craigery

My commute to work is 10 miles(round trip) and then every now and then I take the long way home and its about 20 miles. The longest trip I've done so far is 33 miles at one time. I just got some padded shorts in the mail along with clipless shoes, cleats and pedals. So anyways, there is a club ride tomorrow morning that is 50-60 miles long. Should I do it? I can ride at my own pace, I dont have to keep up with everyone. What do you guys think? Is that way over my head or should I be okay?

HRPirate

Do it! If you get tired you can always turn back, right?

HWS

You'll never know until you try. My first metric started out as an attempt at 50 miles!

Go for it!!

60cycle

well, you're nearly doubling your longest effort to date. that's quite a jump. maybe too much. also, have you even ridden with a clipless pedal system? if not, i'd put some miles on those babies to mace sure your cleat position is correct. a 50 mile club ride is not the place to experiment with such things. i would increase your longest ride during a week by maybe 10% per week until you can comfortably make the distances of your local club rides... then cruise with them. have fun!

Cromulent

I think you can do it. One of the easiest ways to boost your milage is to stretch yourself further than you think you can go. Just remember to bring food and at least one water bottle filled with sports drink or a sports drink/water mixture. Eating is a big part of going longer distances.

The padded shorts will help a lot. Have fun.

merlinextraligh

good rule of thumb is you should be a ble to do a one day ride equal to your usual weekly mileage without killling yourself. So if you're doing 50-60 miles a week, you should be able to do this. Pace yourself, stay hydrated. Eat food along the way.
When you get rides over an hour or two, you really need to eat and drink.

Also I Wouldn't ride with the new cleats and pedals, unless you've had a chance to try them out a couple of times, particularly if there not pedals with float. Incorrectly alligned cleat on a brand new pedal witrh brand new shoes, on the longest ride of your life sounds like a prescription for possible orthopedic problems.

johnny99

I agree with the first part of this that a club ride is not a place to really push yourself. The ride leader(s) have enough work to do just trying to keep everyone headed in the right direction. They do not need the added burden of helping people that are in over their head. If you're going to ride at your own pace anyway, you should just do your own ride. If you want to ride with the club, find a ride that is already in your comfort range, then maybe do another 20 miles after the end of the ride.

I think that 10% rule is for long term progress. An occassional jump in mileage is OK. Your body probably won't be able to handle doubling your mileage every week, though.

55/Rad

I read once - and proved it to myself - that most riders can go as much as 60% further than their longest ride providing they did that longest ride fairly comfortably and are still is similar shape.

In other words, if you've done a metric and didn't kill yourself, an imperial is well within your reach. If you can do that 33 with energy, 50 or 60 is very doable.

55/Rad

craigery

Thanks for the advice. I might get on the bike with the new pedals tonight and make some adjustments. Any advice on the angle they should be at and that kind of thing?

Like I said in my first post, the longest ride so far was 33 miles and when I got home I was tired but I didn't come close to bonking. With that ride, I had an average or 15.2mph. The club rates all of their rides and this one is Z rated and that means that you can ride at your own pace.

I might do a short and easy ride tonight to check out the pedals and shoes and then eat a big spagetti dinner and relax. The ride leaves tomorrow at 9am.

DannoXYZ 

"I might get on the bike with the new pedals tonight and make some adjustments. Any advice on the angle they should be at and that kind of thing?"

What kind of shoe do you wear? Does it have a straight or continental last? Generally, you want to start with the position so that the feet are pointed straight ahead. Then fine tune from there. If you feel that you're always wanting to rotate them in or out, adjust accordingly.

And riding distance is easy, you can always complete it. It really doesn't tax your aerobic or muscular systems, just the energy delivery system. So just eat and drink lots and you can do just about any distance you want. The limiting factor is how fast you want to complete the distance.

And if you're going on a 50-60 mile ride with a group of people, they'll most likely be going faster than you've ever gone before... That's the main issue. If you draft and hide in the pack the whole time, it should be fine, go and have fun!

HWS

The only way to get used to clipless is to ride clipless. It's easy to get the hang of and you will love it. (just converted a couple weeks ago myself)

Cromulent

And if you do decide to use the clipless pedals/shoes, take an allan key along with you (I'm sure you've got a multi-tool or something for the ride), and you can make small adjustments to your cleats when the group takes a break (as opposed to making small adjustments while you're riding... that might be tough).

