trace22clawson

I'm planning on doing the Seattle-to-Portland in one day this summer. It's a 204 mile ride. I'm hoping that this is an attainable goal for a clydesdale. I'm sure that there are other under 6' and 200+ lbs riders that have done this. I'm interested in what your training program was, what type of equipment you were on, how far you went, and were you so miserable that you vowed never to do anything like it again?

Interested in your opinions on what the ideal equipment would be for such a ride. Remember, for me, speed is not critical... I just want to finish the ride before it gets dark.

sean565

I'm 5'10 220lbs and did a century last October for the Tour de Cure. It was tough but I made it so I was pretty pumped about that. I have a Giant OCR with some strong FSA RD-400 wheels. The bike held up very well and body didn't do all that bad. I will definitely ride it again this year.

As far as training - I just rode as many miles as I could. My biggest issue was and still is - staying in the saddle and not getting too sore. I think time in the saddle is the only way to cure that. I live in NW Arkansas where there are lots of hills and after getting used to my normal terrain the Tour was much easier on me.

Hardheadmandca

6' and 270 here. I'll do my first Metric Century this weekend in Reedley, CA.

For a link of the route, see here - https://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path...Bike-Ride-100K

I'm working with the Team in Training of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society for the Century around Lake Tahoe this June 3rd.

I anyone is interested in contributing - https://www.active.com/donate/tntccal/tntccalBBaker

hammond9705

Have you done any centuries? If you finish 100 without too much pain you can do 200.

I'm 6-1 and 260 and I've done 2 200k rides this year and 1 300k (191 miles). They were brevets (see www.rusa.org for more info) Gets lots of training in, get used to long rides and you can do it. I find that as long as it isn't a real hilly ride it's OK. Gravity is just too tough for a ride with lots of hills.

cyccommute 

I've done lots of metrics, centuries (a few off-road on a mountain bike) and double metrics. It's just a matter of time in the saddle. Don't worry about being big, that's not really a deciding factor. Training before the event is, however. For that I use this schedule. Look at the tips for doing double century while there. It's just ridin'

One of the best tricks I ever learned was to break the ride into managable sections -10 miles for a century. A 10 mile ride is easy and a century is just a series of 10 mile rides. Really not that hard.

Hambone

6'1" 320#

I decided last April to do the Montauk Century. I started riding to work (~14 miles) one way every other day, then one way every day, then round trip every day. I also tried to get in a longer ride on the weekend. Usually every other/every third weekend I'd do about 25-40 miles. I did two organized centuries this summer and both were fine. But I don't know that I would have wanted to do 200 miles without some more long ride experience.

My plan is to do the long version of the Montauk Cent this May, 145 miles. By the end of the summer, I'm gonna ride to Rhode Island.

Tom Stormcrowe

Labor Day Weekend:
11 1/2 hours-167 miles

Hambone

That sure puts the labor in Labor Day Weekend.

Tom Stormcrowe

a labor of love though!

chipcom 

+1

I just want to add that the fit of your bike and your riding position are important too...as the miles go by those little minor annoyances can turn into major PIAs that sap your will to continue and get you thinking of excuses not to.

chipcom 

Tom has hit on the key ingredient...as my old HS football coach used to say, 'You gotta love it'.

missing

70 miles on the Kal-Haven trail, on my Giant Boulder SE, last summer. I now have my road bike (Giant OCR 1 sitting in my living room) waiting for the snow to go away.

wfin2004

45 miles on the Withlacooche Trail. I felt good, except my ars kinda hurt. Had to keep switching cheeks.

jaxgtr

This is a great tip sheet. I think I am going to start using that next week. One of my goals was to do a Metric and this would help do that plus put me on the course to do a century.

jaxgtr

My longest so far is 45 miles just beating around the local area near my house. Basic circuit that I mapped out.

chipcom 

If you can do 45 miles, you can do a metric. If you can do a metric, you can do a century. If you can do a century you can do a double metric, if you can do a double metric, you can probably manage a double century.

