How far can I cycle in a day?

[Edward Hibbert]

Obviously you lot know this better than I do .

I'm going on a week-long trip from Edinburgh to Bolton, and planning my
route, which is a bit convoluted because of where I want to go in between.

I've cycled 50-60 miles in an individual day before without too much
difficulty - I felt pretty tired in the evening, but ok the next day. The
route I'm thinking of taking involves mostly days that are around 50-60, one
day that's 70, a couple of easy days that are about 30...and one day that
would be 85 (from Coldingham to Prudhoe).

So I have a few questions. If I can cycle 50-60 miles in a day, am I likely
to be able to cycle that kind of distance day after day? Or am I just going
to hit some kind of wall after a couple of days (metaphorically). And is 85
miles just likely to be way too much, and I should reconsider my route?

Oh, and any nice B&Bs in Prudhoe, while you're at it.

 

[Mark Thompson]

> So I have a few questions. If I can cycle 50-60 miles in a day, am I
> likely to be able to cycle that kind of distance day after day? Or am
> I just going to hit some kind of wall after a couple of days
> (metaphorically). And is 85 miles just likely to be way too much, and
> I should reconsider my route?

Shouldn't have a problem if you're fit, healthy, vaguely youngish (under
say, 65), got your cycling legs already and happy to trundle. The 85
should be a breeze if you've shorter days either side.

Standard things like taking it easy, plenty of breaks for pies, cake,
liquid refreshment etc and good weather will make it a pleasureable way to
travel.

 

[Simon Brooke]

in message <[email protected]>, Edward Hibbert
('[email protected]') wrote:

> Obviously you lot know this better than I do .
>
> I'm going on a week-long trip from Edinburgh to Bolton, and planning my
> route, which is a bit convoluted because of where I want to go in
> between.
>
> I've cycled 50-60 miles in an individual day before without too much
> difficulty - I felt pretty tired in the evening, but ok the next day.
> The route I'm thinking of taking involves mostly days that are around
> 50-60, one day that's 70, a couple of easy days that are about 30...and
> one day that would be 85 (from Coldingham to Prudhoe).
>
> So I have a few questions. If I can cycle 50-60 miles in a day, am I
> likely to be able to cycle that kind of distance day after day?

You can't do your limit distance day after day. But you can do a
surprisingly high proportion of it. If the real limit of what you can do
in a day is (say) 100 miles, I would expect you to be able to do 60
miles every day for a week.

> Or am I just
> going
> to hit some kind of wall after a couple of days (metaphorically). And
> is 85 miles just likely to be way too much, and I should reconsider my
> route?

Your limit distance is usually about three times what you're used to
doing regularly. So if you're used to doing 40 miles in a day you can
probably do 120 as a one-off.

Enjoy!

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

X-no-archive: No, I'm not *that* naive.

 

[Peter Clinch]

Simon Brooke wrote:
> in message <[email protected]>, Edward Hibbert
> ('[email protected]') wrote:

>> So I have a few questions. If I can cycle 50-60 miles in a day, am I
>> likely to be able to cycle that kind of distance day after day?
>
> You can't do your limit distance day after day. But you can do a
> surprisingly high proportion of it. If the real limit of what you can do
> in a day is (say) 100 miles, I would expect you to be able to do 60
> miles every day for a week.

And the real question to ask yourself there is to what extent that
50-60 is a limit, or just the most you've done. The longest I've
done in a day is about 60 miles, which I did on successive days
well into a tour.

>> Or am I just going
>> to hit some kind of wall after a couple of days (metaphorically). And
>> is 85 miles just likely to be way too much, and I should reconsider my
>> route?

It's not just distance. Those 60 mile days mentioned above were
both a lot easier than 40 and 45 mile days on the same tour because
the 40 was mainly off-road on old railways and the 45 was across
the Northern coast which has lots of fairly big and fairly steep
climbs. The 60s both had plenty of ascent, but it tended to be
reasonably shallow climbs spread over long routes, which we can do
better than the short sharp ones.

