How can I last longer?

keef66

As a teenager I used to be able to ride all day, often covering distances of 80 - 100 miles on bikes that must have weighed a ton, and on a bottle of squash and a jam sandwich or two.
When I started road cycling again at the age of 50 after a break of over 25 years I can still remember the feeling of achievement when I first completed a 20 mile ride. I can also remember painful sit-bones and feeling completely exhausted. Now I do a 20 mile loop 3 times a week after work just to get me out of the house and keep things ticking over, and when I get time at weekends the rides can be 60 - 80 miles.

So just keep at it.

I found the secret to riding further was learning to pace myself. Ask yourself constantly if you're riding at a pace you think you can sustain for the whole ride. If the answer is no, then slow down a bit. If your objective is to ride for longer, don't obsess about speed. Over 6 years my average speed has crept up from 12 to 15mph, but I can pretty much ride all day at that speed now. If I'm still feeling fresh on the homeward stretch I'll often up the pace for the last 10 miles or so.

Fuelling? For anything up to 2 hours I'll just have a bottle of squash with a pinch of salt. 2 bottles if it's really hot. Over 2 hours and I'll also take a few fig rolls and some jelly babies, but start eating little and often about 40 mins into the ride.

markhewitt1978

littledove44 wrote:

I bet if you went at 14mph you could double the distance and be no more knackered.

14mph doesn't sound a lot less than 16.5mph but the effort required goes up with the square of the speed - or something, which means 16mph requires quite a bit more effort than 14mph.

Earlier in the year I did a 50 mile sportive with a friend who did fast rides 16-17mph but only for an hour before work. Whereas I would be doing longer rides at the weekend at 14mph.

As predicted he shot away from me at the start, but I kept my pace, and I caught up with him half way round, after which he started properly struggling, whereas I still felt strong, ended up pacing him around the rest of the course.

sbbefc

You should be able to do a 60-80km ride with very little food. I either have nothing or something like a chocolate bar/banana. You will be able to do 100miles you just need to put in the time on the bike.

MartAstur

I was in the same situation as you at the beginning of the year, I even bought the same bike as you (good choice, it's a great bike). The bike certainly makes a difference but the main thing is the person sitting on it. I could ride about 70km without problems but more than that and I would begin to suffer and the thought of riding 162km (100 miles) seemed but a distant dream. In June I joined a club which meant going on longer rides than I had before and I really suffered to begin with. In September I managed to complete a 120km sportive so began to start to believe I could actually ride 100 miles. In October I planned a relatively flat route and set off one morning in the hope of riding 100 miles and to my surprise I made it and to be honest it was easier than I thought.
The key is to slowly build up the distances you ride, get those miles in your legs. Don't worry too much about weight training to build up your leg strength, being skinny is an advantage and the leg strength, and particularly endurance, will soon develop from just riding (of course family and kids dictate how much time you can spend on the bike but it's important to work things out so you can get the miles in so communting sounds a great idea). As for food, everyone really is different, I need quite a lot of food in the first two hours of a long ride but find I need much less in the last 2 hours, although little and often is a pretty good rule and plenty of liquids. Don't even think about your average speed, ride at a comfortable pace, one that you can keep up for 6+ hours.
If you keep riding as much as possible and gradually increase the distances, I'm sure it won't be too long before you will be able to ride 100 miles. Would be great to hear how you get on so make sure you post and let us know.
M

yost72

Thanks again all.
My action plan is to continue the 20 miles round trips to work 2-3 times per week, and for the longer rides, when I get a chance, I will aim to control my pace between 14-15mph rather than 16-17mph and hopefully this will feel more comfortable for the duration of the ride. I will report back......

markhewitt1978

Controlling your speed at the start I've found is quite tricky, as you always want to pedal as hard as you can manage at the time. But you can also do simple tricks such as going into a lower gear than you would normally use on climbs, and not pedalling at all when going down even a slight hill, giving you lots of little rest periods.

goonz

Usually the squeeze or tap approach works.

Otherwise kegel exercises should help.

goonz

Nairnster wrote:

It would pose the question, "how long is your segment?

Im guessing thats not you in your avatar?

smidsy

2 pages and noone has mentioned Viagra - very dissapointing!

mattbabs

My back starts aching after a couple of hours but if stop for a few minutes and have a stretch I can quickly get back into the rhythm.

yost72

Update.....
Went for a 45 mile ride today with the intention of controlling my pace, based on the various replies I had. Managed to complete it averaging 15mph, and most importantly, it wasn't a struggle, even at the end (in fact, I picked the pace up a little towards the end). Each of the 5 mile splits were consistent - between 14.5mph and 15.5mph.

One piece of advice I got was to keep a pace I believe I can maintain, and this was very helpful today because if I felt like I was pushing too hard I eased off a touch. Int eras of food and drink I only had a banana, one energy bar, and a bottle of energy drink.

Interestingly, I completed this same ride a couple of months ago on my hybrid bike, and the time was almost identical, but on that occasion I went off quick and really struggled towards the end, having to stop regularly. So although it may seem initially disappointing that I took the same time on my road bike, I feel confident that I could actually have gone a lot further today.

Thanks to everyone who gave advice!

markhewitt1978

Was thinking about this in terms of doing some longer sportives next year, pushing out from the likes of 60 miles to 90 miles or so. To do that apart from getting fitter I think on the day I'll need to decrease my pace a little - what's the best way to keep myself on target and make sure I'm not going to fast -- or equally too slow!

andrewjoseph

I use my Garmin with hrm and try to keep around 80% of Max hr. if I don't watch it I creep up to 85-90% as that seems to be a pace I love riding at. I just can't sustain it for more than half hour. 80-85% I can manage for hours.

yost72

Mark, my approach to maintaining a slower pace wasn't very scientific. I could tell if I started pushing a bit too hard and eased off until it felt more comfortable. I kept an eye on the 5 mile splits and they remained pretty consistent so it seems to have worked.

markhewitt1978

Thanks! I guess I just need to practice and see what sort of pacing I need!

markiegrim

I asked a v smiler question some weeks ago. New to road cycling and start to flag at 35 miles. Age 45. Skinny legs. Quite hilly where I do my riding (The Chilterns) and like you find it hard to train with work, family, etc. I've entered a 68 mile sportive in 2014..seems daunting right now!

The advice I got from the good folk here was much the same re building stamina, food, etc..and also not to go mad in first 10 miles (which I was doing because of 2 favourite Strava sections)

Unfortunately, dark nights and wet/cold weekends is now making it difficult to train and I fear I will lose what stamina I had built. I know this should not step me getting out, but the roads I like to cycle are now v muddy and wet..perhaps I should just use the more main roads over winter

wod1

One point I would like to add. Don't over estimate getting a big jump from a new bike even if it is the first road bike. I did when I swapped a mountain bike to a road bike. Was doing up to 30 miles on the mountain bike so did 25 miles on the first weekend with my road bike and was very disappointed in how hard it was! However within a year I had passed the 100 mile and 200km rides and it does make the difference but its not as much on the first ride as you may expect.

markhewitt1978

Agree with this, I went from a hybrid to a road bike and thought from reading around that I'd immediately be going twice as fast and twice as far. I was still setting PB's on every segment; but there wasn't a massive amount in it.