Long Distance Competition/Ultracycling, Randonneuring and Endurance Cycling - Newb needs to get in shape for a 500 mile ride

I get bored on occasion. Primarily when I'm on one of my usual routes for the millionth time. I can't remember getting bored at an event, group ride, etc.

We sure are mangling this thread.

i don't mind the mangling, unless anyone has some more advice, which would be greatly appreciated.

The secret to averaging 25mph is finding a course that is all downhill! :D

shows how much i know, 25 mph sounded right to me. If it's not thats right thats fine. Then i guess i need advice on how to train for a 500 mph ride at an avg of 15-17 mph.

p.s. I was sincere in my desire to ride at that pace(500 miles 25mph avg) I didn't know that that was beyond normal. BTW i'm not a troll, just not very knowledgable of the limits of human capability.

Hello TwistedKosher,

I see you've gotten a lot of good advice and some rather odd comments. I'll post and see if I can add some useful comments (or more confusion). I generally ride Centuries on the week ends from May - October. I train for a single day/double century around the longest day of the year (near Jun 21) which is called the Longest Day. The way we do the training is start out with base mileage. During the Winter we still ride in the 40 mile range unless it's snowing. In late Winter/early Spring we increase the mileage to around 60 - 80 mile rides. Then around May 5 we do our first Century. During the jump between the 60 to 100 mile rides we also increase our daily rides so we're riding during the week and on the weekends. My friend rides 5 days a week takes off one then rides 5 more and so on. I can't do that I can ride one on/one off, later 2 on/1 off, usually short miles 12 - 20 mile rides. Later I'll mix in a few 30 - 40 mile week day rides by commuting to work and mid-week rides.

Now back to the weekends, After another century I increase to double metrics and I'll follow that up with a day-after metric or century. The goal here is to reach an average speed for both days that I can keep on the Longest Day. During this time (late winter - June 21) we work on what we can eat, our riding style, position and equipment, what we can do to keep the ride from being boring and dull (usually really bad jokes) and handling different weather conditions. I have about 8 different centuries so I avoid doing a single ride more than twice (depends on the winds). It's really important to work on speed, strength, saddle time and mental strength. If you can't convince yourself you can do it you can't do it.

When I first started doing doubles my average ride speed was 15 - 16 mph for most flat land rides. That year I did the Longest Day at 15.8 mph though I did a flat century at 18 mph. The next year I avg'd 16.2 on the double with my normal ride avg in the 15.8 - 16.5 range. The next double avg'd 17.3, the next 17.5 then 17.8. Last year I was sick so very little riding and my double avg was 16.8 though my centuries avg 17.5 and my rides 17 - 18 mph. All these rides are with a group of 2 - 6 people and the varying times are do to all sorts of things such as other rides, weather, mechanical problems etc.

Here's some hints you'll need to know. First move you hands around every few minutes. Your arms, shoulders and wrists will get sore and might fall asleep while riding. Moving them around help limit these problems to some extent. Get used to standing up and riding out of the saddle to give a chance for the blood to flow in the nether regions. Don't plan on eating or drinking the same foods all day long. Your digestive system will thank you. When I train, I train with a really loaded Camelbak. See my Camelbak (http://www.linuxha.com/other/non-ha/bicycle/ventoux.html) page for all the junk I trained with this year. This works well for me and drives other people nuts (extra points for that ;) ). Even though it's just the two of you try to pace line. Into the wind can drain you physically and mentally so a short 2 minute break can be very helpful just don't ever over lap wheels! Get a good saddle that fits your sit bones not your read end. I went with a Brooks and I've loved it. The Pre-Softened saddles break in quickly usually about 50 miles for me. Other folks have a lot of trouble with the Brooks (YAMV ;) ). Expect things to go wrong, if it doesn't happen then you've had a great ride, if it does then you'll have planned for it and it shouldn't ruin your ride.

a 500 mile ride

and

many rides which lead to a total of 500 miles in on week

is 2 completly different things.....