Advice wanted re: training regime please..

[Mark Taylor]

So the time of year has come for some of us late thirtysomethings to relent
to the need to recapture some of the fitness that we once had...

I have volunteered to do some fumd raising for my son's school and am in the
process of organising a four day sponsored cycle - measuring some 161 miles
from Northampton to Dinas Mawddwy, Near Machynlleth in Powys. This will
involve one youth hostel and three overnight camps.

We're hoping to have a driver to carry some of our kit and drop it off at
the relevent camp spots so we should be travelling fairly light with daily
distance averaging at about 40 miles a day. (as I am typing, it's beginning
to sound more like a leisurely holiday, however we're not underestimating
the ways in which our enthusiasm might not be shared by our ageing bodies!!)

We are (ahem) averagely fit and are confident that we will be able to
complete this without any major problems but we need to be sensible and have
a training schedule to help us. Niether of us are a fan of gymnasiums and
would prefer to do all of the work on the bikes - weather is not a problem!!

If anyone has any tips or can direct me to a useful website I would
appreciate it

Mark Taylor

 

[David Martin]

Mark Taylor wrote:
> So the time of year has come for some of us late thirtysomethings to relent
> to the need to recapture some of the fitness that we once had...
>
> I have volunteered to do some fumd raising for my son's school and am in the
> process of organising a four day sponsored cycle - measuring some 161 miles
> from Northampton to Dinas Mawddwy, Near Machynlleth in Powys. This will
> involve one youth hostel and three overnight camps.
>
> We're hoping to have a driver to carry some of our kit and drop it off at
> the relevent camp spots so we should be travelling fairly light with daily
> distance averaging at about 40 miles a day. (as I am typing, it's beginning
> to sound more like a leisurely holiday, however we're not underestimating
> the ways in which our enthusiasm might not be shared by our ageing bodies!!)
>
> We are (ahem) averagely fit and are confident that we will be able to
> complete this without any major problems but we need to be sensible and have
> a training schedule to help us. Niether of us are a fan of gymnasiums and
> would prefer to do all of the work on the bikes - weather is not a problem!!
>
> If anyone has any tips or can direct me to a useful website I would
> appreciate it


Any training has to be fun so I would suggest the following (assuming
you have only cycled a bit casually):
1. get a map of the local area. You are aiming to be able to do about
the distance across an OS map and back in a day by the end of this.
2. Pick a cafe/pub about 5-10 miles away. As a group, meet up one
weekend morning, ride there for tea and cakes, and ride home. And again
the next weekend and so on.
3. Gradually travel to further cafes/pubs.
4. Try to fit in at least one other ride during the week of about 5-10
miles to start with, and up to 20 as the day approaches. Pubs are
useful for this.
5. On a couple of weekends try doing the 40+ mile distance on two
consecutive days.

Above all, try to make it fun and a group exercise.
By the time the ride comes round it will be no problem at all and
you'll wonder why you ever thought it would take four days ;-)

...d

 

[vernon levy]

> We're hoping to have a driver to carry some of our kit and drop it off at
> the relevent camp spots so we should be travelling fairly light with daily
> distance averaging at about 40 miles a day. (as I am typing, it's
> beginning to sound more like a leisurely holiday, however we're not
> underestimating the ways in which our enthusiasm might not be shared by
> our ageing bodies!!)
>
Aging bodies at the backend of your thirties - pure tosh! You're probably
at the junior end of the membership of u.r.c. Don't under-estimate how fit
you are. After a 24 year gap I took up cycling again at 44 and did my first
cycle tour carrying all my camping gear on a three and a bit day ride from
Whitehaven to Sunderland.

My preparation was getting out on my bike at every opportunity and slowly
increasing the mileage done at weekends. There is no substitute for regular
riding but you don't have to bust a gut or go to a gym. Travelling lightly
will make the ride relatively stress free if you ride regularly between now
and the planned event.

