How to ride long distances, not a lot of time to train?

[prinessbeca]

So I just read the thread on "how to ride long distances" and I'm so glad it's not just me who has issues with all of these things, but I'm also a little freaked out.

I ride pretty slowly. Like really slowly. 12mph on average. And I can easily ride 12 miles, on the trails around here (little bitty "hills" that barely count, but usually very strong headwind for the north half of my ride).

The "problem" that has me a little freaked out, though, is that I signed up for a 50 mile ride on July 22nd, and I'm worried about being able to train for it while also training for a sprint triathlon on July 15th.

I figured my tri training would get me ready for the bike ride too, but my tri coach only has shorter rides planned since it's a sprint tri. Our longest workouts are only 40 minutes. He's stressed to me the importance of rest days, so I'm a little worried about adding too much more biking (he's concerned already because I have 5 hours of bootcamp every week, and occasionally teach zumba also).

Has anyone who's trained for a tri also trained for a long bike ride at the same time? How do you balance the two?

I care more about the tri, my real goal is just to finish but I'd like to finish strong. For the bike ride, I just want to be able to finish in a reasonable amount of time so they don't pull me off the course or all go home before I'm finished. I don't necessarily need to be up at the front of the pack, but if possible I'd like to at least be in the vicinity of some other riders near the back of the pack.

If it helps, here's my training schedule for the tri:
Week 1, 30 minute workouts. Bike Mon, off Tues, run wed, bike thurs fri, run sat sun
Week 2, 35 minute bikes, 25 runs, same days
Week 3, 40 min bikes, 30 minute runs (and I have a 1 mile charity run on Monday of this week)
Week 4, I have another sprint tri on Sunday of this week and a warrior dash on Saturday of this week, so I'm planning to take Monday off and run easy on Tuesday. Otherwise, same schedule but 30 min bike, 35 min run
Week 5, 40 min bike, 35 min run, same days
Week 6: Potential 20-50 mile bike ride on Sunday, if you guys think I would be able to handle it? Otherwise, 30 min bikes and 25 min runs
Week 7: 35 min bike, 30 min runs
Week 8: Supposed to be 25 min bikes and 30 minute runs, but there's a free 4th of July bike ride that I'd love to do, if it woudln't be a bad idea. But it's 50 miles. Can I handle it? This one woudn't have to be as fast as the "real" one on the 22nd, and I could turn around early if I wanted to/had to without any shame.
Week 9: Taper week! 20 min bikes, 20 min runs. I have a 5k on Saturday but don't intend to go "all out", it's the Color Run so it's just for fun and I will probably walk most/all of it with gym buddies.
Sunday is race day.
Then I have one week to recover from the tri AND get ready for the 50 miler.

Can this be done? How would you recommend modifying the schedule to get ready to bike longer? Will I cramp up and die? :)

[tulip]

I would suggest focusing on one or the other at this point. Your trainer has very good advice regarding rest. 50 miles will be 5 hours in the saddle, most likely. If you don't build up to that, you will not have a very good time. Why not ride a shorter distance instead of 50 miles?

[lovelygamer]

Och, that's some tough stuff so close together. I would be freaking out right about now too. I don't have advice but good luck with your training!! :)

[suzgilzen]

Becca,

I had taken on some similar goals and am also new at road biking (just bought my first road bike on April 13). I had signed up for a 10K run on June 23, a 500-mile bike ride July 15-22, a sprint tri on August 18, and a half-marathon on September 16. My longest run to this point is 6 miles. I can swim more than a mile comfortably.

Finally, I realized that this collection was insane and that I needed to prioritize. I've given up the half marathon, and I changed the 10k to a 5k (and if I decide not to do it that day, no problem). So that leaves me the 500-mile ride as my training priority, with the sprint tri a month later.

I am concentrating on biking, and started at 10 miles, increasing 5 miles/week. Monday, I'll do 45 miles. I try to do three rides a week, at least, with one of them being the long ride, plus I've been doing a group ride of 20-25 miles for the past 3 weeks.

I try to run at least once a week - just 5k. When I get back from the big ride, I'll increase that to twice a week, and will commit to resuming swimming at least once a week. (I'd like to swim once a week now, but I'm not going to obsess over it).

I still feel a little bad about giving up the half marathon, and if I really want to do it when I'm done the 500-mile ride, I'll do the training... but I don't love running like I love biking.

Could you lengthen one of those bike rides each week? If you did that, you'd be just FINE. Just increase it by 5 miles each week. Or even less.

Good luck!!