first 70 miler advice please

aripallaris

hey guys and girls. a friend at work has suggested we ride a 70 miler from cambridge to norwich. what's involved in taking up a distance that far.

i commute a round trip of 20miles per day but never hit a straight 70 miler. im pretty fit, riding to work, then to the gym for a 2-3hour session and finally back home so im not afraid of hard graft. is it worth taking on the challenge?

markos1963

Yes, it's fairly easy terrain and not too far a distance. You need to fit in a few longer rides in advance, try a 40 then 45 then 50 and a 55. The rest of the distance will come on the day with adrenalin flowing and the encouragment of others.
I hope to be riding this event as a friend of mine is the fundraiser for this charity and it's my birthday!
Best of luck

merak

Absolutely. If you regularly ride 20 miles a day then a 70 miler will be a piece of cake. It's actually not that far, and not much further than many charity rides that people do by the thousand. Just ride it steady and remember to drink and eat frequently. I bet you could do it without any further training but if you want to prepare for it just ride a few 30- 40 milers at the weekend.

aripallaris

thanks markos and merak. im feeling rather positive. well ive ridden twenty milers everyday for the last 4months without fail. so im pretty sure i could do it. just ordered a turbo trainer, hopefully get a few longer rides in there. its a little hard getting in 30-40 milers in london. the roads are rather boring and rough too.

markos is this the event your planning to do?
http://www.bike-events.com/Ride.aspx?id=309 because that's the one he thought we should ride.

merak

No way should you be doing longer rides on a turbo trainer. You'll be carted off to a mental hospital after 2 hours. If you live in Wood Green, why not ride north through Waltham Abbey to Ware and back. That should be around 40 miles. Avoid the A10. Ride through Lower Nazeing, Broxbourne etc. Or do a loop through Epping. If you want to do a ride on your bike, then ride your bike.

optimisticbiker

aripallaris wrote:

its a little hard getting in 30-40 milers in london. the roads are rather boring and rough too.

go north and west my friend... from wood green there many nice rides you could do. Last weekend I went via Enfield and looped out via Goffs Oak, Cuffley, Potters bar and back down through Barnet, or you could do cheshunt via lea valley, walthamstow->epping, or hop across to lea valley and go south to greenwich... all of those are pleasant rides in the 40-50mile region, use ridewithgps.com or mapmyride.com to plot a few routes on the quieter roads.

aripallaris

cheers optmisticbiker... do you have any routes pre mapped? ive got a garmin but never really mapped onto it. both those routes do sound interesting.

Thelittlesthobo

I jumped from 13mls per day commute and regular 20-30miles rides to a 70 miles club ride over some pretty big hills. Other than a bum that was a bit more uncomfortable than usual it really wasnt so bad.

I would just ride clever. Take every oppertunity to rest behind your friends wheel (Tailgate) that is offered to you and you would probably find it not much more difficult than a 40-50ml ride.

Conversely i did a 50km charity ride at the weekend and 'hid' in the group for about 30kms. By that time i was cold and wet because i wasnt actually working hard enough. I decided to go a bit faster and 10mins later i found i was all on my own. Ended up doing the next 20km at that pace and finishing 10mins before the next rider.

Barrzy257

im also thinking about doing a few longer 50+ rides, as i normally do 3/4 20-30milers a week plus onl 10M a day commute.
But what i want to know is what sort of previsions do you guys take, i.e gels, fruit, drinks etc, and at what intervals do you use them?

merak

Two bottles of energy drink last me two to three hours. I take a drink every 5 miles or 15 minutes. A banana or a cereal bar at 30 miles and that lot will see me through to 60ish. If you're riding a 100, you'll need more serious food than that. If longer, like audax, then you should be planning to take on about 400 - 500 calories an hour.

markos1963

aripallaris wrote:

thanks markos and merak. im feeling rather positive. well ive ridden twenty milers everyday for the last 4months without fail. so im pretty sure i could do it. just ordered a turbo trainer, hopefully get a few longer rides in there. its a little hard getting in 30-40 milers in london. the roads are rather boring and rough too.

markos is this the event your planning to do?
http://www.bike-events.com/Ride.aspx?id=309 because that's the one he thought we should ride.

Yes it is, should be a fair contingent from our club, VC Norwich, going to it.

carl_p

Markos, how are your bikes being transported to Cambridge? Just thinking of the logistics of getting bikes in a coach.

markos1963

Carl_P wrote:

Markos, how are your bikes being transported to Cambridge? Just thinking of the logistics of getting bikes in a coach.

I think they have a trailer for the bikes.