Training, Thinking & Eating Endurance

It’s just you, the road and twelve hours of daylight. How far are you ready to go?

The Equinox Experience runs 20– 28 September. A global event where riders around the world dig deep together and push the kilometres.

For some that means topping 200km for the first time. Others will join a bunch ride out of a MAAP LaB. Endurance is the cornerstone, going further together is the goal.

One group that truly knows how to ride far – and who’ve triumphed over mental obstacles and physical exhaustion more than once – is our Privateer Program.

We asked the riders who’ve fought it out for glory at events like Unbound and Leadville – not to mention competing in the Olympics, setting FKTs and winning Grand Tour stages – how they go about fuelling, training and mentally contending with big endurance challenges.

Below you’ll find tips on training, fuelling and keeping your head on straight. Not only that, we’ve created some downloadable tip cards and checklists to help you apply the lessons learned by our Privateers to your own Equinox Experience.  

Haley Smith was an Olympian in the cross-country MTB. She says the first step to having a great endurance ride is to understand the conditions you’ll face.

“I first familiarise myself with the demands of the event. Try to wrap my head around the distance, the elevation gain, the typical strength  and direction of the wind that I'm going to encounter. Then after that, I would just try to be really present in my training so I get the mental benefits of doing the preparation as well.”

Payson McElveen has been privateering for longer than most people have been aware it was ‘a thing’. In that time, virtually anything that could go wrong, has. He advises always having contingencies before taking on a long endurance challenge.

“Depending on the route, resupply opportunities may be more or less available and reliable. I've been caught out by stores whose listed hours are incorrect, water fountains that are shut off, or even unfamiliar holidays in foreign lands that shut down entire towns. If you plan to resupply during your endurance ride, have a backup plan (or two) in case of the unexpected. 

“I always carry a little extra fuel and a water filter in case you end up having to send the whole route unsupported.”

Haley says it’s important to acknowledge every success, even the micro-wins you get in training.

“If I have a set of two minute intervals, for example, each time I complete one I try to deliberately reflect on the fact I was able to do it. That gives me confidence for the challenge coming up.”

Naturally, even for an elite athlete, not every session is a success. How does Smith react when things don’t go as planned?

“The first thing you want to do if you fail in your preparation is to ask yourself why so? Was it because I was too tired? Was it because I didn't pace it correctly and I went out too hard?

“You have to look at it as, ‘thank God I made that mistake now’, because training isn't a test. It's a process. It's not an absolute indication of who you are or where you're at.”

Paige Onweller has experienced a meteoric rise as a relatively recent convert to competitive cycling. From being “afraid to ride outside”, to winning Big Sugar and taking third in the Lifetime GP last season.

We asked her how to go about doing something you never thought possible.

“Whenever you have something that's daunting or seems bigger than anything you've done before, the best approach is to break it up into segments. Your mind can more easily tackle it that way.

“The first step is breaking it down into goals that are smaller… but more importantly, not looking at the outcome as the goal. The process of getting there is more important. As you check off process goals, they build on each other. That positive energy can be really helpful.”

Chad Haga can draw on more than a decade of experience in the WorldTour, before switching to privateering. Hot off the back of his top ten at Leadville, he had some words of wisdom to share about breaking down the task at hand – whether that’s a marquee event in the Lifetime GP or your first 200-kilometre ride ever.

“With experience, you have an idea of what's going to come. And so visualisations or just thinking through the course and breaking it into sections can help. Knowing like, ‘alright, here's the section I need to be focused technically’; ‘here's the pace I need to hold on the fast section’; ‘here’s my section to recover and get ready for the next section’.”

In practice, of course, things don’t always go to the script. In Chad’s case, the intense start at Leadville left him feeling discouraged. He was behind the leading group, but avoided panic and resolved to just keep going his own pace.

“I had decided before the race, whatever happens, just ride your pace. Stick to what you can do and see how it turns out. And that paid off because just before the halfway point I ended up catching that group and I was like, ‘oh, now I'm racing for fourth. Okay. I could do that’.”

Moments of suffering are inevitable when you take on a big endurance challenge. It’s how you meet them that matters, says Paige again.

