cartman380

I'm going to try for a 47.6 mile ride by riding from Battelle Darby Creek Metro park in Pleasant, OH to South Charleston, OH. It's 23.8 miles there and 23.8 miles back. Any suggestions to keep me from bonking so I have a pleasurable experience during the ride. FYI the last time I rode this many miles was almost 2 years ago and I rode something like 60 miles, but that was 30 to work, 8 hour work day then 30 back home, which gave me time to recover in between. This will be my first non-stop except to break for food and water/gatorade, and I'm really excited about this ride so I hope it goes really well.

Ursa Minor

Most people will say "just go for it or "you can do it" or other mindless slogans but the real truth is it depends on your level of fitness. I use the rule of three:
this is a well known engineering principle that the breaking load is 3 times the normal maximum load. That is if your max ride in say the last few weeks has been 20 miles then your breaking load ride is 60 miles. You dont want to go any where near your breaking load.

That said I would start early in the cool of the day to avoid over heating problems and drink plenty of water.

Good luck on your ride.

Charlie

cartman380

My longest ride of the season so far was 23.4 miles at 17.6 mph average, so just doubling that I should be fine, I'll obviously take it slower than 17.6 mph average. Also, thanks for the encouragement and info

Ursa Minor

Yes sounds like you will be good to go. I didn't mean for my first reply to be so negative. Have fun!

Charlie

TrojanHorse

Make sure you drink plenty the night before and the day of, and of course, on the bike. I try to drink one bottle per hour of riding although the temperature certainly affects that. I seem to have issues when it's not terribly hot out and I don't drink enough, it's like I don't think about it enough.

You probably don't need to eat a lot on your ride - i'd stop and have a clif bar snack or something like that (PB&J works too) at the half way mark. Maybe some gatorade in the bottle. make sure you know where you can refill your bottles - the half way point is probably a good spot.

Have fun.

Chitown_Mike

Go as hard as you can till you pass out in the grass, then scream for ice cream. Actually don't do any of that, but its a funny visual.

On my longer rides I usually carry about 200-300 calories/hr of riding of stuff to eat. Doesn't mean I eat it, but I know I need something. The food I carry is also a mixture of sweet and salty. I know my body enough to know when I need each, and I eat accordingly, plus I have made my own "energy bars" that have worked out well. I also carry 2 water bottles. One is a standard sized one (20 oz?) that I have some sort of electrolyte mix in (I market some products that I use and love), and then a 32 oz bottle that is JUST water. I sip from both intermittently even when I don't feel like I need it.

Also don't be such a "big man (or woman)" and not stop when you need to. I usually break every 20 miles or so when I ride, just like I would on a century ride with designated stops.

Oh, and if you like dill pickles, have a pickle or 2 on the ride. They are undeniably refreshing and you'll feel really good after.

cartman380

I had actually made the plan to stop twice, at least at the half way mark then once more whenever I felt like it, probably the 3/4 mark. As for the pickles I cannot stand them, but I was thinking an apple might be nice to have along the way. Plus I was going to either take some granola bars or cliff bars, and it sounds like cliff bars will win that debate with TrojanHorse's suggestion to take them. 200-300 calories per hour sounds good, I may not eat it all, but it's better to have and not need it.

jsigone

if near the same pace as your 23miler, then that long ride is only 3 hours moving time. Not bad. Just plan to refill your bottle somewhere in the 30-40mile range. I don't think it should be a problem.

slikor

Sounds like some good advice from everyone. I don't anything specific to add since I haven't ridden longer than 21mi yet (hope too soon though!), but I did want to comment on the below:

I read recently, I think in Bicycling mag that eating an apple before a ride (while a good idea) should be done like 30min beforehand, due to the composition of its carb contents and how it takes some effort initially to digest. They said that the required digestive effort can cause an upset stomach if you don't give it some time in your stomach before a hard ride. I understand that a banana should be a pretty sure thing as far as instant fuel without needing a break for digestion, though.

Happy riding!

cartman380

Well I made it, while my tracking of the ride got messed up part of the way through I know I rode further than what it said, but I don't know the exact amount, but I noticed I hadn't heard anything for a while and stopped to realize it hadn't been tracking.

47.6 miles for sure even though I know I went further.

I had a big breakfast of my normal bowl of frosted mini wheat's and I also had some toast with a little peanut butter on it. The first half was up hill with a headwind, luckily quite a bit of the trail is lined on either side with trees so that helped, but there were long stretches of farmland where I just had to get into the drops and power through it. The great part of riding up hill and in a headwind the first half, was that I got to ride down hill with a tail wind, so it allowed me to really drop the hammer and get my average up. I pretty much didn't leave anything left in my tank for the last stretch.

13.5 miles in 52:31 with an average speed of 15.41 mph. I stopped drank some Gatorade and ate 3 granola bars here.

** missing data ** realized it wasn't tracking anymore and had to start another luckily it wasn't much maybe half a mile to a mile or so.

33.68 miles in 1:53:12 with an average speed of 17.85 mph. At mile 20 of this leg aka mile 34 of the total I stopped again drank the rest of my Gatorade (it was a bit warm) and had another granola bar and rested a little bit.

So to combine the data of what I can it's 47.2 miles in 2:45:43 with an average speed of 17.09 mph! I'm so happy I was able to get an average of 17. My goal was just to stay above 15 mph average on the long ride. Thanks for everyone's suggestions and encouragement.

Ursa Minor

Wow! You are a stud! I'm very slow and seldom average more than 10 mph. Grats on your ride.

Charlie