Originally Posted by
enfilade
for you seasoned tourers, how long did it take before you felt like you were fit enough to travel long distances, day after day?
id consider myself to be quite fit.. i did my longest ride 2 weeks ago (im 21 btw), it was a 40 mile ride which took me just under 5 hours (including breaks), it might not sound like much but the terrain is very hilly around here.. you dont get long sections of flat road for more than a minute. it's either uphill or downhill, usually steep.
after the ride i felt ok but if i hadn't had the proper snacks and drinks i would've been much slower and not healed so well, i couldn't imagine doing another 40 miles the following day.
how can i improve my fitness so it's at the level required to do long distance touring? my friend said it may take around 12 months of increasingly intensive training, saying i'd have to do loads of other exercises and stretches, building up my back and upper body muscles, doing finger stretches, and wrist exercises etc etc.
what are your ideas on this?
cheers
I haven't read the other posts, but I would say your friend is mistaken.
In fact, you don't have to do any training at all. You're already quite fit enough, and you will probably become fitter as you tour.
Just pace yourself. Find a sustainable pace -- a pace that you can keep up day after day without getting exhausted or run down.
Sustainable pace levels will of course vary from individual to individual, and for a single individual according to fitness level and and a variety of other factors.
It's simple. You don't have to perform heroic feats of athleticism -- and it can actually be counterproductive to do so.
Just find and keep a appropriate pace.