1st ever 6day camping tour 220 miles. Training schedule idea

richie finger

Hi, Ive decide to go on my first ever cycling camping tour from near Hemel Hempstead where I live to the inlaws in West Wales. I want to do it in five nights/six days doing about 40 miles a day. Im pretty much starting from scratch as far as training and fitness goes and am currently doing approx 25-30 miles 2 to 3 times a week. According to my iphone I'm climbing an average of 1000ft per trip.
What I would like is some sort of schedule to enable me to complete the trip.
I was hoping to do it in half term 24th Oct but perhaps Im biting off a bit too much. Either way I
want to do it as soon as possible before the weather gets too bad.
I have no job at the moment so would want to do my trainig rides during the day.
What sort of schedule would you advise.
Cheers Richie

Edwin

Have you got all the kit yet - panniers, camping gear etc? I'd advise doing some training fully loaded, as it's a bit of a shocker how much the bike weighs with a week's worth of stuff, and the handling is different as well. Also do a few consecutive days to see how you cope with that. If you've got all day to ride, then 40 miles a day shouldn't be a problem.

richie finger

my rack is going on today. yes was definitely going to do a few rides fully loaded.
im not so worried about doing 40 miles. more the 6 days in a row. cheers

x8swift9x

I cycled around france with my friend this summer, we did 450 miles in 5 days with 18kg'ish luggage on our bikes. We didn't train for it (I wasn't into cycling at this stage) But we are both fit from playing other sports at a competitive level. 40 miles a day seems quite little to me? If your on your bike @ 9am then settle down @ 4pm thats 8 Hours cycling per day.

Are you going to be camping? Or travel lodge/B+B?

I highly recommend consecutive day rides fully loaded with the gear you would have on your trip (we didn't even practice once with our panniers in England, our balance was quite off on our first days ride in france as a result!)

'Starting from scratch' with training and fitness -

Mon - 30'ish Mile ride. (set yourself an average speed to stick to)

Tues - 3 Sets of 10 reps, weightless squats. (Stand with legs shoulder width apart, bend until thighs parallel to floor) 1 min rest between each set.
3 sets of 10 reps press-ups (why not eh?!)
Ab crunches could be thrown in also.

10 mile ride (aim for high average speed, push it!)

Weds - Same as monday.

Thursday - Same as tuesday.

Fri - Same as mon again.

Sat -Rest day.

Sunday - 40 mile ride. Sticking to an average speed of your choice.


I added the squats and press ups for strength. I was assuming you don't have a gym membership or weights at home etc as you said 'starting from scratch'. Apologies if you do! The cycling will be enough to improve your Cardiovascular level within that time period. Make sure your nutrition is good, stick to lean food as much as possible, and choose wholemeal every time (pasta, bread etc)

Sorry if I have gone over the top on you! My sports schedule may be shining through, so I hope I haven't put too much in there!

richie finger

Thanks for that. At time of posting I thought I had a mild bit of food poisoning, turns out it was bit worse. Tried going out for first time again today and it ruined me. I'm looking forward to recovering proper and trying this out. Thanks for your help.

denmancentral

If you can already cycle 20 miles a few times a week, 40 miles for 6 days isn't going to require any training! The hardest part might be motivating yourself to get back on the bike every day, and you can't train for that in the gym.

It's definitely worth loading up the bike and doing a practice overnight trip, as a previous poster mentioned. My first easy, 1 night B&B trip with luggage gave me confidence in myself and my gear. After that I was happy to undertake longer trips without worrying.

oldwelshman

Forget the wieghts no need.
With your current mileage you could do 60 miles a day easily.
If you increased one or two rdes a week to 50 miles you would then manage 70 miles a day easily and do it in 3 days.
If I was not working I would do it with you My family are in wales and daughter in swansea.
I train with group and ride from hemel on weekends. Maybe you should go out with Hemel club run on a sunday once or twice.

ut_och_cykla

Ride a bit more , and a few more consecutive days. Test bike with kit on it a couple of times. test tent and stove if you take them. Dont start too late every day and take you're time. youll be surprised about how much distance you can cover if you're not in too much of a hurry. Also if you know its going to be hilly make sure you have gears that at the moment seem a bit stupidlly low. Pushing a fully laden bike up a hill is not funny. Cycling up it slowly is much preferable and will nearly always be a bit faster!!

x8swift9x

oldwelshman wrote:

Forget the wieghts no need.

I didn't mention weights at all. They are all body weight exercises. Why no need? Weight training (although this isn't) will help improve performance levels.

vorsprung

x8swift9x wrote:

I didn't mention weights at all. They are all body weight exercises. Why no need? Weight training (although this isn't) will help improve performance levels.

Proof please. This is a unusual point of view. Orthodoxy is that weight training doesn't help general cycling performance except possibly in the over 50s age group

edit: oops covered in this recent thread

http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12654480

richie finger

Thanks all for the responses and encouragement. Did 10 miles today with a bit of gut ache but not too bad. Should be back to 30 plus in the next few days I reckon.
The first and only time I did two consecutive 30 mile days I got home and didn't think I felt that bad. I had my lunch then fell asleep.
Five hours later my other half came home and woke me up! It shocked me a bit so thats what prompted me to do this post:)