“I think reminding yourself it’s going to get better, and also just expecting the suffering. If you don’t expect lows, you’ll be sorely disappointed! I have this phrase on my necklace: amor fati – the love of fate. It helps me embrace even the moments that really suck.”

And Russell ‘Finsty’ Finsterwald takes a similar mental approach.

“I try to remind myself that the low points always pass. Sometimes it’s as simple as breaking things down into the next climb, the next planned rest stop, or even the next five minutes. I also tell myself, ‘This is what you signed up for,’ because the suffering is part of the experience, not a sign something’s going wrong.”

For Payson, it’s important to take the rough with the smooth.

“Long rides are a mental journey as much as a physical one. The highs and lows are part of the experience, and something that makes them so special. During those magic moments of inspiration and pure joy, ride the wave, soak it in, revel in that feeling.

“When the hard times come, understand that they are an equal part of the experience, too. Sit with them, use them as an opportunity to learn about yourself and expand your capabilities. The hard moments are as much a gift as the magic ones, but I think it helps to remind yourself beforehand that the hard moments will come. That way they don't catch you off-guard and feel bigger or scarier than they need to.”

When it comes to the intensity of training, Onweller has some wise words of advice.

“Most motivated people don’t have a problem working hard. They have a problem working easy. I often skip group rides because people ride too hard. I’ll go out with amateurs and they’re dropping me – and I know I’ll be hours faster in a race.”

Of course, it can be tempting when you’re training for a goal with a finite amount of time to really dig deep in every session – but that can be counter-productive in the long run.

“I always joke and say, ‘Hey, that really cool button on your lever? Just press down. When you go up a hill, you can ride easier.’ I’ll go to group rides, or ride with people, and they’re hammering up climbs like it’s a sprint, and I’m thinking: ‘what are we doing here?’”

Freddy Ovett, one of the longest-standing Privateers on our programme, says he also can fall foul of the desire to keep on pushing in training.

“I’m blessed to train with some of the best cyclists in the world, and we have so much fun that you can forget how hard you’re pushing. My advice is to constantly monitor yourself and take your easy days either completely off or extremely easy. 

“It’s tempting to push the easy days when things are going well – but before you know it, those pushed easy days hurt your hard days. Probably the biggest advice I can give is to have someone you trust oversee your programme, listen to their advice, and remember it’s very easy to have too much of a good thing – even if it’s super enjoyable.”

Haley Smith has experience of overtraining, and emphasised how important a rest day can be.

“I used to just go as hard as possible, as long as possible, as maximal as possible all the time. And that doesn't work. And it definitely doesn't work long-term. The biggest thing I've learned is that you shouldn't feel really tired all the time, and I shouldn't wait to take a rest until I’m totally exhausted.”

Chad Haga also has a practical tip for spotting fatigue in your training.

“Mostly, you just need to listen to your body. Especially if you try going hard and your heart rate just isn't responding and it's super sluggish and much lower than it should be. That could be a sign that your body is not up for the task and needs some recovery. If your body stops responding in a way you expect, that’s often a sign you need to back it off a little.”

So if you’re planning to ride further than you ever have before, don’t get sucked into training at maximum intensity every time you go out. Your body needs time to rebuild along its journey to better fitness.

When you’re training for, or taking on a huge endurance test, you need to give your body the right fuel. Whether you call it “bonking”, “hunger flat”, or “hitting the wall” every cyclist has experienced that dreadful feeling of being totally empty.

Finsty recalls a time he set off without enough food.

“I once underestimated how much I’d need on a hot, long race and ran out of calories with over an hour to go. I went from feeling fine to being completely cracked in minutes… legs like concrete, head spinning.

“I learned two things: always have more than you think you’ll need and never let yourself get behind on fuel because you can’t ‘catch up’ once you’re empty.”

While Haga once bonked twice on the same ride.

“Part of the reason I got into gravel racing was that the events are extra long. During my road career, I used to finish the season with what I called the ‘race against the sun’ – a sunrise-to-sunset challenge to see how far I could ride before the sun came back down. I planned it so it would be right down to the wire. One time, I hit the wall after nine hours, completely bonked, found a gas station, loaded up on sugar, and kept going. Then three hours later, it happened again. To have two big bonks in the same ride – that was a real adventure.”

