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

DCodd

Another Surrey sportive starting at Epsom Racecourse. Run by Cycling Weekly, not the cheapest although good facilities.

http://cyclingweekly.ipcshop.co.uk/shop/sportives/surrey-hills-cyclone-sportive

liz545

Thanks for the write-up - my OH has been trying to convince me to do a sportive or an organised ride, although at the moment I'm not confident of my ability over 30ish miles. The Evans events sound like they might be a good option for a first timer! The CTC website has some rides, which are more of the DIY variety, and there's also British Cycling and the Sky Rides.

Dekazer

Cheers all I must say I really enjoyed it once I got over the initial nerves.

@liz545 I was similar to you in that the furthest I had ever ridden in one go (until Sunday!) was 30 miles. I think doing the event really spurred me to push myself. The route was pretty rural, so no real temptation to stop half way round. The other cyclists going at the same pace were friendly, and it was nice to tag along behind other people at times. The route was beautiful, so I didn't get bored many times. The weather helped, and I admit I was lucky not to get punctures.

It helped me realise that for me to push myself I need something 'external' - an organised ride, other riders, being in the middle of nowhere - to push me.

Thanks all for the suggestions of other events. That Cycling Weekly one looks good at 85 miles. The British Cycling website seems to list lots of them, great tip!

Richard53

ericonabike wrote: »

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.

I'm sure you are right, for a single occasion, with time to recover afterwards. I'm not sure if that rule of thumb would work for five 100-mile days in a row, though. After the first day, you would be badly depleted, and you still have four to go, with no rest days (if I understood the OP's schedule correctly). That's tough.

I would say for the challenge she is doing, she needs to be able to knock off a 100-mile day without any trouble, before she starts the event.

And OP, you mentioned a rucksack at one point. Please don't even think of carrying anything on your back for these mileages! Anything you carry should be on the bike, not you, and the less the better

gingernm

Dekazer,

What's your Stava id, if you don't mind me adding you.

I have done a few sportives, got one in MK on 20/04, few others later and also doing L2B in June.

Not been out for a few weeks, but aiming to do some riding over next few days and next week to show the legs what they're missing before throwing 100KM at them on 20th!!

Hope you're still enjoying riding and the training appears to be going well.

Regards

Rob.

Dekazer

Well I did it! Ridiculous tan lines are all in place, legs have returned to normal and I hit my fundraising target!

My top tips for surviving a big ride are:

1. Wear ONE pair of good quality padded shorts (never wear two! and never wear undies!) and use chamois cream.

2. Work on your wider fitness and strength, which will be very helpful for preventing aches and pains.

3. Pay for a good quality fitting. They will measure and film you to make sure your bike fits well. Apart from general muscle tiredness, I didn't suffer from any specific pains, which I put down to good bike fit.

4. Get your bike serviced beforehand, and put on new tyres. My bike didn't have a single technical problem (the chain didn't even slip off once) nor a puncture - great stuff

5. Eat and drink. Bonking (in the cycling sense) ain't fun.

That's it! I loved almost every minute, thought my team mates were awesome, and feel very proud of myself now. I'm much fitter and stronger than I was, and I am satisfied that I achieved something that I found difficult and scary.

Oh, but I also learned that it's hard to do cycling in an MSE way! The tips I picked up here were brilliant, so thanks to posters

Happy cycling all!

Marco_Panettone

Great effort! When's the next one?