moved from beginners thread

Mikey joe

Sorry to double post but is was suggested to me that this ma be better suited in this thread. Grateful for any advice.

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Hello I am riding a "highly non competitve" bike ride on June 9th. It is over a distance of 140 miles in one day. There are about 30 of us. I have been doing some training for a few weeks now mostly cycling to work 3 days a week (9 miles each way) and a 25- 30 mile ride on the weekend or a night after work. I am finding it difficult getting enough time to do more training. I am aiming to increase my training but would appreciate any advice on the best way to do this over the remainng time.

I have heard about number of short intense sessions say 6 x 45 second sprints which increase endurance in a manner simialr to a longer run. Also I am now trying to ride in a low gear to spin more.

Any and all help very much appreciated

Cheers

Mikey joe

sloboy

Wow - big challenge ! Hopefully you're reasonably fit from other forms of exercise, otherwise this is a really biggy, the same sort of scale as doing a marathon, in my view.

If this is your first big rides, two key problems will be:

- being comfortable enough on the bike for the length of time you'll be out there. If you're not an experienced cyclist, you should be expecting at least 10 hours, with maybe 12 being more likely for the overall trip

- pacing yourself right for that distance. One of the nice things about bikes with gears is that, given the right set up, anyone can ride any route more or less, it just comes down to pacing.

The good news is that cycling for a long time, if you're comfortable, is a lot easier than running or maybe even walking. So my advice would be to do what you can to become used to a long time in the saddle and then you'll also find out more about what food/drink suits you when you're on the move.

I'm not so sure about the sprints - I know there are people that that works for, but I reckon they often have a very strong cycling base built over years that they're using as a foundation. In my opinion, you need to maximise the efficiency of some of your lower power energy systems*, and building up distance at a steady rate is probably the best policy at this stage.


*Not sure how much you know about exercise type stuff, but the body has a number of different energy systems it uses, from very short term ones that produce lots of power but are exhausted in a matter of seconds, to very long running ones that will run for hours without much fatigue. The general training principal of specificity broadly says, train the system you're looking to improve.

Brixtonfixed

If there is any way to carve out the time to do a ride of equivalent (or near-equivalent) distance before the big day, that will help enormously. Not just because of the exercise, but because you will know more about what to expect and this will make the long distance easier to cope with mentally. And if you do the practice ride on your own, then chances are you'll be pleasantly surprised on the day, too, as riding in a group is easier.

Mikey joe

Thanks for the advice.

I am reasonably fit (nothing amazing but not bad) so I'm hoping that will help some small way. i am hoping to do a 60 to 70 mile ride this weekend and hopefully will get a 90 to 100 mile ride in before the day too. My biggest problem is getting time to do this. I'm also going to try out different types of energy food and drinks too. I've herd that flapjacks are really good. But my main aim is to spend as much time in the saddle as I can between no and then.

Thank you for your replies they are really appreciated

MichaelW

The thing that will stop you finishing is discomfort rather than fitness. Make sure your bike is setup sensibly with plenty of confortable hand options. Try to elimninate any stress in your body. My arms usually pack in before my legs.
Avoid bonking by eating and drinking at least every hr, esp at the start where you might not feel like it.
Avoid sprints, esp at the start. Your legs will have so many sprints and climbs and if you use them up unneccesarily you will suffer.
Use familiar, well tried kit, esp shorts footwear and gloves.
Take sufficient clothing so you dont get cold. Windproofs, leggings, arm/leg warmers and neck-buffs are all lightweight methods. Use a saddlebag or other luggage to carry your stuff, there is a limit to how much rear pockets can comfortably take.

Mikey joe

Cheers -

The race is divided into 5 "stages" with a rest stop between them. We will have a support van to carry clothing and spares etc. I have started donig push ups to strengthen my arms and shoulders and will try to vary my position to give my arms a break as much as possible.

At the moment I'm feeling quite weak though. I had a head cold at the weekend and my journey to work has the last two days has been very sluggish and slow. No real power in my body. Do folks think I should ride this out (literally) or rest for a while?

I am hoping to do a 70 mile ride at the weekend. And would like to be in good shape to do this

blackhands

Rest until you feel ok.

evocp

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by blackhands</i>

Rest until you feel ok.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

As per above[:)]

Ian

Mikey joe

cheers

I may scrap the 70 miler at the weekend and try and make up for it by skiving off work early next week.

