Long Distance Competition/Ultracycling, Randonneuring and Endurance Cycling - Do I need a reality check?

I used to ride quite a bit, but 3 months ago, I got a new job. I keep getting sent out of town and I have multiple worksites, so I've been riding less than 100 miles/week. The only good news is since I ride so little, those miles are ridden pretty hard.

On July 7, I'm planning to ride a hilly double (http://www.hutchsbicycles.com/rides/ultinfo.php), but I haven't even done a century since April, and am not sure if I've done even 50 miles in one shot since then. I'm getting sent out of town again this weekend, so there's very little training time left.

Strangely enough, I feel like I'm in shape. My main concern is pacing myself, protecting my knees, and preventing cramps. Because I've had so little saddle time, I've resigned myself to having a sore butt.

My question is what should I do the weekend before the ride? I'm thinking of doing a double or triple Mary's Peak (http://www.teamvega.net/?q=node/37) to help me set my pace so I don't ride too hard, but my wife is concerned I'll mess myself up. I'm thinking that if I don't have an easy time riding the peak at least twice and have plenty of energy left over, I'm deluding myself as to my condition and might not make it.

Because I've been putting in a lot of weekend time at work, I will have a chance to climb at least 6000 feet today and probably again on Friday and deal with some wind. However, there's a huge difference between putting a couple hours in and riding all day.

What preparation advice do people have? My bike is dialed in perfectly, and I have a nutrition plan. My main thoughts are what I should do when I'm probably only going to get about 5 more rides in and what I should be thinking about.

I'm big on tapering. Weekend before the event, ride medium distance, 1/2 effort, and keep the week's rides easy. By Friday you'll be energized and rearing to get going. The problem with your current plan is, you might be burnt before you even leave the starting line.

I'm not in to reality, so I'll recommend you go for the double and prepare to suffer terribly, it's too late for much else. You probably won't die and crawling across the finish line shows character

I'd do interval training, make sure you get in the right # of rest days, and hit the hills. You will get a little bit of a boost from intervals even in 4-6 weeks. And also, it's intensity, not # of miles on the bike, that really counts.

You might also want to indulge in the occasional massage to help with recovery.

And if it's July 1 and you really don't think you can do it, just bail. Do your reality/gut check then, not now, since you can just modify your training goal to the next event. There's more than one double in this world, yes? ;)

I think you're hosed. :)

Seriously, I don't think you can do a whole lot to improve things before the ride, but I do know there are plenty of things you can do to make it even worse, and most of those things include overdoing it to try to make up for lost time. IOW, I wouldn't suddenly change my training schedule to include a bunch of hardcore rides, as the training effect will be negligible, but the chances of incurring too much fatigue are relatively high.

HTH!

Concur on the hosed. What you should do is a mountainous double metric this coming weekend, and then about 70 miles of moderate rollers at a zone 3 pace the weekend before. Between those two rides, whatever your training state would support, and then a taper the last week. So forget that and just do what you can. Try to get in a few intervals this week and the next, but don't exhaust yourself. 3 days before do an hour of zone 1, including 2 or 3 two minute intervals, then nothing the last 2 days.

Take two film containers of butt goo - one of Bag Balm, and one of Butt Buttr. Use the Bag Balm as a base. Take a spare pair of gloves and sun goo, too. Been there, done that, and survived quite nicely.

Concur on the hosed. What you should do is a mountainous double metric this coming weekend, and then about 70 miles of moderate rollers at a zone 3 pace the weekend before. Between those two rides, whatever your training state would support, and then a taper the last week.
I'd love to do that, but I'm getting sent to DC leaving 4am Sat, return late Mon night :( But a moderate ride the following weekend and some light riding in the days before should be no problem.

I did my 6K feet of climbing today just to see what would happen. Like an idiot, I didn't dress warmly enough, eat anything, nor did I drink enough water so I was cold and bonking by the time I got home. Once I got something to eat, I quickly recovered. Legs don't feel too bad even though the grade was very steep and I had about 10mph headwinds for the last 20 miles.

I have never failed to complete a ride before, and would prefer to keep things that way. Although the total lack of preparation would make even attempting this seem insane, I think that I have a decent chance of making it, though I don't expect I'll be making the cutoff times with lots to spare. In many ways, it's more fun to ride when the outcome is not a foregone conclusion. The sense of accomplishment is greater when failure is a real possibility.

I am seriously considering playing hooky either the day after tomorrow or next Tues so I can try a mountainous ride with about 10K feet of climbing since that would let me experiment with my pacing and still leave plenty of time to recover. I figure if that goes well, I'll be OK. Regardless, I'm going to go for it.

I used to ride quite a bit, but 3 months ago, I got a new job. I keep getting sent out of town and I have multiple worksites, so I've been riding less than 100 miles/week. The only good news is since I ride so little, those miles are ridden pretty hard.

