If you want to survive ultra-distance cycling, forget complex training blocks and obsess over one thing: consistent forward progress while managing sleep deprivation. After 37 ultra races, including setting the overall Trans Am record, Lael Wilcox's approach isn't about maximising watts — it's about sustainable pacing, strategic rest, and mental resilience over days, not hours. She unpacked all of it on 1 Thing I Learned Riding 37 Ultra-Distance Races on the Roadman Cycling Podcast.
Key Takeaways
- Sleep 4 hours per night maximum for multi-day events lasting over a week — any less becomes unsustainable
- Race-as-training works when you're doing 6+ ultras per year; traditional blocks become irrelevant
- Dynamo lights are non-negotiable for multi-day events — you can't carry enough batteries for 48+ hours
- Nutrition simplifies under stress — ice cream and electrolyte drinks beat complex fuelling strategies in extreme heat
- Gravel bikes with suspension forks handle 90% of ultra terrain better than mountain bikes
- Media criticism affects women disproportionately in ultra cycling — the same support men receive gets scrutinised
- Route reconnaissance matters more than training — knowing terrain and resupply points trumps fitness gains
- Mental preparation involves accepting discomfort as normal rather than trying to eliminate it
How Sleep Deprivation Becomes Your Biggest Performance Factor
During our conversation, Lael revealed something that completely shifted how I think about ultra endurance: sleep management is more critical than any power meter data. "For me it's about four hours a night for something that takes over a week," she explained after finishing 15th overall at Badlands in just over two days.
But here's what's fascinating — she's not practising sleep deprivation in training. "If I'm not racing then I sleep or I try to because I feel like the lack of sleep is probably the least healthy aspect of this whole sport." This contradicts everything we think we know about specificity in training.
Instead, Lael's approach during races involves strategic micro-naps. At Badlands, she pulled over six times for 15-minute power naps on the roadside. "I would set my alarm for 15 minutes and then I would wake up before it went off," she said. The key insight? Even 10 minutes of sleep can restore visual focus — critical for technical descents when you're hallucinating from exhaustion.
The competitive element has pushed sleep deprivation to dangerous extremes. "Some people will sleep only every third night which I think is just horrible," Lael noted. But there's a performance ceiling here. Your body will force microsleep whether you want it or not, and catastrophic failures happen when riders push beyond sustainable limits.
The sweet spot for multi-day events? Four hours of sleep when you're out there for a week or more, but front-load your sleep bank beforehand. Don't try to "train" sleep deprivation — it's not adaptable like VO2 max or lactate threshold.
Why Traditional Training Blocks Don't Apply to Ultra Endurance
Here's something that blew my mind during our chat: Lael completed six ultra races in one year without following a single structured training plan. "I was racing so much that I was never really training — the racing was the training and then I would rest and then I would race again."
This isn't amateur hour. This is someone who holds the overall Trans Am record (18 days for 7,000km) and consistently finishes in the top tier of ultra events globally. The traditional periodisation model — base, build, peak, recover — doesn't translate when your events last days or weeks rather than hours.
Instead, what works is maintaining a baseline fitness level and then using race experience to develop the specific adaptations that matter: mental resilience, equipment familiarity, and logistical problem-solving under stress. "I used to ride to the start of all my races so for instance like the first time I raced tour divide I rode to the start from Alaska," Lael explained. Those long approach rides became the training.
The real preparation happens through route reconnaissance and equipment testing. Before Badlands, Lael and her wife Rue toured half the route. "I had a pretty good idea of what I was getting into," she said. This reconnaissance provided more performance benefit than any interval session could.
Equipment familiarity becomes crucial when you're making decisions at 3 AM after 30 hours of riding. Lael learned this during her Trans Am victory: "My seat post broke in Missouri and I had to ride standing up for a day to get to a bike shop." These aren't fitness problems — they're experience problems. The same logic runs through Alex Howes's perspective on the Tour Divide, where a World Tour engine still bowed to logistics and self-reliance.
The Equipment Reality: Simplicity Beats Optimisation
You'd expect ultra distance setups to be incredibly complex, but Lael's approach is refreshingly simple. For Badlands, she ran 700x48 Rene Herse Oracle Ridge tyres on a gravel bike with a suspension fork. "After the tour I realised gravel bike's perfect for this especially my gravel bike because I have a suspension fork."
The suspension fork detail is crucial. Most of us think about suspension for mountain biking, but for ultra endurance, it's about comfort over technical capability. When you're in the saddle for 20+ hours, every vibration compounds into significant fatigue.
Dynamo lighting isn't optional — it's survival equipment. "For endurance you need it because you'd never have enough time to charge your lights," Lael explained. The system charges off wheel rotation, providing consistent light plus USB charging for electronics. The only limitation? "If you're doing technical mountain biking it's common to go less than 10K an hour through the woods so that's kind of the speed that you have to go to have a consistent beam."
Nutrition strategy? Forget the science. At Badlands, Lael survived almost entirely on ice cream. "It's so hot it's hard to eat and then I didn't want to really stop for prepared food so I just would take like ice cream to go and eat it on the bike." She carried over a litre each of Coke and orange juice from the start, plus electrolyte drink mixes for refills at water fountains.
This isn't nutritional advice for your local gran fondo. This is survival eating under extreme stress where normal appetite regulation fails and getting any calories matters more than getting optimal calories.
What This Means for Your Training
You don't need to attempt the Tour Divide to apply Lael's insights to your own riding. The core principles scale down to any endurance challenge, whether that's your first century ride or a multi-day bikepacking trip.
Start with sleep preparation. If you're planning any ride over 12 hours, practise riding when tired — not by depriving yourself of sleep in training, but by occasionally riding late in the day when natural fatigue sets in. This teaches you to recognise when concentration is compromised and when you need to slow down or stop.
Equipment familiarity matters exponentially more than equipment optimisation. Lael borrowed gear last-minute for Badlands because she decided to race spontaneously, but she knew her bike setup intimately. Spend time with your gear in various conditions rather than constantly upgrading. Know how your bike handles when you're exhausted, how your nutrition sits in your stomach during hour eight, how your lights perform in different weather.
Route planning becomes training. Before attempting any challenging ride, study the route obsessively. Know where food, water, and shelter are available. Lael's route reconnaissance provided more performance benefit than any training block. If you're eyeing a specific event, our Badlands training guide shows what that preparation looks like in practice.
Finally, reframe your relationship with discomfort. Ultra endurance isn't about eliminating suffering — it's about accepting it as part of the experience. "Everything becomes normal at some point," Lael noted about sleep deprivation. This mental shift from fighting discomfort to expecting it changes everything about how you approach challenging rides.
If you're training for a big endurance ride and aren't sure whether your real limiter is fitness, fuelling or recovery, the Plateau Diagnostic looks at all three together and shows you where to focus. Three minutes. Free.