The Carmichael TCC training...

[nos]

Hello, I want to know if the plan provided by Carmichael is valid for MTB marathons.

I like the marathons of one day and marathons of several days as the Cape Epic.

The Carmichael (Time Crunched Cyclist) plan will useful for this purpose? .


Thanks! .

 

[nos]

Ideally, you would train in a similar fashion to how the event will be. However, this is often impractical, especially for longer / harder events.

So, I think the answer is...work out how many hours a week you have to train, and then work backwards from that, with less time to train meaning doing more high intensity sessions each week, and vice versa.

For example...

If you only have a few hours a week to train, e.g. less than 8 hours, then high intensity training (like the TCC programs) is probably the best way to improve your fitness given your time constraints, even for long bike rides.

If you have more hours to train each week, then you would probably benefit from a mixture of longer endurance rides (which I expect a marathon MB ride to be) and just one or two high intensity sessions each week. The longer endurance rides will help your body become more efficient when pedalling for several hours, whilst the high intensity sessions (like those in the TCC) will help you increase your lactate threshold and VO2 Max which will enable you to cruise at faster speeds and also get up steep climbs more easily.

P.S. I know a guy who rode 300 miles (around 480 kilometres) in 12 hours on his TT bike by training 5 days a week for only 1.5 - 2 hours for each session, usually with 3 high intensity workouts and 2 medium intensity workouts each week...so if time is short, doing well in longer rides can still be done

Thank you very much for this explanation .

I will point out the concepts you've told me and I'll consider when training. The important is the quality respect to time of training.

I hope the TCC work for several days of MTB marathons.

 

[clockworksimon]

Is this the same Carmichael as in the Lance Armstrong Training Plan???!!!
Am sure the principles will be good to make sure you use your valuable training time for high quality training. I would have thought though that for long duration events you will need to do some longer rides and distance work before your planned event. Not necessarily full distance. This would help with pacing, fine tuning bike setup, learning how your body responds to long distance, eating, mental toughness and confidence. For myself, I know that all sorts of aches and pains, especially my back, start after 3 or more hours of continuous riding. This simply doesn't happen on shorter rides of up to 2 hours.