RAGBRAI Journal: My Right-sized Training Plan

Okay, you have your basic RAGBRAI Training Plan mapped out, now all you have to do is to execute that plan, Right? I say "yes".

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Some of you may be saying "not so fast... there is a lot to consider."

And I do actually agree with you there. But what I am saying is, that if you have a plan, just go ahead anyway. Execute the plan that you have right now.

Do you really have your plan nailed down? How do you know if this is the right training plan for you?

Getting started is the only what that you will learn what works for you, and what doesn't. Don't get bogged down and wait until you get your plan right. That could take a while. I am saying get started, now. Start even if you know it may not be quite right. Even if you think you have it nailed down, you might learn a few things you didn't expect.

Find your plan and just jump in. It is all about learning as you go.

You can't learn until you jump in

Okay, I jumped in. Back in 2016, I picked up Coach David Ertl's RAGBRAI Training Plan as my starting point. I felt pretty confident that I really had something great out of the gate. How could thousands of riders be wrong? This training plan has been an annual publication since 2009. How could I argue with that kind of staying power? Yeah baby, I got this!

Except I didn't have it. In the very first week of training, things seemed to be falling apart. My training just wasn't flowing. It wasn't so much that the training plan wasn't solid. It wasn't that the training plan was flawed in some way. It wasn't because I lacked motivation. It was none of that. I simply just could not get the training plan to gel with my life. So yeah, I had this great 22-week training plan laid out nicely by Coach Ertl. The main problem was that I just couldn't get a weekday training ride in, let alone the recommended 2 weekday rides. But what really made things tough was that I paid for missing weekday rides when I headed out for the longer weekend rides. Can you say bonk?!

Bottom line: I just couldn't make this training plan work with my version of life.

Your training plan has to reflect your reality

So why didn't the basic training plan work for me?

In hindsight, it wasn't necessarily just one thing. It was a combination of things.

I had to work. I still had meetings to attend, both planned and unplanned. I couldn't just slip out in the middle of the work day for a ride. Even when I was able to find a window to get out during the day, I for sure couldn't just disappear long enough to get in the 20 or 30 miles that the training plan recommended. How could I have not seen this outcome way in advance? It's not like anything really was different in my daily routine.

Okay, no big deal. Easy enough. Adjust. I can just get my training in after work?

Wrong.

By the time I got out of work, it was already dark. In the early weeks/months of the basic training plan, sunlight is limited. Like everyone else in the United States (except those in maybe Hawaii and Arizona), Daylight Savings Time drops darkness onto us at 5:00pm every day. No way I was going out for a ride in the dark. I had to find a way to make my workouts fit. So I have to adjust again? Okay, I have to adjust my adjustment.

Hello indoor cycling trainer.

Seems obvious now, but back in 2016, indoor training wasn't as prominent as it is now. Or maybe I just wasn't paying attention. Yeah, it was me. Either way, I had my solution. I purchased a Cyclops Fluid Trainer 2 from a local bike shop. Now I had no excuses to get my weekday training in.

Or did I?

Yeah, I did. Sort of.

Getting home late from work, which tends to be the case for me, I still found it difficult to get in anything but 10 to 15 miles on any given weekday evening. Yes, my Cyclops trainer allowed me to ride, but reality was that I was not getting much more than 10 miles consistently during the work week. At least I was now getting in weekday miles. That's a definite improvement. But I was still falling a bit short on the recommended weekday mileage.

That isn't so bad. What's one more adjustment?

I needed to get my weekday mileage up and I needed to do that with much more consistency. Riding 2-days during the week for 10 miles wasn't cutting it. I felt like I was actually falling behind. And I really felt it on the longer weekend rides. The only thing left was to modify the actual training plan itself. I really didn't have a choice. I had to modify the original training plan to make it something that was actually going to help me get ready for the mileage at the end of July.

Modifying the training plan all seems super obvious now, but when you're a beginner, you tend to miss the obvious. Maybe I was just being too literal in following the training plan.

If I only knew then what I know now.

Right-sizing my training plan

So why did I tell you all this?

