How to Train for the STP: Tips from a Randonneur
Expert advice on building saddle time, nailing your nutrition, and finishing strong across two long days.
Randonneur:
A French term for a cyclist who participates in long-distance, non-competitive endurance rides.
Make no mistake. I am not a randonneur. My concept of a long ride is a metric century. I’ve consistently said 100 kilometers (62 miles) is more than enough.
Lisa Charlebois, on the other hand, is a committed randonneur. She loves long rides. She’ll pedal 300 kilometers in a single day, return home, and then head out again the next morning. So, when I decided in a moment of delirium to test myself during this summer’s Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic (STP), I called on Lisa for some advice.
Her insights, kindly shared with encouragement and humor, instilled a sense of optimism. With sensible training and proper fueling, she emphasized, I can ride 100 miles a day, two days in a row.
Her guidance can be helpful to anyone looking to increase their endurance, whether it’s the STP or any other distance ride.
The STP, staged each July by Seattle’s Cascade Bicycling Club, is an endurance test of a different sort. Yes, it’s two long days on the bike but hills are rare and never really intimidating. Instead of worrying about the legs, organizers say riders should concentrate on what the club calls the “mind and behind connection.”
Also: Saying Yes to the STP Classic
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I’m not deeply concerned about the mind. I try to avoid the overburdened thought of long days by splitting rides into segments. I don’t think of the finish, only reaching the next rest stop or coffee shop.
Then again, I’ve never attempted back-to-back 100-mile days. I should work on this.
The Training Plan
I’m much more uncertain about my behind. Can I sit for hour after hour after hour without major discomfort?
Lisa has a training model that anyone can use to toughen up for long days on a sometimes-uncomfortable saddle. This model tracks riding time, not distance. And that makes sense. Miles can vary in difficulty, flat roads vs. hills but the one constant is time.
“Gradually build time on the bike,” Lisa says. “The biggest mistake I see riders make is trying to cram fitness in too close to the event. Distance riding rewards patience.”
Her recommendation: Build endurance by increasing your hours for three consecutive weeks, then backing off in week 4 to recover. Limit each weekly increase to about 10 percent to give the body time to adapt.
“Your legs might feel fine pushing harder, but your knees and hips will tell you a different story three weeks later,” she says. “Start earlier than you think you need to and let the fitness come to you. And use that three steps forward, one step back method and you’ll be golden.”
I calculate I’ll be on the bike as many as eight hours each day or 16 hours for the complete STP. So, that’s my training target – 16 hours per week by July.
“Your training week volume can go past (the target). That’s not a bad thing,” Lisa says. “To peak at 16, even 20 hours would be a great build. That should be the biggest weeks at about three weeks before STP. Then you can taper.”
STP takes place July 11-12, so I’m developing a training schedule through mid-June. But there’s more to this than simply pushing pedals. Here are a few more tips from the randonneur.
Do your long ride every week.
“Everything else in your training week is negotiable. The long ride is not,” Lisa says, explaining that this is when the body learns to burn fuel efficiently, the mind understands how to stay calm, and the behind gets comfortable with the process.
Practice your event conditions specifically.
Replicate the ride. I typically include climbing in my local tours, but STP is primarily flat. I will find new routes that better reflect the terrain.
“Also practice riding consecutive days,” she says. “STP is two days. Your training should include back-to-back rides, so your body knows what day two feels like. Start with an hour and then 1.5 hours on the next day. And you can slowly increase that time.”
Take it easy.
“This is probably the most counterintuitive thing I tell people,” Lisa says. “Most of your training miles should feel almost too easy. The research is really clear on this. Elite endurance athletes do around 80 percent of their training at low intensity. When everything is medium-hard you’re too tired to go really hard on the days that matter. Easy rides are building your aerobic engine quietly and efficiently.”
I can do that.
Don’t ignore nutrition.
Lisa and husband Richard Andrew, a food scientist, know about cycling and nutrition. They co-founded and operate Hummingbird Fuels which produces a high carbohydrate powder drink mix that delivers 60 grams of carbs per water bottle.
They’ve researched fueling and put their knowledge to beneficial use on their own tours. Here are some more nutrition do’s and don’ts.
Do: “The golden rule of endurance fueling is eat before you’re hungry and drink before you’re thirsty,” Lisa says. “By the time you feel it, you’re already behind and it takes a long time to catch up if you can catch up at all. I aim to eat something every 30 to 45 minutes on long rides without exception, even if I don’t feel like I need it yet.”
Do: Lisa follows this rule. Think of fueling as carbohydrates per hour, and not just calories. So, look for the carb count on food packaging.
“Carbohydrates are your friend on the bike,” she says. “Carbs are your most efficient fuel source, and you need a lot of them. For serious distance riding, we’re talking about 60 to 90 grams of carbohydrates per hour.”
Don’t: “Don’t rely only on solid food for long rides,” she says. “Your gut starts to shut down blood flow during hard efforts and solids get harder to process. Liquid calories are your best friend.”
Liquids are easy to consume, fast to absorb, and gentle on the stomach. Blend liquid carbs with food you look forward to eating.
Do: Practice nutrition during training rides.
“I see this constantly. Riders who are very disciplined about fueling on event day treat training rides like a fasting experiment,” Lisa says. “If you’re going out for more than 90 minutes you need to be eating on the bike. Training rides are where you practice your nutrition strategy, not just your fitness. If you don’t know what works in your stomach at hour four, you do not want to find out during STP.”
I now have a training schedule, a nutrition strategy, and three months to prepare. plan. So, now I wonder … will I call myself a randonneur someday?
Dan Shryock is a travel writer and career journalist who focuses on cycle tourism. Based in Oregon, his work has appeared in magazines and websites in California and the Pacific Northwest. His book, “Cycling Across Oregon: Stories, Surprises & Revelations Along the State’s Scenic Bikeways” is available on Amazon.
Some great advice from someone who knows what they're talking about. Totally agree that a weekly/daily goal should be time on the bike, not miles achieved or elevation climbed.
Another tidbit to consider is the temperatures you may face. It can be very warm (sometimes hot) in July on that ride, so in May and June if you get chances to do your rides in warmer climates, it is worth exposing yourself to that heat stress. You will need to back off your intensity or volume a bit when you do. The human body is amazing at shifting and developing physiological mechanisms to stresses it is exposed to, including exercise in warmer (and more humid) climates.
MB