LeeG

$.02 your body is not adequately prepared. One time 240miles in four days has very little correlation to 4000miles in 8 wks.

Randybb

ya'll inspired me... cranked out a century ride today. 6:40. WINDY. 20+ mph headwind for the first 30 mi, 20+ mph cross wind for the next 30 mi, 20+ mph tail wind for the next 30 mi, then crazy city riding for the rest.

the last 5 miles were... well, let's just say I hope no kids were around to hear all my cussin'

i'll do a lighter ride tomorrow and see how it feels.

LeeG

Good one.
Somewhere I had a book on race training translated from German. What it set up was nested cycles of exertion and rest with variation in training allowing you to recover from aerobic training within a speed day and recover from speed/strength in easy days. Then of course periods of total recovery with reduced miles/effort or off the bike.
While strength is needed for speed it's not as important for touring as maintaining a steady output over time so as not to be driven into necessary recovery the next day or overuse injury over a week or two.
As mentioned earlier how you will do depends on your base conditioning. When you exceed that you can increase your base but you must allow for recovery before continuing on a higher level of exertion.
So if you're perfectly happy doing 60miles for four days you'll probably need some easy days after doing 60miles for six days. The same thing can happen with strength training where climbing a particular long hill at 80% effort might need only a few minutes recovery but 95% effort may require a day.
Or if you're perfectly fine riding 20miles everyday you'll need some recovery if you up it to 30 or 40.
When you're at home with unlimited creature comforts recovering from very hard efforts is relatively easy. Getting into better shape while on the road is certainly possible but it's really important to not ignore cumulative wear and allow for recovery as it is necessary when exceeding your base fitness level. When I was young and doing multiple short tours throughout the year I pretty much went as hard as I felt good for the days available but everytime I exceeded my base I was into a recovery period. And this is without injury stopping the process. So if I got to be comfortable with three 75mile days in a row it took a few cycles of more than 4+ 75 mile days WITH recovery to expand to that base.

your planned mileage is 500miles a week for your trip. To have a realistic assessment of your base conditioning build up to a 500mile week see how the following week goes then project from that seven more weeks. My guess is that you will need the following week to recover before doing another 500mile week.

You will have an easier time building a mileage base, which is what your trip requires, if you dial back the attempts at speed records during long training days, those days are just for that, building miles getting comfortable with hours on the saddle.

Increasing your capacities, aerobic and anaerobic is better accomplished with shorter rides and more time allocated for recovery during the day/sleep cycle. Increasing your capacity to sit on the bike will come from putting in hours. So next long ride you do, 75 miles for example, dial back the effort considerably then do an easy 50miler the next day and an easy 50miler after that. As useful as a fast century is to training and gauging your fitness if it takes you three days to recover that's three days of long miles missed. Now if your goal was doing fast centuries that would be a fine progression but it won't prepare you for 500miles a week as well as dialing the effort down and increasing saddle time.
Be aware of any knee discomfort. Recovery from damage can take anything from days to months. If it happens in your trip you might go from 80 miles a day to 50 to 0 until it's healed.

i knew a few guys who jumped into piling on high effort high mileage days without consideration for good cycling technique and adequate recovery cycles which resulted in knee injury.

Randybb

Great info. So for my trip, seems like what I should work on is putting on consistent miles daily, and increasing the daily mileage each week. For example, do 30 miles a day for 7 days, then do 35 miles per day for 7 days, etc, or however I decide to break it down. Maybe some occasional strength days (once per week maybe?), but followed by a light recovery day.

The only thing is, obviously, I won't have the time to build up to the real trip mileage until the actual trip, with having a pesky job and social life and whatnot.... seems like the best course would be to plan to build up the daily milage over the course of the trip. So, for the first week, take it easy with 40-50 mile days, and then build up to doing 70-80-90-100 mile days as the trip wears on, keeping in touch with my body to make sure i don't hurt myself.

Another thing that would definitely make higher mileage more comfortable is taking longer, more frequent breaks. During the century yesterday, I spent a total of about 20 minutes off the bike. Youch. With a good 12+ hours of daylight in which to ride, I'd take more breaks, stop more, sight see, talk to people, etc. It really helps to get off the bike and walk around and stretch out.

nun

I'd also do a regular day of hill climbs. Try to find a 20 or 30 mile route that has 2000 or 3000 feet of climbing. This will get your mind and body ready for days that consist mostly of going upwards.