I did this to share my experiences to illustrate no plan is perfect and works flawlessly out-of-the-box. Just know that you will need to adjust at some point. Don't worry about perfection. Be flexible. Whatever adjustments you make, they will move you closer to that training plan that does get you into your flow. That is your goal, after all. Make your adjustments, and pedal on. Let your plan evolve with you, and for you. Let it blend into your life. The simple truth is, all your adjustments are just ways in which you are ultimately right-sizing a training plan to better fit you. When it fits, you will know it. When it doesn't you will know that too.

All of this is to say that my training has evolved over the years. I am chuckling right now looking back at how naive I was early on. Ha... maybe I am still naive? Why was I so literal in following my training plan in the early years? I can't help but think that I was merely reflecting my Novice stage in the Dreyfus Learning Model. But that is okay, it is how I got to where I am today. It was part of my learning process. And maybe a year from now, I will look at myself in 2024 and realize again that I knew far less than I think I did.

For what it is worth, I am going to share my training plans, as they existed for each of my RAGBRAI years. If one of these plans serves your needs, then great. Have at it. Take it on, and make it your own. Take the parts that work for you, and adjust them to fit your reality. Share. Help get others to join in on the RAGBRAI bandwagon. But most importantly, jump in, and pedal!

My Version 1.0 Training Plan from 2016

Base/Starting Plan: Coach David Ertl's RAGBRAI 2016 Training Plan

Modifications:

Add indoor trainer for weekday workouts
Change from 2-weekday workouts to 5-weekday workouts
Add 3 blank weekday columns to spreadsheet tracker
Spread extra weekday mileage (> 10 miles) across 5 days
Add hill training
Record accumulated mileage in spreadsheet tracker
Keep remainder of the starting plan "as-is".

Allowances:

Weekday rides outside as daylight hours increased
Possibility of extra training hours/mileage during the week
Strive for weekly mileage total that was within 10 miles of plan recommendation
Substituted weekday workout for hill training - shoot for once per month

Workout Mechanics:

Indoor trainer
Greenway
Neighborhood hills

Implementation Notes:

Aside from making use of the indoor trainer for my after-work weekday workouts (or even during inclement weather on weekends), this version of the training plan helped me to be much more consistent in getting my weekday mileage in. Ultimately, I pretty much rode 10 to 12 miles each weekday. Yes I added in some hills, but it was a bit more random than I care to admit.

The two notes that I want to be quite clear on here is that while this plan had roughly 1,710 miles of training recommended, I did not actually achieve that. My mileage grand total was closer to 1320 miles. Additionally, the longest weekend ride I did was 55 miles. Likewise, I typically never followed a 55 miler with anything but a 25 miler the next day. So while my mileage was markedly less than recommended, and even never reaching a high mileage mark of 75 miles, I found that I was amply prepared to the ride that year. I actually felt prepared and that my fitness level was quite good. Some of the hills were long and steep, but I just hit my cadence and powered on. No real problems to speak of. The takeaway from this is that it confirmed that the training plan is but a guideline. Do what you can, but be flexible and realistic.

Bottom line: I consider this version of my training plan as being a success for me.

My Version 2.0 Training Plan from 2018

Base/Starting Plan: Coach David Ertl's RAGBRAI 2018 Training Plan

Modifications:

Add indoor trainer for weekday workouts
Change from 2-weekday workouts to 5-weekday workouts
Add 3 weekday columns to spreadsheet tracker
Change weekday column headers to indicate day of week
Spread extra weekday mileage (> 10 miles) across 5 days
Set my recommended weekday mileage to be 50 miles
Add hill training twice a month
Record accumulated mileage in spreadsheet tracker
Keep remainder of the starting plan "as-is".

Allowances:

Weekday rides outside as daylight hours increased
Possibility of extra training hours/mileage during the week
Strive for weekly mileage total that was within 20 miles of plan recommendation
Substitute weekday workout for hill training - twice per month

Workout Mechanics:

Indoor trainer
Greenway
Neighborhood hills

Implementation Notes:

Surprisingly, I only made 2 changes to the training plan that I carried forward from 2016. The first was really just formalizing of the spreadsheet tracker to set my weekday mileage recommendation at 10 miles per day. That was far more cosmetic/visual as that was exactly what I actually implemented in 2016. The only other noticeable change was to set my hill training to be twice per month starting in April. Not much of a change, but effectively doubling my efforts beyond 2016. While I never truly race up any hills, once I settled into my climbing cadence, I never really felt that I labored more than I expected to.

