Coast to coast training woes

Lennyz

Hi, all just thought I would ask a question on training for a coast to coast me and a buddy are doing in mid July.

We have been out doing about twenty miles a week in the evenings after work for about four years or so and have been fairly consistent in this excepting missing out periods in winter when the nights draw in..The riding we do is on mountain bikes and is all road.

We live on the edge of the peaks so our riding pretty much always involves hills albeit not massive ones, bosley cloud is always our first port of call http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cloud_(Peak_District).

Last Saturday in an attempt to step up our training we did a 40 mile ride complete with kit (pannier bag etc) to a nearby village, (20 miles each way) this ride took in quite a few good climbs on the way there and then after lunch we retraced our route and it was quite a hard ride factoring in the headwinds on the return journey. After this ride I was exhausted and physically drained for the rest of the day. It left me concerned as to my physical condition and ability to sustain such an effort on the coast to coast journey.

I was just wondering if any of you folks have any advice on how much riding we should be doing in preparation at this stage? I guess if we did the same ride again next week the recovery would be slightly better?? should we now go further or do another 40 miler but on flatter terrain then go back to that run again to see how we cope?

We will still be going out mid week and then probably at the weekend again but as this type of riding is new to me I just wondered if anyone here has done a similar event and how they found it..

The coast to coast we are doing is the St Bees Head to Robin Hoods bay via the lakes and the north York moors. (road route) 200 miles.Both bikes are mountain bikes with road type skinny tyres. I know that the first day is the hardest!

colsoop

You don't state how many days you are taking or the daily mileage you are needing to do.
But i would say 20 miles a week ! is not anywhere near enough miles unless of course your doing this coast to coast over 10 days.

If the ride is over a few days then you need to be able to comfortably do the daily mileage if doing the daily mileage is a struggle then you are going to find it hard to recover for the next days effort.

If you are doing the trip fully loaded then you should do a couple of days a week with the kit you will be using, it will help you get used to how the bike will handle and also to show up any potential problems with the load or the bike.



Ride distance you need to do in training is going to depend on what distance you are doing each day on your ride.

9jan11

Do you mean 20 miles per week or 20 mile rides a number of nights a week?

Anyway you're probably riding them fairly hard, as short training rides usually are ridden fairly hard.

And there lays your problem. My guess is you are doing little level 2 riding, so, although fit for purpose, as soon as you try to ride further you have no endurance.

You need to do at least one long steady ride a week up to 5 or 6 hours at level 2 to raise the level at which your body can use fat over carbs for fuel.

Lennyz

Thanks for the reply colsoop,

sorry, yea the ride will be over 4 days so it is gonna be 50 ish miles a day ( 200 mile coast to coast). I know that 20 miles a week is nowhere near enough that is why we did a toughish 40 mile ride at the weekend and will be riding more frequently than just a 20 mile mid week ride. I have actually been riding one evening 20 miles and another 20 at the weekend for a month or so up to this point, but the 40 mile trip hit me at the weekend!

It is just not knowing how often or how many miles to be doing weekly at this stage.. I don't want to massively over train, i just want to make sure I am doing enough miles at the correct frequency.

I guess the important thing is to be able to ride consecutive days in the week and get used to that then do a bigger ride at the weekend... how do others train for a big ride?

Ta.

Lennyz

Thanks 9jan11,

Yes the rides we do in the week are ridden fairly hard, the intention now is to do them with the load we will be carrying on the ctc.

What exactly do you mean by level 2? is this a reference to the time on the bike. It makes sense that you say we have to get our bodies more conditioned to longer rides. So like you say do a 5 or 6 hour ride at the weekend, continuing with the rides in the evening after work..would you say we need to do more of the short evening rides too?

Thanks for the advice.

It was a real shock to me that i was so exhausted after the four hour ride on Saturday ( 5 hour trip, 4 hours on the bike.) I thought I would cope with it fine as my recovery from a 2 hour ride mid week is so good. :shock:

Lemin

Hello, I think it will be a good idea for get training for the long driving.

It’s really worth for me. Thanks for sharing.

Keep sharing. Good luck!!!
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nissan perth

9jan11

What exactly do you mean by level 2?

Level 2 = Rides done at 65-75% of your max heart rate.

Result = Development of aerobic capacity and endurance.

Doing short hard rides probably mean you are going anaerobic (without oxygen) at a relatively low heart rate therefore using your valuable supply of carb fuel. You will probably have about enough for 3 hours riding.

However if you can 'teach' your body to use fat as a preferred source of energy you have about 80,000 calories (we all do) of this.

Riding at level 2, although it may feel too easy, is the way to increase the level at which your body will start to use carbs as its preferred fuel.

My own level has been tested at 90% of my max heart rate before I use mainly carbs. This allows me to ride 150 plus mile rides hard if I want to.

Due to living in a very hilly area I choose to do my Level 2 training on the turbo in the winter months - 1 to 3 hours at about 70% of my max HR (5 times a week) gives me a great base for hard and long summer rides.

Lennyz

Thanks for the advice 9jan11,

you must be super fit, riding as frequently as you do and being able to cover the mileage you can 150+ miles!! wow.

I think we are gonna try a couple of evening rides on consecutive days say 2 hours on our usual hilly rides and then do the longer (say 5 or 6 hours ) flatter rides fully laden on the weekend but using your suggestion of maintaining 65 to 75% heart rate if we can guess it?? is that poss?

My own level has been tested at 90% of my max heart rate before I use mainly carbs

Do you mind me asking how you find this info? what kind of testing do you do?

Thanks