There can also be comfort issues. On an upright bike I've had to
stop at 60 miles because my arms couldn't take any more and my neck
was decidedly uncomfortable. Things start getting very slow if
you've got a comfort crisis as well as being tired, so be sure
you're happy in the saddle that long.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email protected] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

 

[Stan Cox]

Edward Hibbert wrote:
> Obviously you lot know this better than I do .
>
> I'm going on a week-long trip from Edinburgh to Bolton, and planning my
> route, which is a bit convoluted because of where I want to go in between.
>
> I've cycled 50-60 miles in an individual day before without too much
> difficulty - I felt pretty tired in the evening, but ok the next day. The
> route I'm thinking of taking involves mostly days that are around 50-60, one
> day that's 70, a couple of easy days that are about 30...and one day that
> would be 85 (from Coldingham to Prudhoe).
>
> So I have a few questions. If I can cycle 50-60 miles in a day, am I likely
> to be able to cycle that kind of distance day after day? Or am I just going
> to hit some kind of wall after a couple of days (metaphorically). And is 85
> miles just likely to be way too much, and I should reconsider my route?
>
> Oh, and any nice B&Bs in Prudhoe, while you're at it.
>
>
I suspect the answer comes down to how long do you intend to ride a
day and what do you intend to do in the evenings. If the answers are
most of the day and not much then you should be ok. Make sure you know
the contours of your route. I learnt this one many years ago the hard
way

Stan Cox

 

[Edward Hibbert]

Thanks for all these replies.

50-60 is what I'm fairly comfortable doing, so given Simon's factor of three
it sounds like I should be ok to go for the 85.

I'm intending to spend all day cycling and collapse in the evenings, so it's
ok if I'm wiped out as long as I'm in reasonable shape the next day.

I'm using the MemoryMap software, so I can see the elevation profile of the
route, and it also gives me a total ascent and total descent figure.
Comparing the routes to ones I've done already this looks ok to me, though
if anyone happens to have any rules of thumb about that then I'd be
interested.

"Stan Cox" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Edward Hibbert wrote:
>> Obviously you lot know this better than I do .
>>
>> I'm going on a week-long trip from Edinburgh to Bolton, and planning my
>> route, which is a bit convoluted because of where I want to go in
>> between.
>>
>> I've cycled 50-60 miles in an individual day before without too much
>> difficulty - I felt pretty tired in the evening, but ok the next day.
>> The route I'm thinking of taking involves mostly days that are around
>> 50-60, one day that's 70, a couple of easy days that are about 30...and
>> one day that would be 85 (from Coldingham to Prudhoe).
>>
>> So I have a few questions. If I can cycle 50-60 miles in a day, am I
>> likely to be able to cycle that kind of distance day after day? Or am I
>> just going to hit some kind of wall after a couple of days
>> (metaphorically). And is 85 miles just likely to be way too much, and I
>> should reconsider my route?
>>
>> Oh, and any nice B&Bs in Prudhoe, while you're at it.
> I suspect the answer comes down to how long do you intend to ride a day
> and what do you intend to do in the evenings. If the answers are most of
> the day and not much then you should be ok. Make sure you know the
> contours of your route. I learnt this one many years ago the hard way
>
> Stan Cox

 

[Edward Hibbert]

Thanks for all these replies.

50-60 is what I'm fairly comfortable doing, so given Simon's factor of three
it sounds like I should be ok to go for the 85.

I'm intending to spend all day cycling and collapse in the evenings, so it's
ok if I'm wiped out as long as I'm in reasonable shape the next day.

I'm using the MemoryMap software, so I can see the elevation profile of the
route, and it also gives me a total ascent and total descent figure.
Comparing the routes to ones I've done already this looks ok to me, though
if anyone happens to have any rules of thumb about that then I'd be
interested.

