62 miles in 4 hours 39 minutes Sportive help needed

cheaperholidays

Hi

I am considering entering the Welsh Epic which is 100 miles, i have just completed 62 miles in 4 hours 39, however 15 minutes of this was spent waiting at a bloody level crossing.

My route was Church village to Culverhouse cross cardiff then follow the Banardos route, then back to Church village .

I regularly climb the Rhigos and the bwlch do i need to do anymore to complete my first 100 mile event.

Thanks

Kev

PostieJohn

If 80 miles doesn't scare the pooh out of you, 100 will be fine.

There's not much point clocking up a century just to find out if you can do it, save that for the event and really enjoy the achievement.

80 will pretty much guarentee that, but not make it certain!.

Remember minimal or ideally no riding in the week leading up to the event.

cheaperholidays

THanks

Do you recommend an eating regime on the ride, mars bars peanut butter sarnies, i normaly try and eat something on the hour small mars bar washed down with plenty of water i carry a camel back, will i need extra water ?

PostieJohn

Blimey that's not a regime, more like my 5 year old birthday party .

That's all kind of what the odd 80 miler is for, just to check these thing out.

There are better foods to eat, and the camel back will give you an individual style!.
I'm assuming there will be feed stops where you can top up a bottle and grab a banana.

Roadracer123

I reallr would advise riding 100 pre-sportive to ensure you are capable :?

Pross

Avoid the chocolate and get some foods with slower energy release plus a few gels for emergencies. I'd agree that you will probably be fine if you've done a few 80 milers as you'll get the adrenaline on the day plus at least some of the time will be riding in groups. You could also argue if you fail on the organised 100 it's better than failing on your own riding 100 miles and have to somehow get back.

PostieJohn

Roadracer123 wrote:

I reallr would advise riding 100 pre-sportive to ensure you are capable :?

Personally I don't think I could disagree more strongly.

acebobby

PostieJohn wrote:

Blimey that's not a regime, more like my 5 year old birthday party .

Dont forget the jelly babies

Roadracer123

PostieJohn wrote:

Roadracer123 wrote:

I reallr would advise riding 100 pre-sportive to ensure you are capable :?

Personally I don't think I could disagree more strongly.

Care to elaborate as to why?

fungus_the_muffin_man

Roadracer123 wrote:

I reallr would advise riding 100 pre-sportive to ensure you are capable :?

Thats not necessary at all.

Before doing our L2P I hadn't done 100 miles The most I'd done was 78 miles 4 month before. On the actual L2P I rode something like 90 , 110 and 90 miles in consecutive days ( another thing I hadn't done prior to the ride)

If the OP is doing regular 50 milers which include a bit of climbing then he should have enough base fitness to do it easily. All he has to do is take it easy and ride at a pace comfortable to him whilst keeping well hydrated and fed.

100 miles is more of a psychological barrier than a physical one .

PostieJohn

As it stands, if you can ride 80 without dying you CAN dig deep for that last 20 miles, it'll hurt but you can do it, assuming you don't have a mountain top finish!.

To do it first will completely pi$$ on your chips and ruin the whole sense of achievement, that doing your first century you would have rightly earned.

Even if you have to do a 20 mile countdown and crawl over the line, you will be so happy to do so, and will instantly see all other 100 virgins as you will all look the same.

Skeltron

What I would do:


Slow / medium / fast release foods for the ride. Eat as you go and often. Getting the bonk is no fun.

Rest up a few days leading up to the ride. Eat pasta the night before.

Roll where you can, make yourself last. Go for it in the last hour if you really want to.

PostieJohn

Skeltron wrote:

What I would do:


Slow / medium / fast release foods for the ride. Eat as you go and often. Getting the bonk is no fun.

Rest up a few days leading up to the ride. Eat pasta the night before.

Roll where you can, make yourself last. Go for it in the last hour if you really want to.

