Garmin-compatible bike training schedule for a 180-mile ride
May 18, 2013 8:39 AM Subscribe
I want to sign up for Bike Around the Bay. If you're familiar with the MS150, it's similar — 180 miles over two days, circumnavigating Galveston Bay. But I need a training plan.
I am not a frequent cyclist — I am a hobbyist. But I have a good bike and am in pretty good physical shape.
I've run several long-distance foot races, and when I've trained for them I've used these awesome downloadable Garmin training schedules. You just select your race date and goal time, and then upload the entire training schedule to your Garmin and go. The schedules include speed work, long runs, tempo runs — basically everything you need to train for a half or full.
Does such a thing exist for a bike race of this distance? The longest ride I've ever done was 40 miles, without training, so I haven't the slightest idea of what sort of schedule I should be training at for Bike Around the Bay.
If downloadable schedules don't exist, I could program an entire schedule into my Garmin (if someone can point me to one for a 180+ mile ride) but I'm looking for something more convenient first.
I am not a frequent cyclist — I am a hobbyist. But I have a good bike and am in pretty good physical shape.
I've run several long-distance foot races, and when I've trained for them I've used these awesome downloadable Garmin training schedules. You just select your race date and goal time, and then upload the entire training schedule to your Garmin and go. The schedules include speed work, long runs, tempo runs — basically everything you need to train for a half or full.
Does such a thing exist for a bike race of this distance? The longest ride I've ever done was 40 miles, without training, so I haven't the slightest idea of what sort of schedule I should be training at for Bike Around the Bay.
If downloadable schedules don't exist, I could program an entire schedule into my Garmin (if someone can point me to one for a 180+ mile ride) but I'm looking for something more convenient first.
Response by poster: Yes, training schedules are easy to find online. I'm specifically looking for a 180+ mile training schedule that can be uploaded to a Garmin Forerunner.
posted by Brittanie at 9:27 AM on May 18, 2013
posted by Brittanie at 9:27 AM on May 18, 2013
Garmin Connect has an 8-week century training plan you can download here. Some of the triathlon plans there might also have a bike component that would be helpful.
The only major change I would make to the century plan is, starting week 2 or 3, to make the day 7 ride longer--not quite as long as the day 6 long ride, but close to it. You're training to ride two longish days back-to-back, so you want to accustom yourself to that. I also would do a few short easy rides during the week before the event; the plan to on the Garmin page has no riding at all for the week before the event, which seems silly to me.
Note that this plan appears to be aimed at someone who wants to complete a century in good shape, not to ride a fast one. If you're interested in speed, you'll need to add some intervals. I've gotten good results from Chris Carmichael and Jim Rutberg, The Time-Crunched Cyclist, though I'm not aware of any Garmin files for their plans.
posted by brianogilvie at 3:13 PM on May 18, 2013
The only major change I would make to the century plan is, starting week 2 or 3, to make the day 7 ride longer--not quite as long as the day 6 long ride, but close to it. You're training to ride two longish days back-to-back, so you want to accustom yourself to that. I also would do a few short easy rides during the week before the event; the plan to on the Garmin page has no riding at all for the week before the event, which seems silly to me.
Note that this plan appears to be aimed at someone who wants to complete a century in good shape, not to ride a fast one. If you're interested in speed, you'll need to add some intervals. I've gotten good results from Chris Carmichael and Jim Rutberg, The Time-Crunched Cyclist, though I'm not aware of any Garmin files for their plans.
posted by brianogilvie at 3:13 PM on May 18, 2013
Response by poster: Yeah, this is basically a double-century, but I've only been able to find training plans for a single century. I am just looking to finish, not win. Thanks for your advice!
posted by Brittanie at 6:57 PM on May 19, 2013
posted by Brittanie at 6:57 PM on May 19, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by BenPens at 9:24 AM on May 18, 2013