MassiveD

Touring is the best training for touring, so long as you aren't starting out on grades that are too tough, or with a partner who is stronger. The rest of it is misplaced zeal that probably does as much harm as good. Though if you enjoy the training, that is a different mater.

nickw

Social life? This is cycling, get over that

I think you are on the right track, taking breaks, getting off the bike, stretching out helps a lot. Bear in mind though, a century on a loaded touring bike with some hills can easily creep into the 9-10 hr mark, all but eliminating much time off the bike to screw around.

One day gutting out a century with wind is one thing, day after day for 8 weeks is another. You adventure, IMO, really needs some solid training / riding leading up to it. Your are really putting your body through a pretty extreme athletic endeavor.

I'd forget strength training at this time, get seat time in.

Rule of thumb, "never go hungry on the bike", eat often and plenty. One tough day lacking calories or proper nutrition will start to compound quick.

dgodave

I did this. Had to quit 8 days into a three week NM-CO tour. Knees.

Previously I almost had to quit our big trans-continental, from achilles tendonitis.... but thankfully pulled through.

Both times were from poor preparation for many huge days in a row.

markjenn

What I see as your biggest problems are overplanning and undertesting. You've got a lot of interesting ideas of how to do a tour like this, but until you put it all together on the road day after day, you won't know what works for you and what won't. (Some of it sounds pretty infeasible to me, but different people can make different approaches work.) We didn't get to the moon by designing Apollo and the Saturn V and then going for the moon on the first launch. You need to get out and do some shorter tours and incrementally see if you can put all the pieces together: equipment, expenses, riding habits, weather, attitude, safety, training, nutrition, etc. I hate to be party-pooper, but my prediction is that if you just wing it without working up to a trip of this magnitude, you'll get a few days out and be so miserable you'll probably turn around and come home.

- Mark

andrewclaus

One simple "rule of thumb" I've heard before an extended trip is to work up to 1/3 of your planned weekly mileage before the trip, with maybe one long day per week. Listen to your body--everybody has different knees, back, bike geometry, pack weight, etc.

BigAura

+1 you got it!

boomhauer

Don't forget about your hands. Is your seat lower than the handlehars?

We sound very similar (except 30 yr apart).

I rode California to Mass. in my mid-twenties. It only took 6 weeks so my opinion is you are over thinking the training requirements. I did NO training what so ever. We had similar bikes, weight, etc...It was my second bicycle tour, also. The first was only 4 days on a bicycle similar to yours.


My background was long distance running so the mental aspect was already there. If you have a similar background I wouldn't worry.


My hands were killing me by the Nevada desert. I ended up buying some foam padding at a hardware store and duct taping it around my handlebars for the rest of the trip. 8 hrs of riding day after day is tough on your hands.

mm718

Maybe but he'll have a better shot at meeting his time deadline without injuring himself if he trains in advance.

Good point. I use Specialized Bar Phat (gel pads) and Cinelli Cork/Gel tape. Just the right amount of cush. I also like oversized (31.8) diameter drop bars with flat tops. I find this to be more comfortable when I am on the bar tops.

Randybb

What are yawls thoughts on east-west vs. west-east? I'm imagining encountering headwinds for close to 90% of the trip if I go in the planned direction.

andrewclaus

I have always ridden east-bound to take advantage of prevailing westerlies in the US. But those who go the other way seem to find ways to deal with it. Some areas have prevailing east winds, and you can ride early morning or take advantage of changes in weather to beat the west winds. Summer heat is usually more of issue with me.

It won't be 90% headwinds--it'll be pretty close to 50% with a little planning. On my east-bound rides, I've noticed only a slight advantage, if any, overall.

There have been some noteworthy weeks, say in Montana/North Dakota in the spring where I rode 800 miles in seven days effortlessly. But I still met a few going the other way, at half the pace, who were having a good ride. The next week in Minnesota I was fighting headwinds all week.

hueyhoolihan

i've gone west-east in the south, in winter, and can't complain about an overabundance of headwinds. and i traveled east-west in the north in the summer and can't complain either. of course there are geographical features that create fierce winds in local areas that can hardly be avoided.

Cafe

Headwinds will suck. I'd go at a super slow pace for a trip like that or your just gonna get burned out. I'd go with the fattest tires that you can fit on that frame, along with a touring specific wheelset. Another thing. Sunscreen, long sleeve shirt, hat with visor....you don't want to look like a tomato after 6 weeks I assume do you? Been wanting to do a trip like this as well just haven't got around to it and starting to think I never will. be more fun to do this in a group setting but it's hard finding other people crazy enough to attempt these voyages. Other important essentials: camera, camcorder, and journal. Document this trip as much as possible. You don't know if you are ever going to be able to attempt something like this again, and you only get to be in your 20s once in this life. So keep that in mind.