Training tips for a long bike ride.

sparkychris

Yep, there are support vehicles, apparently, but I have a little bag under my saddle with tyre levers and two inner tubes in. And I have a pump that clips onto a bracket behind my water bottle,.

Am enjoying the training, to be fair... just done a 33 mile mountain stage!

elverson

Good stuff.

sparkychris

Evening team. BIt of an update if anyone's interested!

Have been doing a few after-work 20 milers and longer ones at the weekend and about three weeks ago did 50 miles VERY hilly which destroyed me. I had two bits of toast and a banana before I left and had two bottles of water on my route, finishing my water well before halfway round.

A bit perturbed about being so battered after only 50 miles (seriously considered phoning Mrs sparky to come and get me) I spoke to dave the welder who berated me for being so ill prepared.

Last weekend I planned my route so that I went past shops to top the water up, ate pasta the night before, had a very oat smoothy an hour before I set off and had a packet of cliff bloks every hour, on the hour and did 100 hilly miles last weekend and felt great....

I can't believe the difference!

I also set off slower than I wanted to and built up my speed as I headed home and did an average of 14.1mph overall.

So, so chuffed!!!

Johnmcl7

Food and drink is really, really important as you've found - it's one of the toughest parts of endurance racing as you need to keep eating even when you're not hungry otherwise you just completely run out of energy. Even on my couple of hour night rides it was a mistake I made a few times that I didn't feel at all hungry so didn't eat anything beforehand then part way through the ride just suddenly felt empty and completely lacking power.

I've also made the mistake with water when it's turned out a lot warmer than expected which of course can easily happen during a long ride, I only had two water bottles and stupidly didn't take any money. Thankfully there was a friend's house I could stop at to get refilled.

John

sparkychris

Yep. Not once did I actually feel like eating but it was an experiment so I just did. They were very easy to eat and although I didn't feel like eating just forced them down with water with electrolytes in. Just like sweets really. And I had two nutrigrain bars to stave off hunger.
It changed my ride from a slog a couple of weeks ago to a very enjoyable seven hours saddle time.

Looking forward to next weekend!

cubegame

How are you riding on your shorter rides?

If you're going out for an hour or so you should try and empty the tank. You'll build up your pain tolerance and also your power by doing this.

An ideal short ride should feel as exhausting as a longer weekend ride will do. To put it another way, you shouldn't enjoy it until you've finished it.

Keep_pedalling

sparkychris wrote: »

Yep. Not once did I actually feel like eating but it was an experiment so I just did. They were very easy to eat and although I didn't feel like eating just forced them down with water with electrolytes in. Just like sweets really. And I had two nutrigrain bars to stave off hunger.
It changed my ride from a slog a couple of weeks ago to a very enjoyable seven hours saddle time.

Looking forward to next weekend!

Have you got the 100 miler in yet? If so how did it go?

sparkychris

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

Have you got the 100 miler in yet? If so how did it go?

Morning!

The official bike ride is 25th September but I did 100 miles on my own a few weeks ago which has given me more confidence (scroll up!)

Am still training but doing shorter 30 miles or so over some very treacherous hills near to where I live but am going to up my game over the next few weeks.

Am hoping the weather will be kind to me on the big day!

sparkychris

cubegame wrote: »

How are you riding on your shorter rides?

If you're going out for an hour or so you should try and empty the tank. You'll build up your pain tolerance and also your power by doing this.

An ideal short ride should feel as exhausting as a longer weekend ride will do. To put it another way, you shouldn't enjoy it until you've finished it.

My shorter rides are very hard work but I don't empty the tank... If I'm not enjoying my bike rides I wouldn't be motivated to do them so I find a middle ground. ...

Am also slow going downhill as it makes me a bit nervous!

Keep_pedalling

sparkychris wrote: »

Morning!

The official bike ride is 25th September but I did 100 miles on my own a few weeks ago which has given me more confidence (scroll up!)

Am still training but doing shorter 30 miles or so over some very treacherous hills near to where I live but am going to up my game over the next few weeks.

Am hoping the weather will be kind to me on the big day!

Once you have cracked the 100 barrier, it should be a piece of cake second time round, unless the terrain is a lot more survere. Regular shorter rides will help a lot.