Again, I will call out the fact that the 2018 plan had roughly 1,665 miles of training recommended, I did not actually achieve that in 2018 either. My mileage grand total was closer to 1528 miles. Additionally, the longest weekend ride that I did was 55 miles. On top of that, I typically never followed a 55 miler with anything but a 25 miler. So as was true in 2016, my mileage in 2018 was also slightly less than recommended, But again, I found that I was quite well prepared for the ride that year. At no point did I find that my fitness level was lacking. So yet again, this training plan did fit the bill and supported the idea that the training plan is but a guideline. I was flexible in my training and it nonetheless served me well.

Bottom line: I consider this version of the plan as being a success for me with some increased hill capacity.

My Version 3.0 Training Plan for 2024

(note: as you will see based upon the color scheme, I copied the 2023 training plan before the 2024 plan was out)

Base/Starting Plan: Coach David Ertl's RAGBRAI 2024 Training Plan

Modifications:

Add indoor trainer for weekday workouts
Add in Zwift subscription to increase workout fun
Change from 2-weekday workouts to 5-weekday workouts
Add 3 weekday columns to spreadsheet tracker
Change weekday column headers to indicate day of week
Spread extra weekday mileage (> 10 miles) across 5 days
Set my recommended weekday mileage to be 50 miles
Add more consistent hill training once a week starting in April
Record accumulated mileage in spreadsheet tracker
Keep remainder of the starting plan "as-is".

Allowances:

Weekday rides outside as daylight hours increased
Possibility of extra training hours/mileage during the week
Strive for weekly mileage total that was within 20 miles of plan recommendation
Substitute weekday workout for hill training - once per week

Workout Mechanics:

Indoor trainer
Zwift subscription
Greenway
Neighborhood hills

Implementation Notes:

No real results to speak of yet. The ride hasn't happened yet, so nothing to report. Stay tuned. Hopefully, I continue to learn and can go into another year with more lessons learned.

Bottom line: This version of my training plan has a proven lineage, so I have little doubt this plan will be anything other than a success. But stay tuned for results after this year's ride.

A few last thoughts on training

Yes, it is still early in my 2024 training plan. But this year, I feel as though I have a much more pragmatic approach than I have had in the past. Maybe I am moving up a level in the Dreyfus Learning Model , or maybe I simply have a better understanding of the training components. If nothing else, I do think that I am just doing a better job at reflecting on aspects of the ride that I had forgotten, intentionally or not. Experience is the best teacher. And yes, I feel like I am finally doing a better job of applying what I have learned.

If I had to summarize my best training and preparation advice, it would go like this:

Put miles in your legs... put hours in the saddle... and ride hills for your lungs.

It tells you what you need to know. You cannot have one without the other two. You will need all three to have a successful ride. The first and the last seem obvious, but the middle one will get you if you don't heed its words. I promise, by day 3 of the ride you will be wondering if you will ever be able to sit down again. Ever. Don't take it lightly. You will regret it.

As you hopefully have surmised from this article, finding that training plan that is right for you is an evolving process. It will be a repeating process of trial-and-error. Ultimately, you will arrive at a version of your original training plan that is truly nailed down. Some plan that works for you. A plan that you can use again sometime in the future. RAGBRAI 2025 perhaps? How you train will serve as your training plan starting point the next time you want to begin a training regimen. Each time you re-execute your plan, you will find yourself tweaking your plan just a hair. Because each tweak, each plan revision dials your plan in just a smidge more. Then you have it... the training plan that works with your reality.

Whatever training plan you choose, remember the importance of having a training plan that you can actually stick with. It has to be sustainable because you will be training for multiple months. And don't forget, your cycling workouts have to work in the context of your daily routine.

The journey continues.

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RAGBRAI Journal: My Right-sized Training Plan

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