50 mile ride on June 11th (less than 2 months at writing). Advice & Experiences?
 

i joined this forum when i was definitely a clydesdale, i might have slipped just under 88kg, but the Clydesdale mentality is still there, i'm still a little nervous and uncertain of my ability to ride 50 miles in less than 2 months.

i commute 11km each way on a MTB. i grew up on racers, but figured i'd work harder on a MTB and would get myself a road bike as a treat when i'm down to 80kg.

after doing the commute a month, i'd changed to slick road tyres, turned off the suspension (a novelty at first, but i'm clearly a roadbike kind of guy...) and spent far too long tuning the brakes.

i started cycling at 98kg, after 3 months down to around 88kg.

so... 50 miles do-able? what are your experiences/horror stories?

The 50kg friend who is egging me on to do this reckons it's "not that much longer" than my commute... and re-assures me we're not going to do it at pace and his 69 year old dad is coming along for the ride...

It depends - is it hilly or flat? Throw a few major hills in and the 50 will feel like 150. If its flat, you can toddle along all day as you already have some biking experience :)

My biggest recommendation is to just go and see how far you can go as soon as you get the chance. I started cycling back up last week and was in a similar situation as you... I was excited about my 20 mile ride. Two days ago I decided to just go and little did I know, I had it in me to complete 39 miles and was not phased hardly at all. I'm fairly out of shape and have been working @ McD's for the past several years so I really did not expect that. My face was crusty with dry sweat, I blew through ~100 ounces of water but I did it. My guess is you have this anxiety right now because you have no clue of what you are really capable of doing, so like I said, just get out there and do it. Then you will know where you are in terms of your goal 2 months from now. A week ago I had the goal of riding a century by the end of the summer -- now I have shortened that to within the next month or so. Just do it -- you might surprise yourself. :)

If you know the route go out and see how far you can get. Based on what you say I don't think you have a problem doing it unless it is all steep hills.

It depends on how much training you are willing/able to do, how much in shape you are physically (skeletal as well as the weight issue, back knees ankles and so on), and how acclimated you are to the bike (fit and so on).

The main issues will be pace (how quickly to complete it), terrain (as was mentioned 50 miles on flats is much different than 50 miles where part of the road you are on can be termed "the road from hell" for all the climbs), and nutrition (much of this will depend on your pace and time - there's nothing that kills a ride quicker than not getting enough water or the right kinds and amounts of food).

I will add too from experience (a 52 miler and a 57 miler at present), since your commute is 14 miles you'll probably need to get to the point in your training where you can do that and a little more in a quick fashion without resting to prove yourself ready for the 50 miler. In your place I'd probably shoot for another 5-10 mile ride a day when you commute, and then try longer distances to see what you will need to address and correct nutritionally, mechanically, and otherwise when you don't do the commute rides.

The only other factors I can think of are equipment (you probably already do that for your commutes, things like a tire patch kit, pump, and something for inclement weather), and if you haven't already looked into it get a pair of bike shorts. The biggest negative issue I ran into outside of my health on those 50+ mile rides is friction burns from being in the saddle so long.

Good luck on this. Depending on your fitness and health, 50 miles in 2 months shouldn't be out of the question given what you state you ride already.

click here to see the route if you're interested. Looks like there is quite a climb, certainly more than i'm used to, so i think i'll do some hill training!

i'm going to do 26 miles on either friday or saturday this week, with lunch halfway. relatively flat route, but still the most i would have cycled in a long time.

don't worry, i've got the shorts already! need a new seatpost at the very least, mine has some wobble in it. considering doing it on a new bike, but not sure how wise that will be as i'll only be able to afford it a few days before the ride... plus side: it'll be a roadbike, minus side: it's a new bike...

190m climb over 20km or so...

I downloaded it to TrimbleOutdoors. You get past that first hill and the rest will be much easier. If I was you I would go out and try riding up that hill a couple of times. I think if you can do that you can the route.

On the right side of my link is the elevation in feet.

Thanks for posting it. I'd definitely suggest working on hills for this ride. It's a good ride of moderate difficulty (1499ft worth of climbing ascent according to the site). That hill in the middle will be what will make or break you for the whole ride since that's about 45% of the climbing for the ride by my rough math. The rest of the ride looks to be about a 2 or 3 on difficulty scale to me, so if you can get a shot at that hill or something similar a few times before your 50 mile race, it would help you. But the main consideration will be making sure you can handle the distance part.

