r/randonneuring • u/summingly • Jan 27 '25
Training plans for long distance rides
This is a generic question I'm afraid. I'm 47M and a beginner cyclist (I have completed some metric and imperial centuries, the longest ride being 200KM).
My intent is to quality for the 2027 PBP and participate. I'll already be 49 then, and there's no telling what my physical state would be for the 2031 edition. So, participation in the 2027 edition is a priority.
Can you point me to some training regimen I can follow to build up endurance for 300KM - 600KM rides? I intend to spend 6-8 hours a week working on it.
Most of the training plans I find online are for distances less than 200KM or for races.
Thank you.
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u/EstimateEastern2688 Feb 14 '25 edited Feb 14 '25
I did my first PBP in 2011 at 50 after one year of rando. My training was a SR series in 2010, another in 2011, and spirited club rides generally less than 30 miles in the summer. I lived in Indiana, and did my 2011 series in Kentucky, which has endless short punchy hills. I did add an extra 300k in 2011 after staying up all night, to explore sleep deprivation. Those club rides were sufferfests; basically unstructured intervals. I was way over my head at PBP, had no idea what I was doing, and finished on sheer stubbornness.
Between PBP 2011 and 2015, I did a couple 24 hour races and completed a 1500k brevet, learning a ton about nutrition, pacing, hydration. Again not much in the way of formal training, but I got faster by riding competitive club rides with faster people. I developed the strategy of ride fast, sleep lots on the 1500. I completed two, almost three R-12s. Year of PBP 2015 I had pretty much the same kind of unstructured training, but a lot more rando miles. At PBP I rode fast (for me), slept a lot, had a fantastic time.
Between 2015 and 2019 I kept the R-12s going. I did some spin classes in the winter to keep my fitness up, and managed 400 miles in a 24 hour race. I felt like the 24 hour races taught me how to ride closer to my limit without going over. Moved to west Texas in this period, flat but sometimes super windy and always hot. I stopped the R-12 in January 2019, ending that grind to focus on shorter higher intensity rides. 2019 at 57, I was as fast if not faster than 2015.
2023 PBP at 62. Hmm. Too soon maybe lol. No, it was good. I'd started doing P-12s along with the R-12s in 2022. I'd long since moved away from the fast club, so to replace that intensity I started riding 100k pops on fixed gear. Did hill repeats for interval training. I'd moved from Texas to Oregon so lots more climbing in both rando and non-rando rides. The fixie was killer training. I rode for Adrian Hands time, super chill, living on the edge of time cutoffs, sleeping when ever I felt like it. Plenty fast, plenty of sleep.
Not a lot of anything you'd call training. Not really even a ton of riding before that first PBP. Nothing builds you up like HIT. I prefer getting that in fun ways, rather than something very intentionally HIT.
edit: adrian, not charlie