Planning a very long ride - 8 hrs

[Booker C . Bens]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

In article <[email protected]>,
Badger_South <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>I'm toying with the idea of doing a long ride this fall,
>after a summer of 400 mile/months, and I'm interested in
>some ideas as to pacing. Here's something I've been
>thinking about:
>
>Ride for three hours, then 30 min rest (and take a
>shower?), eat, then ride for 2 hours, repeat rest, then
>ride for an hour, repeat rest, then ride final 2 hours.
>Does that seem like a good scheme? 3-2-1-2?
>
>People who do touring and stuff ride about 8 hours a day
>for like 2 weeks. 'Course they're sightseeing so it's more
>fun. It would probably require a "support crew" to bring
>food and change of clothes and stuff. If you were gonna do
>it how would you break it up?
>
>I'm thinking the mental aspect would be the most
>difficult. Gonna try and get the family interested in it
>to help with that.
>
>I'm sure some here would say 'just ride for the 8 hours,
>what's the big deal', but that would be OK for those who
>have ridden a lot (like frequent 3-4 hour rides), but my
>longest ride has been 3.5 hours, and only did that once.
>I'm hoping to get some posts on others who have done
>something like this, and their experiences vs the initial
>expectations.
>
>I plan to start the ride early in the AM, like 5-ish, or
>first light. o 5:30-8:30 o 9:00-11:00

_ I suspect you won't leave the house after this break. A
steady effort with short breaks is much easier on the body.
If you take an hour off and eat, that's pretty much a
recipe for cramps and upset. Also, with the schedule of
"breaks" it would be easy to over exert yourself in the
early efforts. If you're going to take a long break, 2-3
hours is much better.

> o 12:-1 o 2-4pm
>

_ I'm not sure I see the point of this effort, but whatever
floats your boat. If you can ride for 3 hours, you can ride
for 8 if you eat, drink and set a reasonable pace. It's not
as hard as you're making it. The hardest part about such a
long ride is getting the bike comfortable and learning how
to drink enough.

_ Booker C. Bense

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[Bill]

You get my vote. 41 posts so far. Troll of the month for
sure. Or, to anal to ride with others. Quit posting and
write when you've got your hundred out of the way. If you
are riding two or three times a day, 100 or more miles a
week then a hundred is no big deal. "Just Do It'".

Bill - top posted on purpose

"Badger_South" <[email protected]> wrote in endless messages

 

[Tanya]

Badger_South <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> I'm toying with the idea of doing a long ride this fall,
> after a summer of 400 mile/months, and I'm interested in
> some ideas as to pacing. Here's something I've been
> thinking about:

With 400 mile months you should probably be in good shape
for a long ride.

> Ride for three hours, then 30 min rest (and take a
> shower?), eat, then ride for 2 hours, repeat rest, then
> ride for an hour, repeat rest, then ride final 2 hours.
> Does that seem like a good scheme? 3-2-1-2?

I would nix the shower, far too disruptive to the whole
idea. I would also take shorter rest breaks but perhaps more
often. Your body will let you know when it wants to rest.
Just make sure to eat enough food that you aren't hungry.

> People who do touring and stuff ride about 8 hours a day
> for like 2 weeks. 'Course they're sightseeing so it's more
> fun. It would probably require a "support crew" to bring
> food and change of clothes and stuff. If you were gonna do
> it how would you break it up?

I did a ride last summer - one 8 hour day (hoping now to try
some multi-day touring this summer!) I had a start point and
a destination point I wanted to get to that was about 80
miles away. (I obviously didn't spend the whole 8 hours on
the bike!) To me, the whole fun was doing it solo. I
wouldn't worry about bringing changes of clothes etc
- just wear something with wicking fabric so if you sweat a
lot you won't be drenched. You can carry your food with
you or buy it on the road.

My background previous to the ride was mostly short rides
(5 mile one way commutes) and the odd 1 to 3 hour long fun
ride, but really I hadn't had much mileage before that
ride. I rode on my clunky mountain bike with slicks
commuter, and had a pannier with a bit of stuff in it on
the rack (clothes since I was staying overnight at my
destination, and a bit of fruit and power bars. I stopped
to buy food along the way although made a mistake at
bypassing the last major place to buy something and was
pretty hungry for the last 20 miles of the ride.

If you don't have a rack/panniers you could get a camelback-
style water pack that also has a bit of room to stuff a
spare shirt (if you think you might want one) and a power
bar or two. You could also have sandwiches etc. in a
handlebar bag.

> I plan to start the ride early in the AM, like 5-ish, or
> first light. o 5:30-8:30 o 9:00-11:00 o 12:-1 o 2-4pm

I started at around 8 a.m. (I'm not a morning person so
starting at first light would have been torturous). I tried
not to stop until having gone a decent distance - otherwise
too many stops its hard to maintain momentum. Though I
stopped often enough looking for bathrooms with the amount
of water I consumed. Anywhere particularly scenic I stopped
to enjoy the scenery briefly and have a snack. I stopped a
bit longer where I planned to have lunch but found out when
I got there it was only a snack bar so had to make do with
muffins and fruit, and I stopped for maybe half an hour
close to the end of my ride just to rest my sit bones. (you
really don't want to get up again once you've done this so
don't do it too often) I arrived at the end around 4 pm.
With less rest stops and a more efficient bike you could do
100 miles in about the same time.

