Planning for a UK coast to coast ride in May of 177 miles 7332feet of climbing. As the first 80 miles are the hilliest I am thinking of the following approach. (have done volcano and gran fondo plans a few times as prep for arctic race which got scrubbed).
Since my Mt. Sufferlandria and 2 years of prep got scrubbed I lost my mojo so with a new challenge of the C2C I need to prepare to succeed
3 base block
4 week volcano
12 week Mountainous gran Fondo
12 week 200mile gravel grinder
Any thoughts on the approach. My FF type is sprinter
I don’t think you’ll go too far wrong with all of that, but my only advice would be to take a recovery/easy week in between plans. You’ve probably got that planned anyway but just thought I’d mention it in case you hadn’t.
One thing, and it’s totally up to you, but it might be worth setting “mini” Mount Sufferlandrias along the way. Having 1 goal a very long way away is great but it can be easy to lose focus. If you are already relatively fit I don’t think 177 miles with 7k climbing should be TOO hard. It is at least fairly flat (ish, I think 600ft/10 miles and above it starts getting hilly).
When I trained for my Everesting (almost identical mileage to this) I found doing absolutely brutal sessions followed by lots of tempo/endurance work VERY beneficial. An example was to do a solid warmup, then do a tough session such as 9 Hammers or whatever… Something to deplete the anaerobic stores, and then follow it up with 3-4+ hours of riding (you can always take the bike outdoors after the indoor session). Worked really well for me but we’re all different.