Are you getting ready for a Fondo or Charity Ride? Many of our clients do these big fun rides (e.g. Fondos and Fundos!)
What is your goal at the Charity Ride or Fondo?
We often hear that athletes want to do these for fun BUT they also want to be fit enough to keep up with their friends, finish ahead of time cuts, or maybe set a personal best on the course! These are fun goals but also challenging goals.
3 keys to training for a road charity ride or gran fondo
When we build a training plan for athletes doing Road Charity rides or Gran-Fondos we focus on 3 key areas. Start with a reasonable plan that fits in your life and challenges you at your current level, no need to do everything all at once, get training and let your body improve over several weeks. We suggest a mix of intensity and duration to help you become fitter, more versatile and to keep things interesting. Finally the third area to focus on is incorporating ‘the little things that add up’ including your bike setup, fueling and group riding skills. Let’s look close at these 3 areas.
Be Reasonable!
A reasonable plan that has consistent workouts, aiming to be on bike 5+ days per week, even if that is for a 10-30 min spin, skills ride or commute to work. If you are just starting out or getting back to cycling remember that anything and everything will help make you faster initially so don’t overdo anything and focus on frequency and consistency. Leaving a repetition or two in reserve is a good rule of thumb and making sure that only one or two days of the week are more challenging, hard or intense. Mostly fun and easy is the way to success!
Mix It Up!
Variety in training – rather than just easy training we focus on having 1-2 harder days and at least one longer day over 90-minutes each week. The durations and difficulties should progress gradually over a few months and start looking a little more like the race in the month prior to the event. So you might progress to doing a 3-5 hour weekend long ride and a midweek hard set of 4 x 10 minute threshold intervals (or a hard group ride) in the final month as you prepare for a 100km event. While mixing up your routine throughout the week is good, it is also important to try the same workout a few weeks in a row so you can get better at that workout or route and see yourself improve. (E.g. do 3 x 10 minutes, 3 x 12 minutes then 4 x 10 minutes over 3 weeks to see progress in your intervals)
The little things add up
There are a lot of things you can do to make your training and your event day go better that don’t involve training more! These can ensure you get to you to your event day happy, healthy and motivated
- Spend time to get your bike-fit & gear setup so you are comfortable for longer durations of training. On event day it will pay dividends in consistency and enjoyment, if not also performance.
- Practice fueling so that you know what works for you and so you are comfortable eating something every hour and not shy about eating around other people or nervous pulling food out while riding in a group. Many, if not most of the athletes we see do events like this are very underfueled during the event so they fade and suffer for much of the event. Fuel lots and fuel early!
- Practice drafting – for all levels of rider it is a huge win to understand drafting and riding in a group. Spending even a few minutes in a group or on a friendly wheel during your event will save you energy and get you to the finish line a little easier! This requires first that you understand how your gears and brakes work so that you are comfortable controlling your bike. Start with a friend who will ride a little easier and let you practice staying on them closely to benefit from their draft. TIP: Look ahead of the rider you are following not at their rear wheel so you can react faster and to help move yourself closer to the rider ahead.
Want A Training Plan to Lay It All Out?
If you are looking for a plan that incorporates many of these concepts into a 3 month build to event day, consider our 3 Month Road Fondo or Charity Ride Training Plan that is ready to go when you are in the Training Peaks. The plan lays out what workouts to do and when and provides tips for fueling, pacing and including things like group rides, strength and cross-training.