My only real gripe with the ride was a lack of hand
positions - I just had one with flat bars and no bar ends,
so I was a bit stiff in the shoulders, hands by the end. And
I would have a more substantial lunch.

 

[Bernie]

Tanya wrote:

>Badger_South <[email protected]> wrote in message
>news:<[email protected]>...
>
>>I'm toying with the idea of doing a long ride this fall,
>>after a summer of 400 mile/months, and I'm interested in
>>some ideas as to pacing. Here's something I've been
>>thinking about:
>>
>
>With 400 mile months you should probably be in good shape
>for a long ride.
>
>
>>Ride for three hours, then 30 min rest (and take a
>>shower?), eat, then ride for 2 hours, repeat rest, then
>>ride for an hour, repeat rest, then ride final 2 hours.
>>Does that seem like a good scheme? 3-2-1-2?
>>
>
>I would nix the shower, far too disruptive to the whole
>idea. I would also take shorter rest breaks but perhaps
>more often. Your body will let you know when it wants
>to rest. Just make sure to eat enough food that you
>aren't hungry.
>
>
>>People who do touring and stuff ride about 8 hours a day
>>for like 2 weeks. 'Course they're sightseeing so it's more
>>fun. It would probably require a "support crew" to bring
>>food and change of clothes and stuff. If you were gonna do
>>it how would you break it up?
>>
>
>I did a ride last summer - one 8 hour day (hoping now to
>try some multi-day touring this summer!) I had a start
>point and a destination point I wanted to get to that was
>about 80 miles away. (I obviously didn't spend the whole 8
>hours on the bike!) To me, the whole fun was doing it solo.
>I wouldn't worry about bringing changes of clothes etc
>- just wear something with wicking fabric so if you sweat a
> lot you won't be drenched. You can carry your food with
> you or buy it on the road.
>
>My background previous to the ride was mostly short rides
>(5 mile one way commutes) and the odd 1 to 3 hour long fun
>ride, but really I hadn't had much mileage before that
>ride. I rode on my clunky mountain bike with slicks
>commuter, and had a pannier with a bit of stuff in it on
>the rack (clothes since I was staying overnight at my
>destination, and a bit of fruit and power bars. I stopped
>to buy food along the way although made a mistake at
>bypassing the last major place to buy something and was
>pretty hungry for the last 20 miles of the ride.
>
>If you don't have a rack/panniers you could get a camelback-
>style water pack that also has a bit of room to stuff a
>spare shirt (if you think you might want one) and a power
>bar or two. You could also have sandwiches etc. in a
>handlebar bag.
>
>>I plan to start the ride early in the AM, like 5-ish, or
>>first light. o 5:30-8:30 o 9:00-11:00 o 12:-1 o 2-4pm
>>
>
>I started at around 8 a.m. (I'm not a morning person so
>starting at first light would have been torturous). I tried
>not to stop until having gone a decent distance - otherwise
>too many stops its hard to maintain momentum. Though I
>stopped often enough looking for bathrooms with the amount
>of water I consumed. Anywhere particularly scenic I stopped
>to enjoy the scenery briefly and have a snack. I stopped a
>bit longer where I planned to have lunch but found out when
>I got there it was only a snack bar so had to make do with
>muffins and fruit, and I stopped for maybe half an hour
>close to the end of my ride just to rest my sit bones. (you
>really don't want to get up again once you've done this so
>don't do it too often) I arrived at the end around 4 pm.
>With less rest stops and a more efficient bike you could do
>100 miles in about the same time.
>
>My only real gripe with the ride was a lack of hand
>positions - I just had one with flat bars and no bar ends,
>so I was a bit stiff in the shoulders, hands by the end.
>And I would have a more substantial lunch.
>
Hey Tanya Nice ride report. I am a commuter too, do about 25
kms round trip daily. Now and then I feel the desire to tune
up the body a bit and take a nice ride. Last Saturday I did
a 87 km ride with lots of hills. It worked out fine. I've
been a slug lately, too many life pressures getting me down
maybe. So I took a handful of granola bars, couple water
bottles, rain jacket and poly long johns and hit the
blacktop. The ride was a scenic trip. I must agree with
stopping long enough tp enjoy the scenery! The rain became a
bit of a bore, but not bad once I found a Johnny on the Spot
where I could put my longies on. A fruit stand in the Fraser
Valley sold me the most vivid snack of fresh picked
raspberries! Just fabulous.. If you've been riding
regularly, it's not hard to now and then dramatically extend
your range harmlessly. Next week, who knows? Best , Bernie

 

[Jacques Moser]

On Mon, 14 Jun 2004 17:32:09 +0000, Bill wrote:

> You get my vote. 41 posts so far. Troll of the month for
> sure. Or, to anal to ride with others. Quit posting and
> write when you've got your hundred out of the way. If you
> are riding two or three times a day, 100 or more miles a
> week then a hundred is no big deal. "Just Do It'".
>
> Bill - top posted on purpose
>
> "Badger_South" <[email protected]> wrote in endless
> messages

Keeping a long thread alive by answering posts in not
trolling. Riding alone is not being anal. If you don't like
this thread you don't need to read it.

Jacques