Icemanmcq

I bought a new bike about a month ago, I've had a couple of 10 mile rides and a 20 mile ride, I'm 46 and in ok shape, I'm riding a 90 mile tour with rest stops every 10 to 15 miles.. Any advice on nutrition before, during and after the ride and do you think I will survive...lol
Any help would be appreciated.. Oh the ride is in Texas, should be partly cloudy, around 85 degree

UmneyDurak

I would say it will be tough. It's quite a jump from going on one 20 mile ride to riding 90 miles. Even with stops. What is the terain is going to be like?
Bring water, maybe gatorade or some other energy drink. Eat during your ride so you don't bonk. I found powerbars to be an ok food. Only have .5 saturated fat, and don't taste too bad.
Main thing try going your speed. If you can hang with someone thats great, but don't push yourself too hard trying to hang on to someone who is faster then you.
Also don't forget to have fun.

genec

You'll survive... but I would get in at least a 45 mile ride first, just to build up. Prior to the ride, eat pasta... heavy carbs... just for the two days prior. On the ride, eat light and drink plenty of water and power drinks... Don't over do it of course... Eating on the ride, stuff like fruit is your best bet.

Have a good time and try not to race early in the day...

MichaelW

Quite a few people get a bike for a charity ride, do a couple of training rides then head out for a tough endurance event. The next day it hurts and they get put off cycling.
A sensible approach is to toughen your body up gradually to the new stresses of cycling. If you are a fit athlete you can convert to cycling long distances in a couple of weeks. If you are not an athlete you have to convert to cycling AND get fit. This is going to take close to three months of regular riding.
A reasonably fit (but non athletic) rider who is used to regular riding can do a 90 mile ride and still feel like getting on the bike the next day.
You should try to ride every day. Use the bike for comuting/shopping/errands etc as well as training rides, to get more saddle time.
Training rides should be a min of 1 hour.
Get some longer rides in, at least 50 miles.

atbman

Make sure your pitstops are fairly short or you may well stiffen up.

Rule of thumb: eat before you feel hungry, drink before you feel thirsty. If you have an alarm function on your watch, set it to every 15min and drink every time

Ebbtide

You'll survive, your butt won't. In that heat drink often. Don't quit, day two you will hurt like hell even if you quit at 50 miles. Do the 90 so you can say you finished.

If you can, train for the ride and do a longish ride (40-50 miles) a 5-6 days before the event, then a series of short rides leading up to the tour date. Anyway, thats what I would do, may not be the best advice but I'm 39 and it works for me.

RedHairedScot

GREAT advice. Don't sit down and let joints and muscles go cold. Stretch your back, legs, and butt, move around a little. Plenty of time to sit when you're back on the bike. This was my newbie mistake.

LapDog

Which ride are you doing?

And the advise here is correct. Establish a medium pace. Stop often to drink and eat. Your neck, arms and butt will not be very happy when you're done because you have not been in the saddle for long periods of time to develop those muscles, etc.

kf5nd

Oh, you planning to ride Shiner Bash?

I'm 43, in Houston. You're going to suffer, and you very well may sag-out and not complete the ride. What do you mean by "ok" shape? If you're new to biking, let's ask this - how long does it currently take you to run 1 mile, 5 miles, 10 km?

I'm being hard on you because I help on medical support for MS150 and various runs, and I see people do DAMN STUPID things which exact a price, up to and including death. It's no fun to have to hike into the woods to retrieve the body of a guy who in the past six months had open-heart surgery and was running against doctor's advice. True story, that was a bad day. For him, I mean. I got over it (twisted my ankle though at the time... damn).

When was your last cardiac stress test? Your last echocardiogram? What's your body mass index? What's your cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood pressure? When was your last complete physical? Family history of heart disease? Diabetes?

Think! You're 46, not 26 !!!

Smaug

1. Hydrate
2. Hydrate
3. See #1 and #2

If you're thirsty, you're already behind.

Also, don't go out too fast.

Train like you will ride in the event. By this I mean, wear what you will wear, drink what you will drink, don't put any new parts on your bike at the last minute. The last place you want to find out that the cool new shorts you bought are rubbing your "parts" wrong is at mile 40.

SUNSCREEN!!! Even in partly cloudy conditions. Be sure to cover the places you might forget, like the back of your legs.

Food that I find works well...

Fig Newtons
Raisins
bananas
clif bar/powerbar
Gu shots/Cliff Shots
bagel (can be hard to chew if your mouth is dry)
trail mix

eat small amounts at a time. Also, try eating on a shorter training ride, so your stomach gets used to having food in it while you're exercising.

2manybikes

When is this ride? You have some training to do. You should be able to ride 50 miles and feel good after the ride before you do 90. Find Machka on the forums and see her website (or many others) about a training schedule for riding that far. If you have only been bikng a month this is a bad decision to ride 90 miles. It may be possible, but there are so many things to learn about............. you need some more miles first.
If this ride is hot and hilly,you probably will not make it. Wait until next year and ride a lot this year.

twahl

I think you can expect to suffer. A lot. There's a hell of a big difference between 20 miles and 90, and I don't think that nutrition and hydration can overcome that difference. Tell us you've done 60 miles, and I give you much better odds.

kf5nd

I second that motion.

Just because it's a bike... just because it's supposed to be "fun"... doesn't mean you can't make a poor decision and get hurt. We who are active in clubs and ride support see this ALL THE TIME.

Don't put yourself at risk. If you were 26 I'd say, go ahead, do it.

But you're 46. If you suffer a coronary and die on the ride, what will your family do?

On this last MS150, we had a rider go down with a coronary. Pre-existing condition, apparently. He was down a LONG time before CPR was started. They finally got his heart started, and helicoptered him to Cardiac ICU in Austin TX, but he was barely alive. Who knows how much brain damage he had... if he was like Terry Schiavo or not.

IS IT WORTH IT ?

Train the right way, and go out worry free!

AndrewP

Yopu havent told us when the tour is. If it is at the end of the summer, you should be OK, but if it is next week, just enjoy the bike this year so you can enjoy the tour next year. You shoul be able to ride almost twice as far as the point at which you stop thinking "but this is easy".

Machka 

WHEN are you doing this ride? How soon? How much time do you have to train for it?

How many days long is this tour? You said: "I'm riding a 90 mile tour with rest stops every 10 to 15 miles" Is that 90 miles a day for a week? Two weeks? Or is the whole tour 90 miles, but you are covering that distance in 3 days (30 miles per day)?