| Re: Planning a very long ride - 8 hrs
Badger_South <Badger@South.net> wrote in message news:<o1ojc05qfqndt3piisbmfg36rrlok6jeg0@4ax.com>. ..
> 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.
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