Need advice on first 100 mile ride for charity

sigorman85

Looking in to a 100 mike ride for British heart foundation. poster was at the gym and I see it to be a good chance to push for my first century and to raise some money for a good cause

Now I no the weather isn't at its best and it's probably going to be wet but what I'm after is stamina really . Is it just a case of powering away in the turbo trainer for hours an hours ?

I'm quite a strong and bulky bloke and not the perfect racing snake so I carry a lot of muscle weight
15.5 stone :-/ ...... Also I'm working 50 hours a week and have a 7 week old baby girl (screaming skull ) lol so any advice is welcomed for the ride that I plan to enter

Oh most I've done is 76 miles last year in July

JayKosta

If the route is flat, then it's just a longer ride, time on saddle, etc.
If there are hills, that might be a concern....

Jay Kosta
Endwell NY USA

vineland

Enjoy the ride.

Schobiedoo

If you've done 76 then you pretty much know what's going to be required to get the ton. Nutrition and pacing will be top of your priority to make sure that you don't bonk.

smidsy

In order for you to succeed in this endeavour it is imperrative that you bring the bike into the house and move the wife and baby into the garage

With 76 under your belt you are already home providing you pace yourself on the day and fuel properly you will do it.

Obviously keep pushing away between now and then to keep bike fit, but other than the fact it is 100 miles its just another day in the saddle, which you love and do regularly, so its easy innit :-)

diy

I would just double check the total climb to make sure its not some sort of hill climb fest, not that this would be a problem. Anything under 1000m total climb is not going to challenge you by much. However, if you want to be in your best possible shape/performance.

1. Lose any weight that you think you need to lose, either by watching what you eat a couple of days a week or taking up a partial fasting regime (e.g. the 5:2 diet). try to train on your diet days as it helps endurance massively.
2. Mix your training between distance and interval/HIT so that you build the best combination of power.
3. On your distance work, concentrate on efficiency, pedal stroke, cadence etc. This will make a massive difference.

On the day - don't over eat up front it just slows you down, eat little and often, a banana in the back pocket and few cereal bars or gels is all you'll need. Take on lots of water (maybe with some juice + sugar + salt + vitamin or a drink powder)

Make sure your bike is in good working order and you have sufficient spares for repairs.

Wardster00

I used this training schedule from the BHF website last year and it worked well. I have a busy job and 2 small kids and I still managed to fit most of the training sessions in without upsetting the wife.

https://www.bhf.org.uk/get-involved/eve ... edule.aspx

What I liked was that it isn't too technical so no need for heart rate monitors or power metres.

Good luck

cougie

Dont do hours and hours on the turbo - thats not the point at all. Look at training plans.

When is the ride ?

g00se

Are you a member of British Cycling? They have very good online training regimes for this sort of ride- structured for different starting abilities etc.

plowsie

Double pack magazine in Tesco at the moment, it includes Cycling Active and Cycling Fitness, in with the Fitness magazine it includes an A5 booklet with advice and a training plan to look at for planning 100 mile trip. Welcome to the joiners club, it's my first attempt at this sort of distance too.

A recommendation I tend to see a lot of advice taking on something like 1g per kg of body weight per hour of riding. For example you would be looking at 98g of carbs per hour. Peanut butter sandwiches are my favourite. Make sure you keep your fluids topped up too.

marcusjb

smidsy wrote:

With 76 under your belt you are already home providing you pace yourself on the day and fuel properly you will do it.

Obviously keep pushing away between now and then to keep bike fit, but other than the fact it is 100 miles its just another day in the saddle, which you love and do regularly, so its easy innit :-)

What he says.

Don't stress, don't over analyse. Just ride. You've got this covered.

964cup

Pace yourself and fuel properly on the ride. Don't go balls out for the first 20k, and make sure you get enough fluid, even though it's cold out. In this weather, clothing matters too - cold hands or feet will make it miserable. As others have said, if you've done 75 miles, you can do 100.

squirejim

964Cup wrote:

Pace yourself and fuel properly on the ride. Don't go balls out for the first 20k, and make sure you get enough fluid, even though it's cold out. In this weather, clothing matters too - cold hands or feet will make it miserable. As others have said, if you've done 75 miles, you can do 100.

id agree. its all about pacing yourself. take it easy to begin with and when you finf youve still got energy left, push it all the way home .. so to speak

Brant

A lot of it will be down to pacing yes, don't ride at a speed where you'll be ready to pop by half or three quarters of the way. If you can get a map/profile of the route so you can see if there are any big hill, any long stretches of flat road so you know in advance when a big effort will be needed. Another part of it will be down to mental fortitude, if you have a Garmin or bike computer use it but don't obsess over distance covered, don't keep looking at it every few seconds otherwise you'll feel like you're not making progress, focus on pure riding, not on distance or pain or the wind or shitty weather, it's a head game where you have to filter out the negative stuff and your body saying stop. Drink ample water, fuel yourself properly with healthy carbs before and during the ride.

sigorman85

Brilliant info guys thanks very much this is when I like this forum some good reads here ... To mention the 76 miles i did find it very hard ..... Also the 100 miles will be in Dorset so yes I'm sure there will be some hills

Yet again guys thanks

964cup

One other thing - don't give in to the temptation to stop for ages at feed stations, and don't stuff yourself - eat little and often, and on the move if you can. If you need a break, spin an easy gear; stopping for long and eating will cool your muscles and move your blood flow to your gut for digestion. When you get going again you'll be sluggish and prone to leg cramps.

I learnt this the hard way on the FT 100, which had a feed station just before its steepest hill (not a brilliant piece of planning, IMO). I joined others in lounging about on the grass and stuffing myself with cookies and cake while doing some desultory stretching. I probably fannied about for 15-20 minutes. Once I set off, I had to stop three times on the hill with paralysing leg cramps, and it took me more than half an hour to get back up to speed.

sigorman85

Ouch I rarely cramp up some times I get a stitch but I can say I haven't really pushed my self this year cheers for the advice