By Idai Makaya (20 December 2014):
The article below is part of the training and preparation blog for the ElliptiGO Ultra Endurance Team 1,230-km (765-mile) Challenge at PBP 2015, which each rider was training to complete within the 90-hour time-limit…
Greetings PBP Team!
Quite a few of us in various locations around the world have raised concerns about getting onto schedule with training, despite the winter conditions prevalent in many of our home locations. The dreaded spectre of indoor training has risen its head a few times and there are genuine concerns that people may fall behind the qualification schedule due to being restricted to indoor training.
I’d like to first of all assure everyone this is not the case. The training for PBP 2015 can be done indoors – and there are practical approaches to make this ‘bearable’. The main thing we are all looking for (at this early part of the training cycle) is a general endurance base. For the first 3 months of 2015 we will all be able to progress satisfactorily as long as we develop this general endurance base.
So please consider the following tips for the days when you cannot get out, or when it is not safe to ride out on the roads. Remember: a fall out on icy roads does not just put you out of PBP 2015 – it may rule out a full year of training, it may result in serious injuries (which might never fully recover) and, in the worst cases, it could result in death.
So let’s look at some extremely simple and practical approaches which we could all consider from time to time, whenever the weather outside is uncooperative. These principles can also be applied to your normal training on the road, if you are tight for time.
The Indoor Training Approach:
If you have all-day access to your ElliptiGO and indoor trainer, consider a 3-session indoor training day, as follows:
Session 1 – Early Morning (before work day): 60-90 minutes on ElliptiGO indoor trainer. You can do this before or after breakfast. Then have a shower (and commute to work by car, bus, or train) – or get to work at home, if you are home-based.
Session 2 – Lunch Break (during the day/at work): 30-60 minutes on indoor trainer (or even on the elliptical machine, in the gym). Try a higher intensity, because the session is very short.
Session 3 – Evening (any time after work): 60-90 minutes on ElliptiGO indoor trainer (or gym elliptical machine). Have a shower (and a meal) – and then get back to normal life.
This approach will give you the ability to train for between 2.5 hours and 4 hours PER DAY. This volume is sufficient to get you ready for PBP – even if you did this for the full training season. Very few of us will regularly be doing more than 2.5 hours a day of riding.
What if you do not have access to the ElliptiGO, a gym, or an indoor trainer, for the lunchtime session?
That’s okay, just miss out the lunchtime session and do the morning and night sessions only – but make them longer, if you need the training volume (closer to 90 minutes, each time, if you can handle that length of session indoors). 3 hours per day is still a big training volume – and is sufficient to get you ready for PBP 2015.
As you’ll possibly notice, this approach can be applied to all your training.
You can ride the ElliptiGO in shorter rides outdoors as well, or during lunch breaks, etc. You can also mix outdoor sessions and indoor sessions, if you want to avoid the times when it is dark outside.
So you could do the early morning sessions at 5am, every day, on the indoor trainer. Then you could ride the ElliptiGO on the road during lunch hour – or the evening session. Or you can do an indoor trainer session, a gym elliptical session and then an ElliptiGO ride outdoors.
There are many possible combinations. What matters is the total daily training hours. Splitting up the rides is just one way of making it bearable for your mind. It is often hard to do very long indoor sessions, especially on a regular basis.
But where there’s a will, there’s a way – so no excuses. Shorten the sessions by splitting them up across the day – and get it all done. Let’s GO and get ourselves ready for this massive challenge – indoors and outdoors!!!