I normally cycle 10 miles a day (commute) and so far this year I've done 1100 miles.
I rode a 45 mile ride a few weeks ago and could have happily done more. The longest distance I've ridden in a single ride was 70 miles last year although I'm lighter and fitter now than I was then.

So, that's a bit about me. In a couple of weeks my wife and son might be away for the weekend and I'll be at home by myself. In order to stop myself from grumping around all weekend I was wondering if I could cycle from where I live down to Land's End which is 250 miles away.

If I set myself a conservative average of 10mph, I could do 50 miles on Friday, 100 on Saturday and Sunday. I'd then get the train back late on Sunday or early on Monday.

So, a question for those long distance clydes and athenas is; does this sound like a sensible challenge to set myself?

Where would yo spend the night? If you have to carry extra clothes, tent, and such it is a lot harder. Load up the stuff you would take, and go on a test ride.

If I set myself a conservative average of 10mph, I could do 50 miles on Friday, 100 on Saturday and Sunday. I'd then get the train back late on Sunday or early on Monday.

"Crash programs fail because they are based on the theory that, with nine women pregnant, you can get a baby in a month." - Werner von Braun

IOW, you can't simply take the time it takes you to do a ten-mile bike ride, pad it comfortably, and multiply by 25. That's not to say you shouldn't go for it, but do have some kind of bailout plan, and also a plan for transporting clothing and such.

personally i would rather have my long days earlier. by the third long day my motivation to stay on the saddle is conciderbly less. i say i would normally train a bit more before a ride like that but i say go for it.

If you're looking at 10mph average, then that's 10 hours in the saddle (so maybe 12 hours total per 100 mile day with breaks).
Aside from just having tempered your body and mind to that kind of mileage, you need to work out your food and sleeping arrangements. For distance riding, you need to consider about 250 cal/hour while you're riding; that's what your body can effectively process, so it needs to be a constant stream of caloric input. Figuring food and sleep is the easy part; tempering yourself to the miles is the part that you can't just fiddle around with on paper.

Try doing a back-to-back 70 mile weekend before setting out on an adventure of this proportion. Not to say that you couldn't do it right now, but I think you'll be better off knowing how you handle distances longer than 100 miles in a weekend, and how your body recovers and re-starts on a back-to-back distance of 70 miles so you have a base point for how you need to adjust for back-to-back century rides.
I mention tempering your mind to this kind of riding since you don't mention riding with anyone. 10 hours a day by yourself is a long time on the bike. Even with nice scenery, are you prepared mentally to deal with the possibility of 20 hours in the rain? Or horrible headwinds? I don't know about the scenery, but maybe the terminal boredom of 10 hours, pedalling through nothing but pasture and meadow roads with nothing to see but grass and sheep.

Again, I'm not trying to discourage you. It's a very do-able ride... I just don't want you to hate cycling by the time you're finished with it.

Probably . Still its wise to build up to it. And before you do your tour, it would not hurd to do a one hundred mile day.

Not to discourage....just some thoughts

"The longest distance I've ridden in a single ride was 70 miles last year"

I'd rather have those miles in this year...Your head remembers you did that..your legs don't

Your legs don't remember much about last year

" I rode a 45 mile ride a few weeks ago and could have happily done more"

Which tells me you could have probably done 70-80 and been completely done...thats one day,not waking up and doing it again and again

If your going ,rethink your distances...50 the first day is not a warm up for 100 and 100

Go 80-80-90..or..80-90-80..that way if you doubt yourself the first day you can ride back home the next and still have had a descent tour of 80 and 80 and be home

If you could get one more day that would be ideal..then you've got 60-60-60-70 ,ideal touring distances and very enjoyable

Thanks all, these are good points.

Some things I forgot to mention or have come up with since reading your replies:

- I can't really do this another time, I don't really want to be away from my family, but as they'll be away anyway it seems like the best time to try this.
- I'd be doing the ride with a friend of mine who rides about as much as I do and is up the for the challenge of doing this.
- As we're just going for the weekend, I'd probably just take a couple of pairs of cycling shorts, a jersey, jacket and trousers (pretty much what I carry to work each day on my commute).
- We'd be staying in hotels / B&B's, so we don't have to carry any tents or anything.
- I think we'll pass a big town/city every 30 miles or so, so there will almost always be a way to get a train home if it all goes pear shaped.
- We're doing it really just to see if we can, just for the fun of trying.

So, a couple more questions:
- How long does it take to cycle 100 miles?

I did a 70 mile ride last year with the same friend, we averaged about 12mph and that was quite a hilly ride. We had about 1 hour of stops during the ride, so in total we took a little under 7 hours to do 70 miles. This is how I came to the 10mph estimated speed.

- How hard is it to do 100 miles back to back? Is it really that hard, or is it just a case of taking your time, eating and drinking, a good nights sleep and just keep pedaling?

It's not definite I'll be doing it, but if I do it'll be a great challenge and easily the hardest thing I've ever done physically.

Thanks for your thoughts and encouragement,

I routinely do centuries, although not back to back. My fastest time was 6 hours 48 minutes and my slowest was close to 10 hours (hilly ride, doing it with a slow "newbie"). I think, because you are self sagging, a reasonable time frame is probably going to be closer to the 8.5 - 10 hours.