"Stan Cox" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Edward Hibbert wrote:
>> Obviously you lot know this better than I do .
>>
>> I'm going on a week-long trip from Edinburgh to Bolton, and planning my
>> route, which is a bit convoluted because of where I want to go in
>> between.
>>
>> I've cycled 50-60 miles in an individual day before without too much
>> difficulty - I felt pretty tired in the evening, but ok the next day.
>> The route I'm thinking of taking involves mostly days that are around
>> 50-60, one day that's 70, a couple of easy days that are about 30...and
>> one day that would be 85 (from Coldingham to Prudhoe).
>>
>> So I have a few questions. If I can cycle 50-60 miles in a day, am I
>> likely to be able to cycle that kind of distance day after day? Or am I
>> just going to hit some kind of wall after a couple of days
>> (metaphorically). And is 85 miles just likely to be way too much, and I
>> should reconsider my route?
>>
>> Oh, and any nice B&Bs in Prudhoe, while you're at it.
> I suspect the answer comes down to how long do you intend to ride a day
> and what do you intend to do in the evenings. If the answers are most of
> the day and not much then you should be ok. Make sure you know the
> contours of your route. I learnt this one many years ago the hard way
>
> Stan Cox

 

[MSeries]

Edward Hibbert wrote:
> Obviously you lot know this better than I do .
>
> I'm going on a week-long trip from Edinburgh to Bolton, and planning my
> route, which is a bit convoluted because of where I want to go in between.
>
> I've cycled 50-60 miles in an individual day before without too much
> difficulty - I felt pretty tired in the evening, but ok the next day. The
> route I'm thinking of taking involves mostly days that are around 50-60, one
> day that's 70, a couple of easy days that are about 30...and one day that
> would be 85 (from Coldingham to Prudhoe).
>
> So I have a few questions. If I can cycle 50-60 miles in a day, am I likely
> to be able to cycle that kind of distance day after day? Or am I just going
> to hit some kind of wall after a couple of days (metaphorically). And is 85
> miles just likely to be way too much, and I should reconsider my route?
>
> Oh, and any nice B&Bs in Prudhoe, while you're at it.
>
>
Good questions, hard for anyone to answer but yourself, not that that
stops us trying. Fatigue will build uo day after day, how much it
affects you depends on how fit you are. Are you able to do a shorter,
maybe just a 2 day Saturday and Sunday tour to see how you get on ?
This will have training benefits anyway. The cumulative effect of the
tour might not ruin it for you anyway, if you start off in pretty good
shape you might have enough left towards the end to execute your plan,
no problem then. Plan each short day to occur after a couple of long or
normal days, rest on these days, that means do as little as possible.
Lying down with your feet up, snoozing is not a waste of time, it is
really really important for recovery. Eat well, drink water, sleep as
much as you need to. Do not tramp round a castle or museum, REST.

Your plan doesn't sound unreasonable to me, though I have experience of
long tours, its doable, perhaps fit some more training in if you can. Be
comfortable with riding say 100 miles, 60 will then seem a breeze. Avoid
Prudhoe ! !

 

[[email protected]]

If you are not carrying too much kit you should have no prob, but
perhaps plan for one easy day less than 50 miles so that you get a
chance to recover a bit. I did Lejog 2 years ago at average 75 miles
per day with camping gear and it was knackering - me moderately fit 60
year old. Had one day off (broken spoke) which was a nice rest and
enabled me to do 100 miles on the last day, Lairg to JoG.

cheers
Jacob

 

[Edward Hibbert]

I'm not carrying too much, because my wife is pottering around nearby in a
hire car. I have a couple of easy days, though sadly after the big one, but
the stuff I've read on here encourages me to try it.

So thanks for that, or alternatively damn your eyes. I'll let you know
which in a month or so.

<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> If you are not carrying too much kit you should have no prob, but
> perhaps plan for one easy day less than 50 miles so that you get a
> chance to recover a bit. I did Lejog 2 years ago at average 75 miles
> per day with camping gear and it was knackering - me moderately fit 60
> year old. Had one day off (broken spoke) which was a nice rest and
> enabled me to do 100 miles on the last day, Lairg to JoG.
>
> cheers
> Jacob
>