With events back on the calendar and cycling holidays in the near future, we can get excited about taking on new challenges and adventures on our bikes. Multi-day events can be tough and do require that you physically and mentally prepared for them. You will need to possible complete your hardest day on the bike, then get up and do it all over again and again in some cases.
Give yourself 12 weeks to seriously focus on the training
12 weeks prior to the event the aim is to be able to complete the distance of the longest day.
Then is training practice back to back days leading up to the date to adapt your body to demands. Don't feel that you need to emulate the whole event, but you should feel comfortable with doing about 60% - 70% of it, by 10 weeks. For example if you are doing 400km over 5 days, you should be able to complete 240km - 280km over 5 days.
Practice Nutrition Strategies
Good nutrition is really going to help you out on the event. Remember you are asking a lot of your body. So practice good on and off the bike nutrition. When on long rides eat little and often, every hour at least. Flapjacks, cereal bars and sandwiches are good options. When you get home make sure you have a small snack such as a protein shake and ensure you eat within 2 hours. You may want to increase your carb intake and certainly don't consider cutting carbs, as an endurance athlete carbs are your friend. It is important get to know your own body and what what works for you. If you are feeling extremely hungry after the ride, it's a sign that you have not eaten enough.
Practice Recovery
As with nutrition good recovery is going to help you out a lot. We make want to believe we are invincible, but with the best recovery possible we can perform better. So make sure that you are getting enough sleep, with more training, let yourself sleep more to help you recover.
Ensure that you have regular rest days where you do nothing, especially after a hard stint of training. 2 weeks prior to the event, take a taper and drop down the training by half.
The good news is that the excitement of the event is going to push you through and energise you to achieve your goals.
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