Elite adventure athletes who prefer the pace and performance of ultra-endurance efforts like that required for Tour Divide (sometimes called “tour-racing”) may prefer an elite DNB weekly schedule consisting of a three-day push followed by four days off to work and recover. This schedule can also serve as training during the year for multi-day ultra-endurance events later. The distance travelled during the 72 hour push depends entire on the route and goals of the adventure athlete. Some will opt for a triple-century during their push, others half that. It really depends on the total distance required to complete the overall route within whatever time period is required, usually governed by seasonal weather.
An average week would look something like the following:
That’s 36 hours of riding including breaks to resupply and eat. At the relatively slow pace of 10 mph that that’s 360 miles of distance. Faster riders could easily cover 400 miles in that time. Consider that covering 300 miles in 72 hours is the same as covering 43 miles a day. In terms of weekly mileage, this would be considered on the low end for most adventure bike touring, but still allows completion of longer routes like TransAmerica Trail and Tour Divide/GDMBR within a single season.
Training for this type of elite DNB schedule is very compatible with any work schedule. Just follow the exact same schedule at home while preparing including attempts to restock from the road with what will likely be available on the planned trip.
How do you manage to get through something as long as TAT or GDMBR and still work an honest week? First of all, what is an honest week (for you)? For me an honest work week requires at least the following:
While it is possible to gamble on having these requirements on any given weekday, it is much less stress to simply plan on staying the night at the same place Sunday night through Thursday night and then plan on pushing hard (with minimal sleep setup) Friday through Sunday night These are also the nights with the most vacancy since everyone else has to be at work.
This weekly schedule appeals to me because I can really focus on the riding and being present out in the nature and communities I am there to experience, while having zero guilt knowing that I will positively, absolutely be free from worry for the upcoming work week.
Getting pelted with torrential, hurricane season rain? Not a problem. Just stay longer at a safe lodging location, or upgrade to a motel.
To be on the safe side, 120 dollars per night is a good target, that’s roughly 600 per week not counting food. When it is cheaper there is more budget to eat out or make up for the super expensive locations.
Outside of external requirements like livestreaming, the elite DNB schedule requires the least amount of weight to carry power supplies for laptop and Starlink Mini, etc. since everything can be fully recharged every night from work base camp when not pushing on the weekend. In fact, just a single 30,000 mAh battery brick is enough to power phone, GPS, lights, etc. In an emergency, it can be used to power the Starlink Mini temporarily. Even carrying two bricks is a very affordable weight cost. Livestreaming requires two additional bricks for a simple IRL rig for a total of four total. This weight is comparable to that brought by photographers and drone-operators.
Assuming I pushed my maximum pace on the days I do ride (think old-man Tour Divide, about 100 miles per day) then I would be doing 300 miles per week (just in three days instead of all seven). That’s 40 miles per day-ish (a typical “slow” adventure cycling pace). So the pace per week can be used to calculate total number of days needed for longer trips. So the GDMBR is 3083 miles. That would be 77 days, easily under the 80 threshold to safely complete in “one season”.
The trick is maintaining the level of logistical efficiency and physical fitness to push 100 miles per day when required.
I love to push myself physically. I also love seeing interesting things. The reason this elite-DNB schedule appeals the most to me is because it really pushes me in this way but gives me a full week to recover. This fights off burnout that so easily creeps into Tour Divide intensity. It also allows me to really get to know a place while spending five lazy nights there wandering around after work.
One downside of this schedule is the number of nights of lodging required that stretches the welcome of anyone willing to put me up. Usually, people camp out for a night on the lawn and move on, not for a week.
Still, on the two nights of intense riding these would be absolutely ideal for a WarmShowers host and welcome given the absolute intense pace.