multi week / month tours & fitness

[rualexander]

Having done several multi month tours over the years, I would say it takes about three weeks to get fully fit to the point where you stop thinking about distances or the weight you are carrying. I definitely recommend taking rest days off the bike, maybe one or two a week, lazing in the sun, reading, catching up with maintenance and laundry etc.

 

[rich p]

I too cycled to Italy and found that rather than wanting days off when tired, (although I did have a few) I preferred to just do a short ride for a couple of days. It seemed pointless staying somewhere for a day unless you happen to be somewhere intrinsically interesting. The travelling and seeing things along the way was what kept me interested. So the odd 25 or 30 mile day was fine.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

did 12 months on tour ... we would cycle between 45-50miles a day on average (though some days were much longer and others shorter ranging from 11 miles (don't ask) to 92 miles)), and for between 6 and 11 days at a time without a break. Your body soon gets used to it and your fitness will soon improve if you manage to keep up your spirits for the first few weeks (2nd week was the hardest for me) and it is surprisingly easy to accomplish when you have nothing else to do all day and can take all the time you want to get to wherever you fell like going. Stress is the biggest exhausting factor - take that away and you will be fine.

 

[hopless500]

did 12 months on tour ... we would cycle between 45-50miles a day on average (though some days were much longer and others shorter ranging from 11 miles (don't ask) to 92 miles)), and for between 6 and 11 days at a time without a break. Your body soon gets used to it and your fitness will soon improve if you manage to keep up your spirits for the first few weeks (2nd week was the hardest for me) and it is surprisingly easy to accomplish when you have nothing else to do all day and can take all the time you want to get to wherever you fell like going. Stress is the biggest exhausting factor - take that away and you will be fine.

11 miles ?????

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

11 miles ?????

Some one had to ask didn't they!
torrential rain hit us so badly, that we baled to putting the tent up before lunchtime and stayed put for 2 days! Even the tarp and full waterproofs were needed just for calls of nature!

Oops - I lied - it was only 8 miles!

 

[hopless500]

Some one had to ask didn't they!
torrential rain hit us so badly, that we baled to putting the tent up before lunchtime and stayed put for 2 days! Even the tarp and full waterproofs were needed just for calls of nature!

Oops - I lied - it was only 8 miles!

I felt duty-bound to do so!
That second pic of the view from your tent is absolutely stunning

 

[Blue Hills]

Stress is the biggest exhausting factor - take that away and you will be fine.

In the interests of taking that out of the equation, what do you consider to be stress inducing on tour SatNav and how do you take it away? Or are you referring to stress when not on tour?

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

In the interests of taking that out of the equation, what do you consider to be stress inducing on tour SatNav and how do you take it away? Or are you referring to stress when not on tour?

stress - when not on tour.
Just cycling each day is much easier than a stressful working environment and cycle commuting which tired me out much more. We never worried about where we were sleeping that night - only once in 12 months did we fail to find anywhere sensible and we did manage something even then, though neither of us got much sleep that night.

 

[frank9755]

A couple of times on solo tours I have overdone it and run out of energy after the cumulative effect of a few long days in the mountains. If you keep it to 50 miles per day and make sure you are eating enough (ie a bit more than normal with emphasis on carbohydrates, but not pigging out), you should be fine.

 

[snorri]

[QUOTE 3074584, member: 9609"]I would be wanting to miss London out to the east - So any thoughts on getting from Colchester to Dover on quiet roads ?[/QUOTE]
There is a ferry at Gravesend which keeps you clear of London.

 

[Brains]

There is a ferry at Gravesend which keeps you clear of London.

you can also cross at the dart ford tunnel, they run a cycling minibus service

 

[saoirse50]

The Gravesend ferry doesn't run on Sundays....I forgot this on my Dungeness to Durness tour a couple of years ago and ended up having to cycle the few extra miles to Dartford for the bridge crossing which wasn't great..extra waiting around and leaves you with the mean streets of Thurrock to get through. Meant I ended up, exhausted, pitching a tent in a field somewhere near Billericay, that night, instead of chilling out beside the sea eating fresh seafood on Mersea Island.

 

[snorri]

[QUOTE 3084136, member: 9609"]- if I don't break I'm going to start and get serious about Italy [/QUOTE]
Testing and training, it's your mind that's holding you back, not your physical abilities, get yourself on the road to Italy before you change your mind.
More seriously, you're not going to cycle 100mpd with a full touring load, so why "test" yourself for that, you'll sicken yourself. Cycle touring is not some exhausting physical activity, it's an enjoyable daily run on the bike in an environment new and interesting to you. Don't get hung up on daily mileages, you will want to stop and look at things of interest, you will get lost from time to time, and you will want to stop regularly for appelgebak in the Netherlands and erdbeere becher in Germany.

 

[ColinJ]

[QUOTE 3084136, member: 9609"]The big test tomorrow. going to do my very first 100mile in a day and with a 1½stone pack - if I don't break I'm going to start and get serious about Italy [/QUOTE]
Are you going to be carrying the pack on your back? If so, I think you will find it a pain after a while.

I have just done 227 km/140 miles in 2 days with a rucksack on and it was really starting to bug me yesterday. I think when finances permit, I will sell my Basso and invest in a nice touring bike so I can put the luggage in panniers where it belongs.

 

[ColinJ]

[QUOTE 3085836, member: 9609"]no, my pack attaches onto the bike, see photo below. I just added some sand to weigh it down - first 100mile ever, its a long long long way 105.6m in just over 11 hours. physically it was ok, although I did give up on a hill near the end and lie on the road for 5 minutes to recover . 4rse is sore again, seriously sore, well, just behind the nutts, must try out some of these nappy pants cyclists wear, and what is the cream people use, sudocream ? i'm going to have to do someting, astonishing painful when i had a bath, may be i should just miss out the bath bit. theres always something isnt there

and this obviously was not from today, but the set up is the same - I have a bigger pack thatr i can take with me, if i go

[/QUOTE]
I tried something like that but found that the bike felt really top-heavy whenever I stopped.

I have been having similar saddle sore problems since Wednesday's hard ride. I put Savlon on the damaged skin yesterday and today. I have also bought some sterile dressings (huge plasters) which I am going to stick over the sore bits before I set off on today's ride in just over 6 hours time. I suspect that I will still have major problems though ...