2018 plans : From slowly slowly to less slowly

With Spring almost here its time to crawl back from under my blog free rock and share my plans for 2018.

Well, the short version of my plans is simple. Don’t finish last in the Bikepacking Trans Germany this July.

The long version:

The Bikepacking Trans Germany (BTG) is a self supported race across Germany. From Basel to Cape Arkona (Rügen). A Route of 1643 km (1021 miles) and 20,000 m (66,000 ft) elevation gain. Gravel, tarmac, old cobblestone roads, roots, sand and all the good stuff. The idea of doing a trip closer to home and in Summer is a very appealing concept compared to several of my other trips in recent years. Though the idea of taking part in something organised and racing are fairly new concepts to me.

From slowly slowly to less slowly

My cycle touring evolution since my first trip to Thailand 2009 is interesting to track. From that first trip where I’d pre-planned each day, knowing the distance and elevation gain and what to expect. Then my ride across the USA where I felt the time pressure of only having 10 weeks to cycle the planned 6000km. I promised myself then never again be in such a hurry. My big trip to Africa captivated the slowly slowly concept where I spent a year bumming around and taking regular long breaks while cycling the 11,000km from Cape town to Nairobi in Kenya. Since Africa the trips have become shorter and more intense (and usually in Winter), from the Winter trips in Lapland and Canada via some small wheel adventures the evolution moved to a mountain bike and bikepacking trips in Spain, Scotland and the Ardennen.

It’s certainly ironic that my trips have slowly moved away from “Slowly Slowly” as I’ve become less interested in visiting tourist attractions and less interested in exploring local cultures. My trips have become more about pushing myself, with the focus more on the things I enjoy most i.e. cycling and being in the mountains, deserts and woods rather than other aspects.

The culmination of this (de-)evolution was ‘riding’ the Freedom Challenge race across South Africa last year.

An event I once thought impossible proved to be just within my reach (I finished 2 days under the cut off time). It was every bit as tough as I expected it to be but at the same time showed me I could in fact cycle 24 days in a row and for the first 20 days that I could in fact cycle 12-14 hours a day. It also showed me that I’d arrived under trained and that a fixed 26″ frame maybe wasn’t the best choice. I enjoyed pushing myself hard during this trip and also enjoyed the balance of finishing slowly to enjoy the last couple of days of my “Summer holiday” achieving all three of my trip race aims.

1. Finish within the 26 day cutoff
2. Enjoy the ride
3. Finish injury free

I’d hoped that by ticking off my last bucket list item that I would once again get back to slowly slowly and a more standard approach to life. Sadly, finishing the Freedom Challenge has only opened up a new can of worms. I’ve always had an interest and longing for extreme ultra endurance events but have always allowed my lack of talent and ability to hold me back. Now however, I know lack of natural talent is no excuse. With dreamy enthusiasm, stubborn determination and just maybe a slightly more serious approach to training that new things are possible. Luckily I still have no illusions or ambitions for podium placing in whatever kind of event. But, middle of the field and still being able to drink beer along the way is certainly achievable. The fact that one of the race rules for the BTG is “a survival kit consisting of a hip flask filled with whiskey or equivalent must be carried and presented at the start” is a good sign that the organizers don’t take themselves or the race too seriously which really appeals to me.

So now what?

Lets face it, cycling is about freedom, serious training is for robots. That said, its painfully obvious that my usual training tactic of randomly riding my bike now and again at a comfortable pace certainly isn’t the way forward if I want to take endurance cycling more seriously. My saving grace during for the Freedom Challenge was my stubbornness, the fact that I occasionally do 2-3 day “Ride/eat/sleep” escapes, experience from previous trips and for the portages I was thankful for the often painful Sunday afternoons in my attic doing step ups with a 60kg barbell to failure. (During my Lehanas detour 5 hour hike, the thing that kept me going was ” This bike is lighter than that damn barbell, keep stepping up”).

For the BTG I’ve gone full robot. Sadly there’s little info online about how best to prepare for a 2-3 week single stage race. Had I chosen an Ironman or Marathon as my preferred medicine then there are a 101 cookie cutter training programs online which will put you at the start line ready for your chosen finish time vs training volume.

I’ve spent the last months reading endless blogs and learning new words and theories like Periodisation, lactic threshold, sweetspot training, intervals in various flavours, heart rate zones with various letters and numbers and lots of non-sense about power which I could quickly ignore as I have no intention of paying 500+ euro’s for a power meter. One of the best things I read was Joe Friels “Cyclists training bible” It’s slightly too focused on power meters and North American roadies that want to race at weekends during the Summer. But the basics and general theorie make sense to me.

Armed with my endless hours of Winter reading I’ve put a training plan together, started using one of those heart rate monitor thingies and to be honest I quite enjoy the data tracking via Golden cheetah (trainingpeaks.com would work too). It’s always nice when the computer says I need an extra day off.

Rather than feeling like a robot I find the metrics and training plan often quite motivating. Often the difference between another evening on the couch vs getting out into the cold for an hour or two to make the blue line go up a little. I keep it very flexible, I plan three rides a week, generally one long and slow, one sweetspot and a joker depending on which phase I’m in. In the unlikely case that I have time and energy left I do a fourth ride, run or weights. Rather predictably version 1.0 of the plan was too ambitious for someone that has a full time job, relationship and that works shifts. Therefore, I’ve already had the predictable overtraining issues. Sadly I’ve also now been floored for 2 weeks with Flu.

“No plan survives contact with the enemy” Therefore I fine tune the plan each week to compensate for my work, agenda or just randomly being broken or strong, I guess thats the advantage of being a young 43 years old, its now easier to listen to my body than my ego. Generally I have a planned training volume each week (4-8 hrs per week during the crappy Dutch winter and hopefully 50% more when the weather picks up).

Looking at the training volume and race approach of the various endurance riders I’ve met or follow its fairly clear what the difference is between touring Shane vs racing Shane vs the racing snakes of such events.

1. Weekly training volume: 2-4 hrs vs 5-10hrs vs 20+ hrs
2. Ability to suffer: Ride+beer vs Ride +less beer without injuries vs Just ride and “pain is only temporary”.
3. Sleep: 10-12 hours please vs 6-8hrs and still smiling vs 3hrs a day is more than enough.

Yesterday I started my 44th year on this fine planet. So I still have a few years to improve, to get fitter and peak before my body falls apart.

Freedom challenge veteran Mike Woolnough only started his amazing re-invention of himself at 45 and peaked in off road endurance racing in his mid 50’s when he certainly was no longer a middle of the field rider, now that gives me hope.

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So, in short. For the Bike packing trans Germany I’ve made a plan that will see me at the finish at around 16 days. Should the planets align, winds be favourable, the pubs all be closed and my v5 training plan work, just maybe I can shave 2-4 days off that and finish somewhere in the middle of the field (the race record is 6.5 days).

Lets hope I hate taking it so seriously otherwise I’m going to need a lot of unpaid leave for my bucket list version 2.0.

-Its riding your bike, then riding a bit more, then some more.

-I don’t take myself seriously, its just a bike ride, its not like we’re curing cancer or something.

Mike Hall