250 miles in a weekend is quite ambitious but doable. I have done the same but in 4 days. I routinely do week long tours and for my money I think it's reasonable to do the shortest distance first and do work up to a longer distance. Last summer I did Montana, the mileage was over the week was 55, 58, 70, 93, 104, 87, 60, 72 (I wish the temperatures were not low - it stayed above 105 every day!). Anyway the shorter distances up front gave my legs a chance to first "get into the groove" and by the time I hit the longer days, I felt great.

I think it's OK to do the 100 back to back. Just make sure you have a good base of training. Taper off before the trip to make sure you are over trained and exhausted, learn about nutrition and ride to ride... enjoy the trip, take the day, rest, eat etc. But always have a back up plan (have credit card will travel!).

"How hard is it to do 100 miles back to back?"..."is it just a case of taking your time, eating and drinking, a good nights sleep and just keep pedaling?"

Yes...and..."Just make sure you have a good base of training".....time in the saddle,so your body know what its doing,just more of it.

Just make sure you have a good base of training"

Ah, nuts! is 2 weeks enough time to get a good base of training?
Does commuting 12 miles a day count as a good base?

because you are self sagging
What does this mean? Have you seen me in my lycra?

It means you'll have to carry all your support with you on the bike. You can shave the load to an absolute minimum to a credit card and a small Carradice or the like bag to carry clothes and at least a rain poncho, though. In essence, you'll have to ride it like a Randonneur would.

- I can't really do this another time, I don't really want to be away from my family, but as they'll be away anyway it seems like the best time to try this.

As tempting as it may be, that's not a good reason to take off on a trip that could turn into an Epic.

- I'd be doing the ride with a friend of mine who rides about as much as I do and is up the for the challenge of doing this.

"Up for the challenge", in this context, means that he thinks it sounds like a fun idea. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean "adequately prepared". It's good not to go alone, but with someone at the same level of conditioning and (lack of) experience at long rides, it's not a huge advantage.

- As we're just going for the weekend, I'd probably just take a couple of pairs of cycling shorts, a jersey, jacket and trousers (pretty much what I carry to work each day on my commute).
- We'd be staying in hotels / B&B's, so we don't have to carry any tents or anything.

Where would you carry these things?
When you arrive at your destination for the night and are going to go out to get something to eat, what will you wear?
How will you carry supplies such as food/snacks/water?

- I think we'll pass a big town/city every 30 miles or so, so there will almost always be a way to get a train home if it all goes pear shaped.

You definitely want to look into these options more closely, also re: accommodations. Don't assume that they will have vacancies.

- We're doing it really just to see if we can, just for the fun of trying.

That's a great reason to try something...but if the trying becomes distinctly Not Fun, are you the sort of person who will be okay with that?

Ah, nuts! is 2 weeks enough time to get a good base of training?
Does commuting 12 miles a day count as a good base?

The general recommendation for increasing distance (for distances under 200km) is that you shouldn't push more than about 10-15% on your next consecutive longest ride. Over 200km and up to 400km, you're really just managing food intake. For 400km+ (in a single ride) and you're talking about needing to manage sleep into your schedule.
Since you've already determined that sleep will be a part of this 250 miles (400km), then you're looking at food management (easy) and base mileage vs. this upcoming mileage.

Current longest day = 70 miles, last year sometime. 45 miles last month.
New longest day = 100 miles. 43% increase over your longest day last year, and 55% over your longest day this year. That's a huge increase in mileage, and you're planning on doing that back to back after already going 5 miles longer than your current longest ride.

Again, I'm not saying you can't. I know people whose longest day has been 30 miles, and they go and ride the Seattle-to-Portland in 2 days (204 miles, back to back centuries.) A guy here at work rode a 185 miler 2-day last year with almost no time in the saddle for training. It can be done. I'm just suggesting that it might be more easily accomplished with more base miles and some longer training rides under your belt.

I'd highly recommend you do a shorter tour first. You'll learn a lot about touring with less risk. You can ride to a friend's house 30-40 miles away, spend the night, then ride back the next day.

The hardest part of touring isn't the riding, it's the planning.

You also might poke around the touring forum. This sort of tour has been done before. You can also check out the crazyguy site; there are a lot of tour journals there, and you can search by length, number of days, and so on.

What does this mean? Have you seen me in my lycra?

Funny! No, you look perfectly fine... really! :eek:

Consider what happens if you just get too pooped to go on. If you can conveniently catch that train at other places, go for it. If it's 250 miles or bust, i'd try it some other time.

It also helps if you're familiar with the route and wind.

Go for it. If you make it, you will have amazing bragging rights. If you drop sooner, so what? At least you tried and thats what counts.

and encouraging story from my life has to follow, right?:)

2 years ago I would bike 40 miles on the weekend and on the 4th July I decided to bike http://www.wodfriends.org/ WOD. In the morning I started from Purcellville and made it to DC in few hours. I thought abou calling my backup to pick me up, but decided to start biking back. Quess , what, I made all the way back totalling 96 miles. Thats why i say just do it, it will not be as bad as you think and it is good to go crazy sometimes.

"We're doing it really just to see if we can, just for the fun of trying."

This is what I love to hear...enjoy the adventure

Only you can know what your limits are so just listen to your body, if it says its too much then pull back and take it easy. Good luck to you and be safe!