On July 7, I'm planning to ride a hilly double (http://www.hutchsbicycles.com/rides/ultinfo.php), but I haven't even done a century since April, and am not sure if I've done even 50 miles in one shot since then. I'm getting sent out of town again this weekend, so there's very little training time left.

Strangely enough, I feel like I'm in shape. My main concern is pacing myself, protecting my knees, and preventing cramps. Because I've had so little saddle time, I've resigned myself to having a sore butt.

My question is what should I do the weekend before the ride? I'm thinking of doing a double or triple Mary's Peak (http://www.teamvega.net/?q=node/37) to help me set my pace so I don't ride too hard, but my wife is concerned I'll mess myself up. I'm thinking that if I don't have an easy time riding the peak at least twice and have plenty of energy left over, I'm deluding myself as to my condition and might not make it.

Because I've been putting in a lot of weekend time at work, I will have a chance to climb at least 6000 feet today and probably again on Friday and deal with some wind. However, there's a huge difference between putting a couple hours in and riding all day.

What preparation advice do people have? My bike is dialed in perfectly, and I have a nutrition plan. My main thoughts are what I should do when I'm probably only going to get about 5 more rides in and what I should be thinking about.

I don't think there is a lot you can do in the next two weeks to improve. I think your time is better spent with a serious taper (ie ride the weekend before but perhaps only 3 miles / 40 miles and not hard miles), and then do a couple of recovery rides the week before the ride.

I've done some significant travelling, which has cut into my saddle-time, but I find when I can at least find a gym (hotel or local to hotel), and I can get some time on a bike there, it helps keep my legs in tune.

July 7th will suck during much of the ride, but you will feel FANTASTIC when you have completed the ride.
And, you will know how far you can push yourself ... even if you have to crawl on bloodied knee-caps across the line.

One time I did a 200k at the beginning of the season, when my longest ride had been 40 miles up to that point (for the season), and I made it. It was the most painful ride I ever did ... but I made it. I have ridden many centuries and 200k since, but none with such odds against me. I still look back and use that ride to gauge my resolve on the bike.

Good luck ...

Are you riding the bike pictured, or are you riding a bike that will give you the sore butt you are speaking of? If the former, then I say don't worry about it and just ride. Experience, bike fit, and a bit of training will see you through. If the latter, then I really don't have anything to say to you. ;)

In May I did the Davis Double. Along the way I rode with a recumbent guy who was doing only his third ride of the year, with one of the other rides being the Spring Solvang Double. He was doing just fine.

I think you're hosed. :)


Concur on the hosed.


The guys on the list are right. You're screwed.

And the verdict is... [drumroll] ...

The collective wisdom of BF predicted the outcome -- I scored my first DNF today. Many things went right. Legs and knees held out. 3 miles before I fell to pieces I was on track to finish the ride with time to spare and felt pretty good. Then heat exhaustion suddenly hit me like a wall of bricks and it was all I could do to not just pass out in the saddle.

Total distance covered: 130 miles with about 10K feet of climbing. The first 100 miles were covered in less than 6 hrs including rest stops, the last 30 took almost 3 more hrs with the last couple miles being insanely slow as I meandered in my lowest gear in a daze. Lots of great mountain scenery, including one bald eagle and one bear.

Lessons learned: don't let pride make you ride faster than you should and take heat exhaustion more seriously. I think I could probably do this ride, but just not today.

I'm neither sorry that I attempted the ride, nor will I hang my head in shame when I show up at the party tonight for the riders. While I was on the road, I rode respectably for me, and I saw other riders who would be better than me on anytime also have to end the day early due to heat exhaustion or other problems.

And although I'm a little tired, I will certainly be riding this week. :)

Good on you, mate. How many folks rode 130 hilly miles today? Not me...

Good on you, mate. How many folks rode 130 hilly miles today? Not me...

I did 110 today in 92F but I've been doing long miles consistently for the last 3 months. To the OP, congrat's on the ride and the attitude. I've been doing long rides for years and from time to time I have some problem where I can't complete my ride at speed. This usually means I get my butt dragged home by the other folks who I'm riding with. I've also discovered that my regulars also have problems and I get to return the favor. There's no shame, we're human. The folks who won't admit and give in are the ones who hurt themselves (usually severely).

BTW, at mile 70 I developed a head ache so we did an extra stop where I doused my head with water and that fixed that problem (too much sun). We finished at speed (17.62 mph avg) and had a lot of wind (cross or head wind) for the last 60 miles. Such is life so we rode. :)

Good on you, mate. How many folks rode 130 hilly miles today? Not me...

me neither. i napped and ate brunch with the in-laws. then i surfed bike forums but didn't find any good arguments to get involved in. everyone must be out riding. :D

I got in my 100 with a few thousand feet of climbing, didn't quite eat enough, and was on my hands and knees by the end. Banerjek's "failure" would have kicked me arse.

Good on you, mate. How many folks rode 130 hilly miles today? Not me...