> We are (ahem) averagely fit and are confident that we will be able to
> complete this without any major problems but we need to be sensible and
> have a training schedule to help us. Niether of us are a fan of gymnasiums
> and would prefer to do all of the work on the bikes - weather is not a
> problem!!
>
Done it a further twice plus a different crossing, Walney to Wear and Land's
End to John O'Groats. All rides done weighing at least 20 stone. Your
average fitness will see you through. Just get out and ride. Good luck

Vernon

 

[Simon Brooke]

in message <[email protected]>, Mark Taylor
('[email protected]') wrote:

> So the time of year has come for some of us late thirtysomethings to
> relent to the need to recapture some of the fitness that we once had...
>
> I have volunteered to do some fumd raising for my son's school and am
> in the process of organising a four day sponsored cycle - measuring
> some 161 miles from Northampton to Dinas Mawddwy, Near Machynlleth in
> Powys. This will involve one youth hostel and three overnight camps.
>
> We're hoping to have a driver to carry some of our kit and drop it off
> at the relevent camp spots so we should be travelling fairly light with
> daily distance averaging at about 40 miles a day. (as I am typing, it's
> beginning to sound more like a leisurely holiday, however we're not
> underestimating the ways in which our enthusiasm might not be shared by
> our ageing bodies!!)

Last February, on a day of force nine gales, I rode a charity ride of 75
miles (you can read a report of it here:
<URL:http://www.stewartry-wheelers.org/wheelers/story/article_26.html>).
What's odd or interesting about this? One of the group, Jim, had never
cycled more than twenty five miles in a day in his life before. Most of
us were in our forties, and some of us older.

The generally quoted rule is that you can ride three times as far in a
day as you are accustomed to ride in a day, so if you're aiming for 40
miles per day... it's a doddle. If you're aiming for 40 miles a day with
cars to support you, it's a picnic.

What training do you need for that? Well, unless you're total couch
potatoes, none. If you've got a driver to carry your kit, aim for eighty
miles a day. It still won't be very hard.

As for training, start with what you're used to riding now, and ride a
little bit more each sunday until you've done one seventy miler. Then
you're ready.

--
[email protected] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; Want to know what SCO stands for?
;; http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20030605

 

[Mark Thompson]

> If anyone has any tips or can direct me to a useful website I would
> appreciate it

40 miles a day for 4 days? Ok, the training you need to do for this is
none. This approach may give you unnecessary discomfort tho.

Cycling is 4 times more efficient than walking, so your 40 miles is like
walking 10 miles. You'll build up an appetite but otherwise it's easy.
Lots of training will help you enjoy the riding, whilst a little training
will help you not mind the riding. No training and you'll endure the
riding.

The most important thing is to get your muscles used to riding a bike,
especially your thighs. Ride the bike everywhere and anywhere you can - to
work, the shops, the pub. Ride at a fast pace - stronger muscles, better
lungs.

Also consider long rides (say, three or four hours - that'll be about, ooh,
40 miles so you know you'll be comfortable spending that time in the
saddle. You'll also find out if you'll be aching a bit the next day (you
shouldn't be once you've got the legs for it).

This does assume you're a fit-ish, healthy person. Medical conditions, or
being a couch potato could make it a challenge.

Suggested training is:

Ride out for two hours, turn round a ride home. That's your forty miles.
You'll know the next day how much/little you need to train.

To summarise, no training needed. Any you do makes it easier/more
enjoyable. None could make it quite hard towards the end.

 

[James Annan]

Simon Brooke wrote:


> The generally quoted rule is that you can ride three times as far in a
> day as you are accustomed to ride in a day, so if you're aiming for 40
> miles per day... it's a doddle. If you're aiming for 40 miles a day with
> cars to support you, it's a picnic.


For any given distance, riding consecutive days is much much harder than
just doing one day. I often feel quite tired a few days into a 30-40
mile per day touring holiday, but that is generally with a full camping
load in the hilliest areas we can find (dolomites, alps etc). I agree
that 4 days of 40 miles unladen on ordinary terrain is really not very
much and shouldn't take much training, but I bet the riders will feel
weary and perhaps saddle-sore on the 4th day!

James
--
James Annan
see web pages for email
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/julesandjames/home/
http://julesandjames.blogspot.com/

 

[John B]

Mark Taylor wrote:

> So the time of year has come for some of us late thirtysomethings to relent
> to the need to recapture some of the fitness that we once had...
>
> I have volunteered to do some fumd raising for my son's school

<snip>

> We're hoping to have a driver to carry some of our kit and drop it off at
> the relevent camp spots so we should be travelling fairly light with daily
> distance averaging at about 40 miles a day.

<snip>

> We are (ahem) averagely fit and are confident that we will be able to
> complete this without any major problems but we need to be sensible and have
> a training schedule to help us. Niether of us are a fan of gymnasiums and
> would prefer to do all of the work on the bikes - weather is not a problem!!
>
> If anyone has any tips or can direct me to a useful website I would
> appreciate it

Others have made some sensible suggestions - you should have no problems at
all.

