 You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Can anyone point me in the direction of good articles, books etc., which provide information and ideas on training for multi day races and nutrition strategies / requirements during the race. In my case, this is for a running event, but I am thinking the theory for cycling events will be similar.
I've got a good idea of what I would / will do, but I am very open to taking on suggestions and ideas from others with experience.
Ta
Do you want to win?
Will depend on the intensity, where you are fitness wise and the style of the event.
Done 3 now, two 4 day races and one 2 day
All 3 were very different...
Mike - of course I want to win, but in reality that is very unlikely. I'm going for a finish. Top half of the field would be good and top 25% would be brill.
I realise training and nutrition is a very personal thing. Just looking for some ideas that I can experiment with before the event.
As a general training principle, you need to get used to repeated back to back efforts instead of a hard day followed by a rest day.
For the race itself, make sure your logistics are well organised, so you avoid any stress, spend the minimum amount of time faffing around, and the maximum amount of time recovering; e.g.all the necessary kit prepared and accessible, stocks of snacks and drinks prepared so you can grab them immediately after finishing to help recovery.
In a stage race you need to treat the recovery as seriously as the racing, because every bit of wasted time or energy will impact on your ability to perform next day.
Torq have a lot of good stuff
http://www.torqaustralia.com.au/nutrition-performance
if you can find it their nutrition guide is very good.
Few basics...
There is a limit to the amount of carbs you can take on there is a good formula
Hydration helps and recovery drinks are great, they are easy to consume at the end of the day and they starve off the immediate hunger and make getting sorted for the next day much easier.
Take a look at the format, my first one was 7 stages that were mostly about 60-90 mins with long easy cruises between. Trained for high intensity hour efforts and it really paid off finished much higher than I and other expected.
Second one was much more mixed between 12 mins and 3-4hrs. More racing and less cruising.
Prep and planning of meals and stuff like that too make the evening refule and sort out as simple and easy as possible
kcr - Its the step from 1 hard day and rest to multi hard days which I dont want to get wrong. Is it better to build all the days gradually and evenly (at the expense of being able to run a single 'hard' day in the short term) or get used to running say 2 'hard' days in a week, split by recovery runes, then 3 'hard days' in a week, split by recovery and so on ?
how hard are your days? I good degree in suffering is worth having 😉
Mike - Each day in isolation is perhaps 60 - 75% of what I would consider a 'hard' day given my present fitness level. As a cumalative total V hard.
http://www.torqaustralia.com.au/shop/category/39-torq-recovery
This is good, very good.
Who is supporting you, also important they have a very big job to take off all the stress from you.
I'm not a runner, so I'd be reluctant to comment on the demands of back to back heavy running training.
In general, however, you want to try and build up to experiencing the sort of effort you expect to make in the race. For most of us, that probably means being able to do a hard consecutive Saturday and Sunday, and perhaps extend that with a Monday night session a couple of times before you race. You don't need to simulate the whole stage race, and too much high volume could be counterproductive anyway, but even just doing two days back to back will let you practice your recovery strategy and get used to repeated hard days.