Can't argue with that, if your new to group riding don't be scared as drafting will save so much energy.
Oh and porridge for breakfast.

taz3611

I don't normally buy/eat the energy bars/gels, etc, except when riding sportives, races, etc. I find they do the job well but are too expensive for normal rides. On longer rides (50 mile +), I usually eat well before the ride, carry a squashed-flat malt loaf and an emergency energy gel. This is purely in case I feel rough and it's the 'magic potion' to get me home. Think I've used 1 this year, when I took a wrong turn and ended up doing about 35 miles more than I wanted to (128 miles that ride!).

Red Rider

You'll be fine. 62 miles in 4:39 (even with a cheeky break ) shows you've got good base fitness. I recently did a 10 day tour which included a 100 and two 90+ days. Before that, I'd never ridden more than 64 miles in one go, and had never ridden anything at all with a tent and all that on the back. All my previous riding was in Devon and Cornwall though and the hills round here are probably good training.

As for food, take what you like. I did the 100 on a bowl of porridge in the morning and three Fabulous Baker Boy flapjack things during the ride (chosen, not for any scientific reason, but cos a box of 6 was 50p in the shop the previous night). Plus a For Goodness Shake and a bottle of Lucozde Sport at the end. Only had water for the ride.

I wouldn't recommend my regime. But I do think it shows that you should be absolutely fine. It's only 100 miles

jamlala

PostieJohn wrote:

Roadracer123 wrote:

I reallr would advise riding 100 pre-sportive to ensure you are capable :?

Personally I don't think I could disagree more strongly.

I echo that, whats the point of practising to see if you can do it? Get out there and do it!

jamlala

As I was told, 'eat little and often and you'll be reet,' I presume the advice cam from one of those northern fellows.

Personally I think gels are the devils food and play havoc with my digestion, only as a last resort when in trouble. The rest of the time bananas, malt loaf, flapjacks are great little and often. This recipe I really like http://utterlyrecipes.com/recipes/flapjack-recipe/ simple and tastes nice and plenty of slow release energy.

But what the f**k do I know. Listen to NapD, he seems to talk sense! Nuun tablets seem to work too as I've never cramped, but would I have anyway? Who knows, but I'm not prepared to take the risk. Anyway, where is that red wone bottle?

Skeltron

Theres nothing to stop you dropping out / cruising back either. My first ever sportive (80 miles) I dropped out after 60 miles and went the easy route though Hudderfield. Bonked really hard. Second one I ever did what the Phil and Friends (just short of 100 miles) and I sailed it. (Well, it was still hard work)

cheaperholidays

I have bonked once years ago when i went at it too hard on my GIant OCR, i almost fell of the bike and just collapsed on the floor, so i dont ever want that feeling again, took me over an hour to recover fully enough to ride the last 15 miles home.

Little and often seems to be way to go with a banana thrown in. From my long distance running days, water was the problem you could never get enough in you...


Thanks everyone much appreciated


Regards

Kev

Roadracer123

clearly outvoted

Velonutter

I'm sure Kev that you can do it, just keep the miles going in your legs and you'll be fine.

Before doing this years L2P I did just the one 105 miler and about 4 x 90 milers, but I was riding between 200-300 miles a week.

The first 100 miler nearly killed me, but I kept the miles going in and when it came to the L2P in June we did 90 on the first day, 114 on the 2nd and 102 on the final day and to be truthful it wasn't that hard.

Since then I have been doing between 150 & 200 miles a week and then last week did the Manchester 100 in 5hrs 26 mins, the first 55 miles we averaged 19.7 mph and I'm no better rider than you probably are, I just got the miles in my legs.

Eating and drinking is by far the easiest way to succeed, make sure you drink between 500-750mls every hour, last week each hour one of us would call out if someone was not eating or drinking enough, every hour try to get 40-50gms of carbs in whether you are hungry or not. I use High 5 4:1 in my bottles and stupidly only went through 3 x 750ml on Sunday and should really have drank more, I consumed about 200gms of bars, and two gels, not really enough and if I had eaten more then I would have been able to keep my speed up.