It would be hard to miss the high-carb revolution. It’s talked about at all levels of the sport, with news stories about this or that rider eating 120, 140, even 160 grams of carbohydrate per hour during a race.

Given the impressive results that some of these athletes are getting, it would be tempting to try and copy the professionals. But it’s not as simple as filling your pockets with gels and your bidons with isomix.

“The internet is saturated these days with information on nutrition,” Freddy explains. “It’s like a new wave of performance. Recently people discovered, ‘Oh, the more carbs I can have, the better I can perform.’ Who would have thought?

“But if you’re new to the sport, you have to build up the amount you can tolerate. Don’t stick to one product – try different ones, almost daily, even on easy days, until it’s normal. Use trial and error: some days take more gels than usual and see how it feels. If it doesn’t work, tone it back.

“You are the best judge of what you can and can’t handle – no one else can tell you that. Start slow, build up, and don’t try to do too much.”

Paige can testify to the downsides of trying to take more carbs than your body is used to.

“When I first raced, I had a high-carb drink mix on a hot day. I guzzled it, got a huge carb influx and ended up dry-heaving on the side of the road. My advice for people planning their first 200-kilometre endurance ride is start lower, maybe 60 grams an hour, then build up if you can in training.”

It’s not all about carbs, of course, and it’s not just about the day of your big ride, either.

“I separate nutrition into three parts: hydration, carbs, sodium,” Onweller says. “Each is planned separately. You have to practise what you’re doing – fuelling well takes planning and execution.”

Haley Smith points out that race or event-day fuelling actually begins beforehand.

“Let's go with this 200km ride. Your event nutrition actually begins two days before. If you're doing this event on a Sunday, on Friday you want to start to skew your nutrition a bit towards carbs.

“How much you can load depends on how used your body is to processing carbs. Because I'm used to it, on the Friday I would probably aim for like eight grams of carbs per kilo of body weight throughout the day.

“Then, the Saturday I would try to push that more to like 11 or 12 grams per kilo. In order to be able to absorb that, you have to drink a ton of water. 

“You do also have to cut down on the fat and protein that you take in a little bit, because otherwise the system will just be overloaded. You also limit your fibre intake. So fibre should come down a little bit in those two days. That means opting for ‘white’ carbs [like pasta or white rice].”

Then, when it comes to the morning of a big ride – in Smith’s case, usually a race – it’s all about getting in those carbs any way you can.

“On race morning, I have my pancake breakfast. And then I always have a sweet coffee because it's just easy to get carbs in that way. I’m eating like 150g [of carbohydrate] at breakfast time. And then within the ride, 100g per hour seems to be my sweet spot.”

You can get the carbs you need during an endurance ride with drink mix or gels or even regular food. Most riders go for a combination of all these – just don’t forget to stop for water on the regular. A rider can’t live on isomix alone.

If you get your physical preparation just right, the effects can feel incredible. As Finsty told us…

“It feels like having an extra gear that’s always there when you need it. You’re still working hard, but your body responds instantly and you can sustain high efforts without that creeping fatigue you get earlier in the season. There’s a quiet confidence in knowing you can push, recover and go again.”

Chad Haga goes deeper on the automotive metaphor. 

“The best way to describe it is that when lacking form, I feel like one of those early 2000s import car projects where they just slapped on a loud exhaust system. Lots of noise but going nowhere fast. When I’m in form… it’s more like an electric sports car. Very quick but no show, just ‘effortless’ speed.”

Paige, meanwhile, reminds us not to get hung up on ‘perfection’.

“I think if you are an athlete, the most important part of the equation is having confidence that your training is ‘enough’. If you have that confidence paired with low expectations, sometimes you can really surprise yourself. Honestly, that's when I have felt most alive in races, where I can see myself defying odds and performing well. Too often, with all the metrics and numbers to track nearly everything, we get caught behind chasing these numbers and correlate fitness with them. 

“For me, peak fitness is when I trust that I have done the most with the time I have and that my mind will get me to where I need to go in the end.”