Stop it guys, do not any of you know metric conversions? unless you are 88 kg at 5'1" tall 50 miles is a piece of cake with very modest amounts of training. you aren't really into clydesdale territory and if you do this on a mtb, the gearing that you will have will EASILY get you up and over hills twice the size of what you will face on your route. your biggest issue is simply saddle time. You need to get some longer rides in, not because your legs can't handle the distance but because keeping your body in that position for so long and spending so much time in the saddle may take some getting used to. AS you mentioned, do NOT do this ride on a new bike unless you have had it for at least 2 weeks prior to make sure you have it dialed in and are comfortable on it. One good piece of advice i was given before doing my first century was to not change ANYTHING event day. Bought a new pair of shorts or jersey? don't wear them. You don't want to find out that the shorts just don't quite fit right and you have a rash 20 miles in, or a jersey that does the same. you want to go with tried and true stuff. save the experimenting for training rides. I disagree with glenn, there is no need to work specifically on hills for this ride based on the profile. is there a hill? yes, but the conditioning you will get from extending your training rides combined with the super low gears of your mtb will make hills a non issue. you will learn that it doesn't matter if you go up them slow, just get up and over them!

lol. thanks for all the useful advice, i think the "don't be a *****" tone of the last post is a good sign off point ;)

btw, i was most certainly a clydesdale when i signed into the forum... that's why i originally joined!

one of the guys i'm doing it with recommended trying the hill once just so i'm not surprised and know where the end is, i guess it's so that i don't get any of that "i'm over the hill" only to realise i'm definitely not.

anyway, thanks again. up and at it.

if you have a chance to ride the hill, definately do it, it would be good to know but as someone who is much heavier than you and had similar concerns when i was attempting my first century last year, I know you can do it no problem!

This is great advice. Unless you have a real heart for adventure, longer-than-normal rides are not the time you want even a hint of fear of the unknown. Even a strange flat route can be stressful if you already know you're going to be riding farther than you're used to.

At least that's the way my own timid mind works. There's a reason I didn't accompany Lewis & Clark.

oops. back up to 92kg! i don't keep scales in my house and neither do most of my friends. [i visited one of them that did this weekend...]

on the plus side, i did 26 miles (flat) and it was a breeze, but clearly need to learn how to stretch myself out after a ride.

commute to work now seems a doddle!

Dont sweat it, I was in a similar situation last year, I think I had actually rode less than you, then did 67 miles.

From my experience with longer rides, you really should just try being on your bike as long as you can. After a few hours, take inventory of what hurts. I know from experience my hands start to hurt and I get hot foot pretty badly, so having that in mind, I can prepare myself better as far as equipment and riding.

As far as techniques, make sure you get off the saddle every once in a while and change sitting positions as well as hand positions. Don't go any faster than is comfortable. Try whistling "Mary Had A Little Lamb" and if you can do it without stopping to catch your breath, you're probably going a nice pace.

So far all is good advice, except the whistling of Mary Had a little lamb. That should be changed to "Hail to the queen"!!!

I glanced through the all the replies, and may have missed it - but bring water - lots of water. The risk of dehydration is a huge danger, especially on your first attempt.

I doubt that you'll have any real trouble with the ride. Work hard going up the hills, then coast going down, and take it easy on the flat. Do not get into a race with anyone until you are near the end.

Without knowing anything about your fitness level it's hard to say.

Last year a friend who is much fitter than I am asked me if I wanted to join him on a 2-day ride from Reading to Newport. I figured, "how hard can it be" so agreed to go along. It was hard work (83 miles on day 1, 65 on day 2) but I did it, albeit walking up a few hills. At the time the furthest I'd ever done in a day was about 30 miles.

If you give yourself enough time to do it then chances are you can get around it. Even if your average speed drops to 7mph you'll get around it in 7 hours. As others have said the thing you're most likely to notice is just soreness from being in the saddle so long, possibly hands going numb, depending on how well adjusted your saddle is possibly other things going numb and so on.

If your saddle isn't well adjusted you'll know about it by the end of 50 miles. If it is well adjusted you should be able to complete it, assuming you don't have medical conditions we don't know about.

i noticed some wobble on my saddle last month and it was getting worse, so a week before setting off, i've bought a new seatpost...

it's incredible how much less effort i need to put in on my commute now... although having to resist the urge to cane it now that the same amount of effort that i used to put in just pushes me further...

also, got bullhorns last weekend. going up hills is so much easier on my mtb now. can't wait to tackle the 50 miles. bring it on!

I just noticed you're in Berkshire UK. Depending on just where in Berkshire you live you might be able to test yourself out by, say, cycling towards London Paddington with a view to taking the train back home. Just don't try and take the bike on a packed commuter train!

If you're around Reading/Bracknell/Bagshot you could try something like cycling towards Virginia Water, around Windsor Great Park towards Maidenhead, then pick up National Cycle Route 4 back to Reading and break off wherever is appropriate to get home.

Hot foot?

It's some discomfort that involved poor shoes for cycling or poorly fitting shoes....sometimes it feels like my foot is falling asleep from the ball of my foot to my toes, or other times it just feels really friggin' hot in my shoe.

easy.

for humour purposes: we got the day wrong. it was supposed to be last sunday 5th, so we did the route at our own leisurely pace on saturday 11th.

couldn't have picked a better day. other than sleeping lots the last two nights and a bit of physical tiredness it seemed to go ok. no aches or pains, and cycled to work today just fine.

bring on 100 miles! erp...