Good luck and just keep the miles going in.

sagalout

I chose the etape du dales for my first century ride. My previously longest ride was 75 miles that I bonked on a few weeks earlier(Lakeland loop). I was very apprehensive about the EtD after that, but decided to just take it easy and not worry about the time. It was a very very tough ride, but I made it in a better condition that the Lakeland loop, and as said by others, the sense of achievement doing it on the actual ride definitely helped to dig in for those last miles!

cheaperholidays

Thanks Slow-N-Old

Its quite humbling the advice and encouragement you get on here, tomorrow im going to do a 70, and try out your regime, i have a 2 litre camel back which i will refill on route if need be, bought some carb gels today and some glucose tabs, plus i will take some rough carbs peanut butter sarnies..


Thanks all

Kev

kingrollo

Before Sunday I d never done 100 miles. Club 40's most weekends, the odd charity 80 - I did 100 the weekend in a charity ride - the pace was fairly slack - but no real fitness problems. I did stop for a lucozade\mars bar with about 10 to go - I just wanted to be alert as the run was in a city centre

You will be fine - as long as you are sensibe.

cheaperholidays

Blimey kingrollo we have the same fireplace and carpets lol

Thanks for the advice though, the only problem i may have is i run hot and the thought of having to wear a long sleeve top in October is a dread...

PostieJohn

cheaperholidays wrote:

Thanks Slow-N-Old

Its quite humbling the advice and encouragement you get on here, tomorrow im going to do a 70, and try out your regime, i have a 2 litre camel back which i will refill on route if need be, bought some carb gels today and some glucose tabs, plus i will take some rough carbs peanut butter sarnies..


Thanks all

Kev

Just out of interest, why don't you just have 2 bottles on your frame?.

More than 2 litre on a 70 mile ride seems a little extreme.

cheaperholidays

PostieJohn wrote:

cheaperholidays wrote:

Thanks Slow-N-Old

Its quite humbling the advice and encouragement you get on here, tomorrow im going to do a 70, and try out your regime, i have a 2 litre camel back which i will refill on route if need be, bought some carb gels today and some glucose tabs, plus i will take some rough carbs peanut butter sarnies..


Thanks all

Kev

Just out of interest, why don't you just have 2 bottles on your frame?.

More than 2 litre on a 70 mile ride seems a little extreme.

This is new territory for me so rather have more than less and it does not weigh that much..

PostieJohn

PostieJohn wrote:

As it stands, if you can ride 80 without dying you CAN dig deep for that last 20 miles, it'll hurt but you can do it, assuming you don't have a mountain top finish!.

To do it first will completely pi$$ on your chips and ruin the whole sense of achievement, that doing your first century you would have rightly earned.

Even if you have to do a 20 mile countdown and crawl over the line, you will be so happy to do so, and will instantly see all other 100 virgins as you will all look the same.

How did it go, I wouldn't fancy having to dig deep, in this!.

cheaperholidays

PostieJohn wrote:

[How did it go, I wouldn't fancy having to dig deep, in this!.

It was good, just rain no wind, loads never made it shameful really. Some of the climbs were brutal and i fell off lol

Mark Alexander

cheaperholidays wrote:

Hi

I am considering entering the Welsh Epic which is 100 miles, i have just completed 62 miles in 4 hours 39, however 15 minutes of this was spent waiting at a bloody level crossing.

My route was Church village to Culverhouse cross cardiff then follow the Banardos route, then back to Church village .

I regularly climb the Rhigos and the bwlch do i need to do anymore to complete my first 100 mile event.

Thanks

Kev

Kev, If you're in Church Village and happy to ride 60+ including the Bwlch/Rhigos then no worries. I'm a Cowbridge boy, the Vale's all lumpy and I've never found a flat road in 20+ years.

Mark Alexander

Roadracer123 wrote:

PostieJohn wrote:

Roadracer123 wrote:

I reallr would advise riding 100 pre-sportive to ensure you are capable :?

Personally I don't think I could disagree more strongly.

Care to elaborate as to why?

I did a 12 hr on the back of a max ride of a 100 mile TT