My first ride I started off super slow with my training, and as I live in the Pacific NW, a lot of my training was inside taking spin classes. I would spin three times a week at our local fitness center and then when the weather started to improve a bit I hit the trail and also kept my spin classes going. My husband and I live in Duvall, WA, very close to the Snoqualmie Valley Trail so I was very blessed to be able to ride down to the trail for each of my rides. Because I'm a data geek I kept track of all my rides in a spreadsheet and to make sure I was staying on track.
A very helpful resource for my planning was Bicycle Touring Tales. Kathy has lots of bicycle training plans starting from beginner level through advanced as well as 8 and 10-week plans. You can take her plans and adjust them accordingly. For my training I took Kathy's 10-week intermediate plan, adjusted it farther out to have more training time and also adjusted the level of training I needed for several months. I started at 10 miles and increased my mileage by 3 miles per week up to 50 miles for my long rides. I intended to ride with weight, but never truly did so, although I did ride with all my panniers unloaded. Kathy's training was for weekly miles and so I upped my miles to accommodate our heavy miles ridden per day. Lastly, I attempted to manage my speed at an intensity level of "pace" which equated to about 12-14 miles per hour. We started training for this pace, but the trail had way more in store for us...
For my first ride I also incorporated a lot of walking and hiking. For what the trail had in store this was vitally important... By the time it was all said and done I rode and walked a total of 850.67 miles.
My second ride, only a couple months after our first trip was completed, I took only 6 weeks to train and increased my pace level as well as how many miles I rode per day/week. For this ride, which we were only doing a part of the trail, I didn't feel I needed to train quite as strenuously. I did incorporate walking again and in total I walked/rode 225.71 miles.
For my third ride, just this year, I trained for 21 weeks and walked/rode 1,010.31 miles. I knew what the trail had in store for me and I also knew I would be riding new sections, but I was definitely a bit lackadaisical the last few weeks before our trip. I also didn't really train with much weight yet again.
One of the main differences I would do in my training is to ride with a full gear load. Perhaps not for every ride, but definitely for long rides. This will help you adjust to the way your gear rides on your bike; figure out any issues; adjust to how much the weight impacts the maneuverability of your bike; and to how heavy/light your entire ride will be (i.e. bike plus gear).
Another thing I learned from my training - ride more miles than you think you need to and add in hills! In my area we don't have a ton of hill rides, but riding hills will help you tremendously when you have to take all the side detours that require you to ride hilly farm roads and strengthen your body for that steady 3-4% constant climbing grade.
Training should be a vital part of your process for preparing for a ride. That being said prepare in the way that best suits you and for the ride you will be going on. There are so many resources out there and choose the one that suits you best or make your own!
Here's a link to my training spreadsheet: Bike Training Happy training/riding!!
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