 1/2 months I averaged about 100+ miles a week. I got on the road bike a doing a lot of hill training and long distance rides. I competed in 3 shorter mountain bike races. In addition I did the D2R2 100k (another great ride) and another longer Mt. bike race.

Now the question is how do I get better?

 

Now the question is how do I get better?

keep doing what you have done. consistency.

do what you have done, harder. intensity.

 

Well I did it and now I am totally hooked. This past Sunday I did the VT50 and finished in 6:56 competing as a Novice. Very happy with my result, and looking forward to working on improving my time for next year.

I went back and read my original post and laughed at where I was then and where I am now. Guess the thing that motivated me the most was some of the smart ass comments. Over the past 3 1/2 months I averaged about 100+ miles a week. I got on the road bike a doing a lot of hill training and long distance rides. I competed in 3 shorter mountain bike races. In addition I did the D2R2 100k (another great ride) and another longer Mt. bike race.

Now the question is how do I get better?

We truly had perfect conditions this year. Not a speck of mud on my legs.

I would suggest doing longer road rides next year and at least a couple of 6 hour+ rides. Not sure if you were able to record your pace throughout the race but I'll bet your pace dropped off after about 35 miles. I'd say 95% of my rides this year were on the road. I pretty much did all the climbs in my granny gear and still finished in under 5 hours.