Good athletes (and good coaches) know how to do 'just enough' training to be fit enough to meet the success criteria for their event. So how do we know how much is 'enough' and ensure that we do just that?
We have found that athletes doing Grande Randonnée like LEL or Paris-Brest-Paris were more likely to meet succeed off the back of a series of long events the previous year, like shorter bike-packing races or a Super Randonneur Series (200km, 300km, 400km and 600km within one calendar year) or similar. So don't wait until the year of your event and do the minimum to qualify, rather start early and give your body and mind time to adapt to the demands of ultra riding.
Long Rides
When considering ultra events it's normal to accept that you will not cover in one session the entire distance of your goal event. Once you have built up to being comfortable on the bike for one or two days in a row we would then look to do some 'practice' events that are representative but not the same as your event.
You don't need to do many of these, just enough to make some fitness gains, learn about some of the demands of the race and have an idea of how you might perform over a longer time period.
If your event goes on for several days, like London-Edinburgh-London, Paris-Brest-Paris or even the Transcontinental Race, then doing two or three days on a practice event will give you an idea, but you need only do this once or twice, with maybe one or two other rides lasting 36 to 48 hours.
Any good training plan will work in including some easy days or an easy week every third or fourth week. This allows your body to adapt to the training stimulus and prepares you for the next cycle. Most athletes who do too much start by not recovering enough.
To get the most from your practice events you will need to allow yourself time taper into them and to recover from them. As it is not a main event you may find two or three days is enough of a taper to have you fresh enough. Afterwards, depending on your fitness and how demanding you found the practice event, you may need 5 days or you may need more than a week. Having these scheduled into your training can help.
Volume refers to the amount of time you spend training (or the number of km if you prefer, but I find time to be a better measure).
Outside easy/recovery weeks where your volume may be as little as 50% of your 'usual' it's useful to think about weekly volume in general and plan a realistic volume for you.
Your weekly volume needs to be realistic for you, taking into account your training history, your current availability to train and your current energy resources. During particularly busy or stressful times at work or at home you may have to reduce your volume because not only do you not have physical time, but you don't have the energy resources to train.
Weekly load refers to the amount of training stress you are giving your body each week. This accounts for the fact that some sessions may be more intense than others. Your weekly load could be quite high when your weekly volume is quite low.
How much intensity you put into your training programme again needs to be realistic for you based again on your training history, your age and your current energy resources.
Stephen Seiler's polarised approach is a good way to think about Training; he suggests that only 20% of your workouts should be considered high intensity (higher than easy endurance riding). Depending on the athlete I usually prescribe intense workouts only once or twice a week.
Recording and looking at your training data with apps like Strava, Stryd, Garmin, Suunto, Polar and TrainingPeaks can help you track weekly volume and load (if you set the training zones correctly). This will help you see whether you have increased volume and/or load too quickly and help you identify when it's time to back off. Some apps will even tell you you need to rest.
The volume and load of training we can support is unique, so focus on you. It can be easy to get caught into trying to do the 'trendy' session that 'all the pros' (allegedly) are doing, but the best training is the one that provides adequate training stimulus for you without leaving you in need of three weeks off the bike. So focus on what works for you and don't be frightened to decrease load and volume to get more out of yourself.
Training should start and build from where you are, not where you think you should be or where you were last year. You can only work and build on the fitness you have so being realistic about what this and accepting that it takes time to (re)build fitness will help you develop the right training for you.
Knowing the signs that you need to back off is key, this might be a week earlier than your planned easy week, but if the signs are there it's important to be able to act on them. Training when you are too tired/under-recovered/getting sick/over-trained is counter-productive and just produces more fatigue with no fitness gains. You can check out our article on How do I know if I'm too tired to train? for more details.