Let us know how it goes.

craigery

They're Pearl Izumi. I dont know anything about them but I'll be opening the box of goodies this afternoon.

my58vw

I agree with everyone that the distance should not be a problem... what will be is the speed.

I can ride all day at 12 - 14 MPH on a road bike, but if you push it to 20 MPH it maybe only a couple of hours.

BTW I do not agree with the whole distance per week equals distance "comfortably" in one day. I have riden 250+ mile weeks and I can say that I am not ready for a double century case in point.

KyTrekrider

I would do the ride but leave the pedals off until you have a weekend to mess with them. The last thing you are going to want to do is mess with your pedals on a long ride and worry about falling over in front of a bunch of people because you aren't use to them. There might not be a lot of time to stop and adjust them either. Good luck. You'll do fine.

nova

Didnt read the whole thread so some one else may have said this already. If you can carry a cell phone with you incase you cant finish it and need to call for a ride back.Other than that i say go for it. Nothing wrong with pushing your self to your limits and calling for a ride back when you hit that limit and cant go on. If you feel winded after a larger than normal hill climb shift down take it easy. Try to keep the other riders in your sight range once they reach the limit that you can see them start picking up speed again. Youll catch back up and likly finish the ride with no problem. If your in a area like i am they will probably take routes where theres a rider hang out or 2 and stop there. Probably some custard stand something like that. Of the 4 bike clubs in my general area 3 plan their routes to hit the same custard stand down on cherry street.

DesertPedaler

I commute 47 miles per day plus a 50-70 mile weekend ride. I thought I was a pretty good rider, but it apppears I have just been fooling myself. It's going to take a while, but I will try to get up to the 300 mile mark for a single ride.

craigery

Once again, thanks for all of the advice. I'm still not sure if I'm going to do it or not. I'm going to stretch a lot tonight(I did a lot of riding this week and my legs are a little sore). I'll post weither(sp?) or not I rode and how it went if I did.

DesertPedaler

AMEN!!

TheDTrain

Push yourself to the limit, go beyond bonk.

DannoXYZ 

Hmmm.... never tried it. Somehow I don't think I can ride 600 miles in one day...

dfw

For me, I can always perform at a higher level when riding with a group. For one thing, you can hang on someone's wheel and ride their slipstream, which makes it easier for you. However, probably the biggest benefit is physicological. Just make sure you know the way back in case you go down the tubes halfway in.

One thing you may not be prepared for is the nutritional aspect of a ride that long. The body only stores about 2 hours worth of glycogen when you're putting out a good effort. 50 miles will probably take you 3 hours or more. Carbs are your friend. Take along a couple of powerbars, cliff bars, or something with lots of carbs to eat about once per hour. You'll need two water bottles. At least one of them should be a performance drink of some type for electrolytes. You'll need to drink about 1 24 oz bottle per hour. The group will probably stop somewhere to refill.

jtree

don't ever take new equipment out on the longest ride of your life. the shorts may chafe you so bad, you'll be in agony. if you've never used clipless pedals before, then you need to get used to them in a safe environemnt--not out on busy public streets. you will fall down if you aren't careful. the shoes may hurt your feet, and you could injure yourself.

Group rides will push you harder than you ever thought possible, so definitely do some.

craigery

Well, I DID IT! Dispite some of the advice about safety and getting used to new equipment. I just said screw it, I need to do this. We rode 55 miles in a little over 3 hours. On top of that, I had my highest average yet, 16.4. My usual average for a ride of about 20 miles is around 15.2 or so. I'm going to say it was the shoes and shorts.

The pack left just before I was ready so I left when I was good and ready. The trikes caught up to me and I hung with them for the first part of the ride and I was glad that I did. I had a lot of fun with them and they made me an honorary triker(cockroach) for the day.

I cant believe how much the shoes help. It really upped my MPH and I was putting the same amount and maybe a little less energy into it. The first half of the ride I averaged 18 mph and the second half was quite a bit lower(hence the overall of only 16.4).

So yeah, thanks again for the advice and push to go do it.


Oh...one more thing. I didnt fall once with the clipless. It can be done.

HWS

Cool! It never hurts to give it a try!