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People have competed for MANY years without ANYTHING. If she doesn't know how hard she can safely push herself and still finish the race then she probably shouldn't be doing it.
BTW, she needs a new coach. No coach would ever tell their athlete to "go out and ride as hard as you can" in any distance event. That's really, really ****ty advice.
Heart rate is a decent metric for effort. I've never raced with a HR monitor on (too busy... racing...) but I'd guess that your heart rate should be somewhere between 80%-90% of max during the majority of the event (depending on the course length.) A longer course would entail a lower average heart rate and visa versa. Since she seems to be very inexperienced, I'd even shoot for starting the heart rate slightly lower, maybe at 75%ish. It'll drift up overtime.
EDIT: Oh it's only 20k? I'd say that's equivalent to a 5k in running speak. She can go out pretty hard, not as hard as she can of course, but still hard, somewhere in the 83-90% range.
Last edited by corrado33; 12-21-15 at 10:03 AM.