How do you know you are ready for longer rides.

Zmac31

My normal rides are between 10-20 miles. I have been cycling for a month but want to do a long ride, because I want that sweet self fulfillment that I see people post about. Is there anything special I should be doing to train for double the distance I normally go?

lettingthedaysgoby

If you can ride 20 and not feel like you're about to die when you get home, you can do 40. Just get on the bike and ride, taking it slightly easier than you normally do.

sloppyschleckonds

You are ready when your legs stop aching

ElectronShepherd

What you could consider is finding a circular route that's about 10 miles long. You could then ride that three or four times in a row. Since you can't ever be more than 5 miles from home, if you do get too tired, you won't end up being being stranded with a long way to go. Once you're confident that you can do 40 miles in one go, change the route to one long one.

Zmac31

SloppySchleckonds wrote:

You are ready when your legs stop aching

HAHA I have so much enthusiasm, its a battle between body and goals at this point. I took yesterday off and I feel about 90 percent better.

rieko

Just increase your rides incrementally. If your doing 20 consistently, knock it up to 30. Then once your satisfied that you can tackle that, do 40 miles etc.

Also you could always drop the pace/effort a little when you decide to up your mileage. Maybe do 40 miles at a slower pace than what you're use to.

Frank Wilson

ElectronShepherd wrote:

What you could consider is finding a circular route that's about 10 miles long. You could then ride that three or four times in a row. Since you can't ever be more than 5 miles from home, if you do get too tired, you won't end up being being stranded with a long way to go. Once you're confident that you can do 40 miles in one go, change the route to one long one.

Exactly this, when I am on a can't be bothered day I do circuits of five miles, then you can do as many or as few as you wish depending on how you are feeling as the ride progresses.

slowmart

If distance is your next goal, just go that bit slower at first and look to include a coffee stop.

Choose a cafe as a destination, about 2/3 of the way round for route. Its about smiles per mile so make sure you enjoy the ride and have a good 30 minute stop at the cafe as this will help you on the last leg.

Another aspect to consider is if it's windy make sure the wind is behind you on the last leg.

svetty

Frank Wilson wrote:

Exactly this, when I am on a can't be bothered day I do circuits of five miles, then you can do as many or as few as you wish depending on how you are feeling as the ride progresses.

Really? :shock: :shock: I can't imagine going round and round the same short circuit multiple times unless I had no alternative. As a beginner part of the fun is the exploring side of riding - getting lost and having to ride further than you intended is a rite-of-passage experience every newb should have

Frank Wilson

Svetty wrote:

Frank Wilson wrote:

Exactly this, when I am on a can't be bothered day I do circuits of five miles, then you can do as many or as few as you wish depending on how you are feeling as the ride progresses.

Really? :shock: :shock: I can't imagine going round and round the same short circuit multiple times unless I had no alternative. As a beginner part of the fun is the exploring side of riding - getting lost and having to ride further than you intended is a rite-of-passage experience every newb should have

Different folks, different strokes.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Svetty wrote:

Frank Wilson wrote:

Exactly this, when I am on a can't be bothered day I do circuits of five miles, then you can do as many or as few as you wish depending on how you are feeling as the ride progresses.

Really? :shock: :shock: I can't imagine going round and round the same short circuit multiple times unless I had no alternative. As a beginner part of the fun is the exploring side of riding - getting lost and having to ride further than you intended is a rite-of-passage experience every newb should have

If you only have one viable short loop, then it might well get stale quickly. On the east side of Southampton, I've got plenty of options, from randomly mixing up the order of ~12 or so climbs including a Strava cat4 (albeit there is an element of luck with a roundabout and one set of lights); to ~5-20 mile pretty flat loops on long fairly quiet roads; or I can ride ~12 miles to reach the South Downs and knock myself out with short/sharp hills and handfuls of cat4s where it's unusual to have a car go past me in either direction.

rick_chasey

Zmac31 wrote:

My normal rides are between 10-20 miles. I have been cycling for a month but want to do a long ride, because I want that sweet self fulfillment that I see people post about. Is there anything special I should be doing to train for double the distance I normally go?

Just get on with it. You'll soon work it out.

Honest. There's less to it than people think.

fat daddy

yeah .... just go further ... if you got home after cycling 20 miles, you must be ready to do more.

Its the point where you don't make it home that tells you it was too far ... or if the last 5 miles were pure hell

rick_chasey

Assuming your kit holds up you're pretty unlikely not to make it back if you go further.

It's just fairly unpleasant when you're totally pooped quite a way out.

fat daddy

Rick Chasey wrote:

It's just fairly unpleasant when you're totally pooped quite a way out.

although there is a point in the wobbly, out of it, zero power trance like bimble home through the invisible layer of toffee on the road, where it becomes rather amusing and you start to giggle ..... then you get caught at red lights and start to cry

but later that day you feel epic for being badass !!!!

proylance

rieko wrote:

Just increase your rides incrementally. If your doing 20 consistently, knock it up to 30. Then once your satisfied that you can tackle that, do 40 miles etc.

Also you could always drop the pace/effort a little when you decide to up your mileage. Maybe do 40 miles at a slower pace than what you're use to.

+1 this is the way I did what you're trying to do.

Garry H

I thought you were riding two hundred miles a week...

yiannism

Distance is not really a challenge, climbing is. Cycling never gets easier, you just go faster and further

JeremyIFisher

As a beginner myself (around 3 months now), I would +1 the incremental approach.

Also, with distance its all about endurance. If you have built endurance from previous sports (or indeed just doing longer cardio sessions at the gym) you will find it easier to do longer rides at the beginning.

For me, cross-training machines and swimming at the gym helped a lot in building endurance - because you don't feel breathless and can keep going for a lot longer than with other cardio sport. Cycling on higher gears also helps push up your endurance if you have strong legs, as you are relying more on strength and a bit less on cardio. Squatting weights / using the resistance machines helps quite a bit with that.

Other than that, I would recommend doing shorter rides (15-20 miles) three or four times during the week and then going for a long one in the weekend. I have added 5-10 miles a week since I started cycling on the longer rides, and have gone from doing 20 mile rides when I started to 65 mile ones now.