BetweenRides

6'2", 240 lbs. Longest one day ride for me was RAIN (Ride Across Indiana) on two occasions. Distance was 162 miles, 8:20 & 9:15 ride times. No special training, but both times it was app. 3 weeks after a week long tour (370 - 420 miles), plus several metrics and/or centuries in the months leading up to the ride in mid July. For the better timed ride, I did a double metric distance the weekend before. Key is keeping enough fluids and food in you, especially if it's hot. In the 2006 edition of RAIN, the heat index was something like 115 degrees. We were so sick of food and gatorade at the end of the ride, we no longer wanted to eat or drink anything.

chipcom 

Hope to see you there this year.

trace22clawson

OK.. thanks for the tips. I think I have about 17 hours to complete the ride (5 am to 10 pm.) I figure I'll be out of the saddle for 2-3 hours taking breaks, eating, going to the bathroom, hopefully not fixing flats. So I think I have to keep about a 15mph pace for the duration. Is that a difficult pace to maintain? I haven't ridden in groups before, but I plan to do 5-10 rides in groups before the Seattle-to-Portland. How much, if any speed/time am I going to pick up by tagging along with a few pacelines? I assume they will pull away from me all day long... and by the time I finish I'm pretty sure there won't be any pacelines left on the road.

Another question? when most of you ride these long distances, do you adjust your bars so that you are more upright? my bars are a few inches below the saddle. This is ok for my commute (15 miles round trip) and even for rides up to 30-40 miles. But much beyond that, I start to feel tightness in my neck and shoulders. I'm just thinking that bein a little more upright might help for a 200 mile ride. Do any of you make this kind of an adjustment for a long ride?

chipcom 

Don't hang around any pacelines with folks you don't know. If they are a good group, they will not appreciate someone tagging along who may not know how to work safely in a paceline and if they are a bad group (folks who really don't know what they are doing) you may end up getting tangled up in a crash.

If you want to join a paceline I recommend that you join a local club and get some experience doing so, but again, be careful who you join up with on the ride and ask permission to join. They may just have you hang on the back end until they get a feel for you, which means you get a pass, at least for a while, on taking pulls. You might want to venture over to the roadie forums to get some tips from folks who know far more than I.

trace22clawson

Wow! I looked at that schedule. It looks pretty tough! 5 rides over 100 miles in 5 consecutive weeks building up to the double century? I think my body would be hammered. Take a look at the suggested training schedule for the one-day riders for the STP (on page 8):

https://cascade.org/EandR/stp/pdf/stp..._book_2007.pdf

That was the schedule I was planning on doing, plus my daily commute of 15 miles 4-5 days a week. What do you think? That first schedule seems to suggest that I need more training.

DanteB

My 6' 230# and have done 14 double centuries, 2 triple centuries and a bunch of centuries in the last 3 years. The triples take 20 hours and I'm on the road 22 hours, lonnnng day. As far as training most of my training rides are 2 hours or less with a few centuries thrown in. I've never been miserable on one of my rides, even in the rain. The biggest thing is to stay hydrated and eat, you need to start as soon as you leave. Also, you need to get comfortable with riding at night with lights.

(51)

A mere 40, but I am in the 300 lbs+ category.

DieselDan

A 109 mile self-supported ride. I was to meet the family out of town for a camping trip, only to find my car wouldn't start that morning, and the repair wasn't a quick fix. So I saddled up, and headed to Santee on my Cannondale. I carried my Camelback, two water bottles, some cash, and a few bars. The traffic was a bit harrowing leaving Beaufort, but wasn't so bad once I got off US 17. The only town of size was Walterboro, which was surprising nice to cyclists. Took me almost 9 hours, but I did stop for two hours in St. George to rest.

Dewbert

Last year's Ride Across INdiana (RAINride.org). 162.5 miles in about 12 hours. I was riding a Giant OCR2 and I was pretty tired, but it went well. I'm planning on doing it again this year.