Prep for a long ride

[Bodhbh]

Be travelling up to the old folks at Christmas in Grimsby, it's about 165miles from where I am in Watford and for the hell of it I'm toying with the idea of biking it in 1 sitting. Currently I've been doing plenty of reasonably long weekends rides on at a relaxed pace, generally 60-90miles or so. So have an idea at least on pacing, refuelling etc. Including rest stops my current speed is just over 10mph, so it'll be 16hrs and 1/2 of it in the dark . Maybe it's just a 'bad idea', mid-life crisis, etc.

I suppose will just have to get stuck in and try a 120-130mile ride to test the water, but any advice on preperation or tackling this?

Done most of my cycling so far on a converted MTB tourer with flat pedals and pretty fat mixed surface tyres. My other bike is an Airimal folder, thinking to put some clipless pedals on, slick tyres, drop bars and use that instead. This should up the mph significantly and make things easier?

 

[velocidad]

go on bod, you can do it! sounds like a great challenge. no real advice, but i would decide on the bike you're going to use, kit it out as it will be for the christmas ride, and use that for all your build up rides. i wouldn't fancy swapping bikes last minute for that sort of distance. sorry if that seems rather obvious advice
good luck with it

cheers, velocidad

 

[Bodhbh]

heh, yeah cheers Is a practical side to it too, the alternative is shelling out 70 odd quid for standing room on a train for 5hrs and no bike over Christmas. I can't use a return either as generally go over to N Wales to visist a mate for New Years and come back down the otherside.

 

[Tynan]

good boy!

best of luck with that, spec on an MTB frame (sincere btw)

 

[Greenbank]

One tricky aspect is having the mental strength to see it through. I've done a 300km Audax on my own and it can be tough to stay positive.

Expect to reach a low point (or several low points). Push through it and you'll find that you cheer up 10 or 20 miles later and you'll be happy that you didn't give up. Give up and you'll be annoyed a few days later that you stopped.

Split the ride up into smaller goals (i.e. stops for food/drink every few hours) and focus on the distance/time to the next stop not the distance/time to finishing. It's much easier to convince yourself to do just another 20 miles until some coffee/food instead of thinking about 13 more hours on the road.

Get the miles in. What you lack in fitness and physical prepardness you'll have to make up for with mental toughness and grim determination.

 

[Noodley]

Keep doing the miles.

As Greenbank said a lot of it is mental strength. I remember my first solo 300km ride last year being full of "bugger this" moments followed by "what was I thinking about, this is great".
Mind you there were some periods the "bugger moments" became "f*** this for a laugh" moments, but I was in the wilderness of the Cairngorms and I was as far from home as I was gonna get, so it was just a case of keeping going until I was nearer to home than the furthest point: so at 151km I was heading home and everything from there was fine.

 

[domtyler]

That sounds like on heck of a challenge. Not sure I'd fancy it myself to be honest but I wish you all the best.

 

[Bodhbh]

Cheers all for the advice from the old hands, especially about moral, appriciated. I think I'll let the miles take care of themselves over the next month or two as the nights pull in and weather turns and then see where I am. Perhaps enginner a couple of long Sunday rides home into a campign weekend to test the water.

The route up to Grimsby passes right from one end of the Fens to the other, it's pancake flat for nearly 1/2 the route, if I can do a hilly 120-130 I figure should be good for this. One main concern is injury, I don't want to be posting 6 months down the line "the knee's never been the same since".

I do want to bike up one way or another anyhow. If I do welsh out doing it in a single session, I would like definately like to do it in 24hrs with an overnight stop, leave work at 5pm and get back for tea on Christmas Eve Perhaps the one session idea is best to save for Summer, maybe even a overnight ride

 

[Fnaar]

NIce idea, and good luck... my last ride (now 3 weeks ago) was my longest ever at 100 miles (just over) and had a unexpected outcome in that I keep getting a numb hand ever since... went to doc, and advice was leave off for a while (like a tommy cooper sketch... doctor, it hurts when I do this.. well, don't do it then )... so, watch out for unexpected health outcomes would be my advice. Hope the ride goes well, good luck!

 

[Joe]

I say go for it and good luck! What's the worst that could happen?
Pretty brave on a mountain bike
I have a similar plan festering in my mind about cycling back from uni for xmas (Wrexham to Brighton). According to googlemaps it's 234 miles
I have good lighting and a bloody minded determination when I decide I'm going to do something on the bike. But there are a couple of things putting me off (besides how far it is!). I'm not 100% on my fit or saddle at the mo, and I would be travelling with no lock or way of bailing out if it got too much. That and I don't know the way
I've basically decided I will do it at some point in the next three years...maybe when I have a few weeks off in the summer would be a better idea...
Good luck to you anyway!

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

This is starting to sound like the touring forum