Originally Posted by
Zurichman2
If nothing else getting off the bike and stretching your legs some has to help break up the ride some.
This is interesting.
I was helping lead a beginner group ride a couple decades ago and did some research because at the time I was not a beginner ( a status I have sadly reclaimed since.)
The advice I got was to stop every 45 minutes to an hour twenty minutes or whatever, to give everyone just enough time to stretch and eat a tiny snack (not ice cream, not a cheeseburger---a banana or something) and after five or seven minutes (which is 15, if you have ever tried to get a group moving) get everyone back riding---just enough time to stretch and not enough time to cool down/stiffen up.
This way, i was told, you can get novices to do a bunch of 12-15 mile rides back to back, where a 25-mile ride might max them all and leave them ready to quit.
I have found that for myself, stopping to change two flats when I was really tired left me feeling fresh and ready to finish a long ride ... and on another occasion I had to run into a store to buy a battery for my light two-thirds of the way through a ride, and when I got back on the bike I felt fresh again.
I have since read posts suggesting Never Stopping .... but my experience and my research indicate that a short (five-seven minutes) break can make the whole difference.
so .... next time bring some tacks, and when you get tired, throw them in the road ahead of you.