Break your rides up into manageable chunks - say 10 miles to the first
cake/coffeee stop, ten miles to the pub for lunch, ten miles to afternoon cake
stop and a final potter to the overnight halt. Your enthusiasm will carry you
through.

IMO far too much is made of the training regimes required to undertake
relatively short bike rides - sometimes I think cynically (by some of the more
commercial charities) to hype up the difficulty in order to raise more funds.

Go out for a few short trips together and above all enjoy

Good luck.

John B

 

[Tony Raven]

Mark Thompson wrote:
>
> 40 miles a day for 4 days? Ok, the training you need to do for this is
> none. This approach may give you unnecessary discomfort tho.
>

If you are sitting on a saddle for the first time for 4x40 miles,
"unnecessary discomfort" will be an understatement. While the legs may
ache if you don't put some miles in first, not having put in saddle time
will make things much more uncomfortable by the start of the second day.

--
Tony

"The best way I know of to win an argument is to start by being in the
right."
- Lord Hailsham

 

[Mark Taylor]

Thanks for the advice guys - nice to know that I might be underestimating my
abilities...!!

Mark

 

[David Martin]

Mark Taylor wrote:
> Thanks for the advice guys - nice to know that I might be underestimating my
> abilities...!!

It's so much easier when 'I want to go training' means 'I want to go to
the pub' when the pub is a couple of hours away by bike.

...d

 

[LSMike]

Mark Taylor wrote:
> Thanks for the advice guys - nice to know that I might be underestimating my
> abilities...!!
>
> Mark

Good luck! I'm sure you'll have a brilliant time, and hope you'll get
a chance to tell us about your training and the ride itself on here.
I'm sure there will be lots of eager readers. Remember Steph and co
telling us about their training, it made for loads of excellent
reading.

And I also think you are underestimating your abilities, and by a
significant margin.

 

[mb]

Mark Taylor wrote:

[snip]
>
> If anyone has any tips or can direct me to a useful website I would
> appreciate it
>


40 miles a day isn't too much. I think by far the worst thing will be
the saddle soreness, as one or two have mentioned.

Getting on a bike and riding out for 2 hours and back for 2 hours (if
you can still sit on the saddle...) is a recipe for disaster, don't do
it.

Do some shorter rides first, say 5 miles and see if you get any serious
soreness. You'll notice when you get on the bike for the second ride,
if it's bad, cancel the ride and go the next day!

After you get over this initial hurdle *then* the rest is easy.

--
Mike

 

[Dave Kahn]

Tony Raven wrote:

> If you are sitting on a saddle for the first time for 4x40 miles,
> "unnecessary discomfort" will be an understatement. While the legs may
> ache if you don't put some miles in first, not having put in saddle time
> will make things much more uncomfortable by the start of the second day.

I agree saddle time is the single most important preparation if they
wish to avoid major discomfort. 4 days at 40 miles a day should be
trivial for people in their 30s, but their bums will be in pieces if
they're not used to sitting in the saddle for a few hours at a stretch.

I would suggest avoiding the logistical problems by doing the ride in a
day, but they'll think I'm being facetious. However, at minimum Audax
pace it's only just over 17 hours. 80 year old Jack Eason could do it,
as could any 30-something in good health. If they were planning to ride
the 161 miles in one day then they would be justified in asking for
advice on a training schedule.

--
Dave...

 

[Steph Peters]

"LSMike" <[email protected]> of http://groups.google.com wrote:
>Good luck! I'm sure you'll have a brilliant time, and hope you'll get
>a chance to tell us about your training and the ride itself on here.
>I'm sure there will be lots of eager readers. Remember Steph and co
>telling us about their training, it made for loads of excellent
>reading.
Ta.

To give the OP some encouragement, I'll just briefly say that two fat middle
aged ladies (sorry for the description Audrey) started from 5 miles a day
and got to do 100km in a day after a few months of training. Report of ride
here
http://www.sandbenders.demon.co.uk/cycling/manc100.htm

Unfortunately a bad knee has kept me going further than 5 miles in a day
since November, so when knee is recovered I may be inflicting a rerun on you
all.
--
Steph Peters
Chorlton Wanderers Cycling Group
Monthly slow and easy rides from South Manchester
http://www.sandbenders.demon.co.uk/cycling/chwan.htm