Unknown

See if you can get up an hour or two earlier and make your ride to work considerably longer

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Drink your souplesse

Mikey joe

Great idea vorsprung - I hadn;'t thought of that. It's a good way of freeing up some extra training time.

Chris_Who

Assuming, you're not self-employed, do what I did yesterday and take the morning off - it hardly feels like you're using your allowance and if you're off early you'll get plenty of time - I did 100 miles and still had time for lunch before work!

(Plus I got to brag about it all afternoon!!)

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Fat people are so insensitive

Mikey joe

This is true.

I need to be more imaginative about when I can train. rather than waiting for eveing and weekends

Thanks for this

binlinus

Hi Mikey Joe

With just over four weeks to go to your event you really have only three weeks of training to prepare yourself. The last seven days before 9 June need to be a very low volume of workouts with plenty of sleep and to eat as well as you can.

By all means get a long ride in each weekend. It should be at a very easy pace and without a tea stop. Stop no more than a few minutes for a pee and to eat something. The object of the long rides will be about being able to get used to being on the bike for many hours and about sorting out your eating and drinking regime, as well as working on saving energy and by spinning efficiently.

One mid-week ride (say Tuesday) needs to be at a much higher intensity. Warm up for 15mins then ride as hard as you can for the rest of the ride before allowing for 15 mins to wind down at the end. On your nine mile commute you should be able to get in 15mins easy, then 10 to 15mins very hard, then 15mins easy. That middle hard session needs to be as hard as you can go. If you can make this 20 mins then all the better. Do this ride once in the day. Make the return or outwards commute very easy concentrating on spinning the pedals smoothly.

On, say, Thursday you should do the same warm up then ride flat out for 30 secs then very easy for 30 to 60 secs then keep repeating this for the middle section of your ride for about 10 mins. You can make these out-of-the-saddle sprints or spinning fast in the saddle; preferably both. The sprints out of the saddle will build your bike-handling muscles as well as giving you a good heart and lungs workout. Again, just one a day.

These two mid-week workouts will boost your fitness significantly and the power you can deliver to the pedals, and add variety to your training; but you need to recover well from them. You should do them on an empty stomach or at least three hours after a meal (because you might vomit or get a stomach cramp) and you should eat as soon as possible afterwrds. I also note that you say you are suffering with a cold. You could actually be over-training because of trying to pack as much riding in before the event. If you still have this cold before the long ride on the weekend then you need to be very careful. The 70 mile ride from you current state of fitness will drain you and also lower your testosterone levels which will affect your ability to recover. If you can't recover you can't do another workout. If you are feeling a bit ropey then go out for an easy two hour ride. When you get home eat shower and go to bed for an hour.

What I have suggested is that you do _less_ riding in the middle of the week but that it should be much harder. By combining two hard rides in the week with a long ride on the weekend and a couple of short easy rides you will make the best use of the little time you have.

I would not recommend you riding any more days than I have suggested unless its very, very easy riding as a recovery ride.

I wouldn't be too concerned about getting the 100 mile ride in before the big event. If you can do 70 or 80 miles on the Sunday before with a rest all week you could just about get through double the distance the following week as long as you eat enough and take it easy. It'll be a challenge, though ;-)

You need to get plenty of rest each night, eat as well as you can. Eat plenty of fresh fruit and veg. Lots of vitamin C to get rid of that cold. Forget about the other physical exercise because now you have to put all your efforts to bike riding and being able to recover from your workouts.

On the day of the event go easy eat and keep hydrated and don't stop for more than five minutes at a time. Keep moving or you'll get stiff. You've set yourself quite a challenge.

There's some good advice above about comfort and about what to wear.

Good luck

Bin

Mikey joe

This is wonderful, thank you very much. I shall try to incorporate these intense sections into my workouts.

My a*se is not too bad after three hours in the saddle. I may invest in some chamois cream though just in case.

Thank you all again

Mikey joe

I would just like to say thanks to everyone who replied to this message and offered advice. I completed my ride on saturday. A total of 130 miles in 8 hours 3 minutes riding time. Also I managed to ride the two big hills Cairn O Mount and glenshee without getting off. I would definately say the advice I recieved here helped. So thank you - I'm very new to this sport and while I don;t see myself riding competively, I'll definately be spending a lot more time in the saddle!!

Cheers

Mj

binlinus

Well done mate. You set yourself quite a challenge and got through it. Hadn't heard from you for four weeks and wondered how you were getting on.

Bin