I did a double century with 8500 feet of climbing in temps that reached over 100. :D When on the climbs in the heat I pulled the effort waaaaay back. It still got to me a bit.

The 16 hours included a 20-30 minute nap (hey, I was waiting for people!) and a lot of farting around. We weren't in a hurry.

banerjek, sorry to hear about your DNF.

I did a double century with 8500 feet of climbing in temps that reached over 100. :D When on the climbs in the heat I pulled the effort waaaaay back. It still got to me a bit.

The 16 hours included a 20-30 minute nap (hey, I was waiting for people!) and a lot of farting around. We weren't in a hurry.

banerjek, sorry to hear about your DNF.
That's the price I paid for not sticking to my original plan. The problem was I was feeling so good early on that I thought that maybe my usual strategy is more conservative than necessary. So I rode harder than usual and drank water when I felt like it rather than constantly. Turns out, I should have done what I normally do.

Usually, my heat tolerance is very good so getting taken out this way was a surprise to me. However, I'd much rather my first DNF happen as a result of me trying something new that didn't work out than to get shut down by some tiny bad luck issue.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.....faster....better.....smarter.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.....faster....better.....smarter.
My general experience is that people learn far more from failure than from success.....

Heh. I should be a frickin' genius by now.

Heh. I should be a frickin' genius by now.

Yeah. I'd have been in London this week if this were true... :D

Geez , I can't stomach this soap opera...... Banerjerk get a grip on yourself. It's not the end of the world that you don't get to jazz as hard as you can on a given ride. Believe me, the other riders have jobs and problems too!

Use your head, quit your whining, and go with whatever comes up. If it feels right, hammer, if it doesn't back off..... It's called life, there's been plenty of races I though I'd already lost, other rides I thought I'd shoot craps.... but I took each situation for what it was worth and turned the pedals the best way I knew how.

Half the success of the ride is just showing up, you don't have to guess about the rest......

Geez , I can't stomach this soap opera...... Banerjerk get a grip on yourself. It's not the end of the world that you don't get to jazz as hard as you can on a given ride. Believe me, the other riders have jobs and problems too!

Use your head, quit your whining, and go with whatever comes up.
One tip for saving time on BF is you can ignore threads you find stupid or pointless -- there is no penalty for ignoring posts, and the threading feature is useful for helping identify what you like. Another useful thing to know is that contributing to threads that you don't like makes them last longer.... :D

Besides, I did my first century over 25 years ago. Never failed to finish before, never been SAGged, and with the exception of this year, I've done more long rides than I could keep track of. The end of a run that good is worth a bit of whining. But now that it's done, I won't need to gripe in future.

Half the success of the ride is just showing up
The one decent thing I had to say about ol' Dick was that he'd never hit you with some idiotic cliche. Oh well. :lol:

Yeah, I recommend you ignore RC. Sorry RC, but you are rather tone-deaf.

And sorry to hear you DNF'ed banerjek, I thought you had a fighting chance! ;) But it really is better to drop out than kill yourself for something like this.

How hot was it, by the way? Have you tried using a Camelbak for LD rides? And, uh, you *were* drinking something other than just water, right?

How hot was it, by the way? Have you tried using a Camelbak for LD rides? And, uh, you *were* drinking something other than just water, right?
That was the funny thing. It wasn't even that bad -- somewhere in the 90's but elevation was high and humidity was low. I normally have very good heat tolerance and have not had problems in the past with centuries or extended climbs even when the temps were above 100.

I simply didn't drink enough. For some bizarre reason, about 6 or 7 hrs into the ride, I stopped drinking water like I should. In the last hour and a half, I drank only a half quart and passed a water station without bothering to top off. But I felt fine until just before the end.

For rides over 5 or 6 hours, I swear by perpetuem. Even when there is lots of climbing involved, I'll carry (and consume) more than a pound of this stuff in a day. If I'm on my trike or my highracer, my standard method is to throw a 72 oz camelback into my fastback and ride with the tube over my shoulder. If I'm on my racing bike, I fill two large bottles -- I don't like to have anything on my back when I'm riding.

My legs felt good afterwards, so I'm certain failing to finish was a simple hydration/stupidity matter. There are a bunch of good rides coming up which I still plan to top off with the Everest Challenge. One thing I like about living in OR is that there are really a lot great rides within about 600 miles.

BTW, Machka's call on having Ensure Plus for breakfast on the day of a big ride is spot on. It tastes pretty good and works better than anything else I've ever tried.

Usually, my heat tolerance is very good so getting taken out this way was a surprise to me. However, I'd much rather my first DNF happen as a result of me trying something new that didn't work out than to get shut down by some tiny bad luck issue.

This is your problem; you haven't DNF'd enough. :D Me, I have DNF'd a number of 300ks, double centuries, and 400ks. Learned a lot, too. :eek: My first two double century DNFs and my first 300k DNF were due to extreme heat. I have come a long way in dealing with the heat.