Preparing for a long (and money-saving!) ride (500 miles)

Dekazer

Oh I am definitely going to try making sports drinks! What a brilliant MSE tip

So far on my shorter trips (sub-25 miles) I've found water and dried fruit and nuts to be sustaining, but will definitely be stocking up more for longer rides.

Idiophreak

Just to mention that wiggle have a good offer on at the moment, where if you purchase in the next couple of days (could be anything...spare inner tube etc) they will send you three vouchers for use in Feb - one for £50 off £300 spend, one for £30 off £200 spend and one for £10 off £50 spend (iirc)...I'm actually planning on doing a similar ride for the first time this summer (LEJOG) - and thought I might use these codes to stock up on some bits - I guess you won't be spending that much more based on your budget, but just in case.

I'd also highly recommend waiting for the bike stuff at Aldi, Wiggle - great quality and saves you a fortune!

thatlemming

Wiggle is crazy overpriced on most things, so unless you have british cycling membership discount to bring it down to a reasonable level I'd stick to chain reactions or merlin. Aldi's base layers, 7 quid a pop, really surprisingly good. Evans isn't bad value for money if you can find a code around (or again, if you have bc membership).

Idiophreak

thatlemming wrote: »

Wiggle is crazy overpriced on most things, so unless you have british cycling membership discount to bring it down to a reasonable level I'd stick to chain reactions or merlin. Aldi's base layers, 7 quid a pop, really surprisingly good. Evans isn't bad value for money if you can find a code around (or again, if you have bc membership).

Agree Wiggle aren't always the cheapest - and you should always shop around - but the codes I mentioned would make it very competitive for some stuff. For instance, I'm after a Garmin 800 performance pack, which Merlin's not even competitive for, it's 300 on CRC or 315 on wiggle...With £50 off £300, it would be £35 cheaper (>10%) on wiggle - which is worth saving

Will have to look at this BC membership, not heard of that before...

ericonabike

Just keep pedalling. May seem obvious, but long trips are in the mind as much as the body. My rule of thumb is that you can do in a day what you do in a week - so just get your weekly mileage up to 100, do a few rides at two thirds distance before the event and you'll be fine. As for sports nutrition...I've ridden John O'Groats/Land's End in 7 days and Leicester/Mediterranean in the same timescale. Both done on orange juice and water in the bottles, and whatever I fancied eating along the way. My 'working day' was from 8 till 6, with just a rackpack on the bike as luggage. If your ride is supported, you don't need that - just a tool kit and pump. Call it old skool if you like, but remember that before car use was so widespread, 100 mile rides were pretty much routine for anyone with a bike! Best of luck and don't worry about it.

Idiophreak

ericonabike wrote: »

Call it old skool if you like, but remember that before car use was so widespread, 100 mile rides were pretty much routine for anyone with a bike! Best of luck and don't worry about it.

Sorry, but !!!!!!??

Before car use was widespread, bikes had a single gear, weighed a tonned and were (by all accounts) not what you'd call "comfortable" for prolonged use...Even if you overlook the comfort, you're still looking at probably 12 hours on the bike to cover 100 miles...why on earth would you do that "routinely"?

I honestly haven't given it much thought, but that's got to be nonsense, surely?

ericonabike

As a f'rinstance - 75,000 miles in a year in 1939? http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest/531582/tommy-godwin-75-065-miles-in-a-year.html My club was established in 1923 and 100 mile time trials were commonplace - with participants riding to the event then back home again! Granted, you'd have been unlikely to do that on a sit up and beg 'police bike' style machine, but the average club rider on a drop-bar bike was doing some heroic mileages. So I take back 'anyone with a bike' and instead suggest 'anyone with a half-decent bike' perhaps...

Idiophreak

ericonabike wrote: »

As a f'rinstance - 75,000 miles in a year in 1939? http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest/531582/tommy-godwin-75-065-miles-in-a-year.html My club was established in 1923 and 100 mile time trials were commonplace - with participants riding to the event then back home again! Granted, you'd have been unlikely to do that on a sit up and beg 'police bike' style machine, but the average club rider on a drop-bar bike was doing some heroic mileages. So I take back 'anyone with a bike' and instead suggest 'anyone with a half-decent bike' perhaps...

...but this is all recreational riding, right? and as such not really anything to do with the advent of the motor car?

The way you phrased it before it sounded like "oh, a car, that will make my commute from Birmingham to London much easier..."

Dekazer

So, my training's coming along pretty well, or as well as can be expected given recent weather circumstances!! On Sunday I took part in a sportive road ride organised by Evans. (I have no ties to Evans, just a happy customer) I thought I'd share it here in case it appeals to anyone else who hasn't tried it before.

I arrived on my own in the morning to a huge and rather intimidating crowd of clearly very experienced cyclists. I registered and got my timing chip and then queued for the briefing. I felt like an imposter in the crowd of shaven legged whippet thin MAMILs, but held my nerve and crossed the start line at 9am.

My sign up fee of £15 went towards route signage (excellent), feed stations en route with flapjacks, nuts, fruit and water, a box of energy gels and shakes, stewardship, timing chip and, unexpectedly, a photographer! I thought it was very good value as the event was slickly organised and well run.

My cycling app tells me that I rode for 4:33:11 hours, covered 59.5 miles and gained 2,273 feet of elevation. My legs told me that I'd been out for 5 hours, ridden up a shedload of hills but eaten an enormous number of flapjacks and enjoyed the Surrey hills countryside on the first sunny day in ages.

I still need to work on building up speed (especially uphill) and climbing in general, and of course I need to work on longer and longer rides, but I'm pleased to find that I'm not too bad at motivating myself when things are tough. Onward and upward!

I am planning on signing up to a couple more Evans rides, as they are good value for money. My local cycling group (part of the London Cycling Campaign) also arrange rides, which although not as structured (no feed stations, no route signage etc) are free

http://www.evanscycles.com/ride-it

http://lcc.org.uk/

Anyone else know of any good MSE organised rides?

Idiophreak

Thanks for the write up, Dekazer!

I'm doing one of the wiggle sportivs in the new forest this coming weekend - and it will be my first too, so good to know what to expect a little. Glad you got round safe, anyway