Hi. I am currently doing the Full Frontal Prep plan before taking FF. Once that’s done my aim is to start the “200 mile Gravel Plan”.
My question is - what fitness level is required in order to start the plan?
I couldn’t cycle 200 miles today - that’s why I am doing the plan. It seems to get fairly long and intense fairly quickly. When I have done plans previously (admittedly multisport) they have often said “to start the plan you should be able to run x hours comfortably or swim x km” to give an idea. I want to push myself but I don’t want to injure myself
When I was looking into riding longer distances, the rule-of-thumb that I came across said to increase your ride distance weekly by about 10%. On that basis, you want to be able to ride 70 miles today in order to ride 200 in 12 weeks time.
I’m sure there’s more scientific approaches that will give you a more sensible answer, and ways to push it harder, but the 10% rule has helped me not to overdo training.
Seriously though, I have heard the same +10% per week and it has worked well for me. When I first began doing tris I ramped up my run too quickly and ended up straining both of my Achilles tendons. Both painful and a serious delimiter on exercising. Since sticking to the 10% per week on running and cycling, no injuries.
+10% max a week has worked well for me with running too. And, in fact, when I’ve ramped it up beyond this it is also my achilles that have suffered.
The worst thing is that you feel good when you ramp things up as you feel like you’re making great progress. It can make you feel bullet proof. Then, suddenly, you aren’t. It creeps up on you and by the time you realise it, it’s too late to do anything about it. This is equally true with cycling (perhaps more so as you dont have the same stresses on the body as running so you notice it even less).
As always, trust the plan, trust the process. Remember that he goal is (in this case) is 3 away, not tomorrow.
Yes I didn’t think of applying the 10% backwards. Thanks for doing the maths for me It shows that I am not ready to start the plan! The 200mile goal isn’t an organised event so I can be flexible with the dates. I will delay things by about 4 weeks to get up to the starting distance
Thanks for everyone’s response!
