advice for riding 3k miles
 

What is the best advice for riding long distance or doing 100 miles a day without much experience tour biking and doing long distances, what kind of training do I need to start? Is it doable doing 100 miles a day for 30 days straight etc?

Watch every video and read everything you can find on Annemiek van Vleuten.

She does exactly this. For breakfast.

https://media.gettyimages.com/photos...e-id1234263111

There is a touring sub forum here at BF. I don't think I've ever strayed into it. But it's likely where you'll find people that have ridden long multi-day trips that probably can give you the best advice. At least without all the wannabe a long distance randonneur's like me and other dreamers adding their 2¢

Touring

Or take a looky loo at Amanda Coker, who did 236 miles per day FOR A YEAR.

As well as Steve Abraham who attempted 200 miles per day for a year.

Or James Lawrence (the Iron Cowboy) who did 50 full triathlons in 50 days straight, each in a different US state.

From my personal experience, where I've built up to 325 miles in a day (20 hrs of moving time with a 16.5mph avg moving speed), as well as back to back 150 milers (with 17,000' of ascent combined), it takes enormous dedication and effort to get to that point, riding 5-6 days per week, 7,000 - 8,000 miles per year, for multiple years. Unless you happen to be genetically gifted, or you are directly coming from a serious sport that requires 5-6 hours of constant cardio. But maybe you plan to go much slower, and take a lot longer to do the 100 miles each day, at which point it becomes "easier" to ride those 100 miles a day for 30 days.

But going slower just means more saddle time. And then you have to hope the skin on YOUR sit spots can withstand that kind of abuse and recovery, over and over and over, not everybody can. And not everybody is masochistic enough to even try.

How long can you ride now?? Much depends on where you are to start.

Well, the best training for riding long distances is riding long distances. What's the furthest you've ridden in a day?

The smart aleck in me wants to respond, "First ride 2,999 miles, then it gets easy."

But to be frank, I'm not clear what you're trying to do. If you want to ride 100 miles a day for 30 days, I'd guess that'd take a couple years' training to build up to it. For that, look into the Long Distance Etc. forum -- a few randonneurs have done something like that; the Training and Nutrition forum; and finally the Touring forum. Also look at the resources at rusa.org. As previous posters have noted, it's been done and exceeded, so bragging rights would be limited to your close friends and acquaintances.

If, on the other hand, you just want to hit 3,000 miles cycling in a year, there's a lot of easier ways to do that. Build up to where you can ride 20 miles in a day, for instance, and repeat that daily for five months. Or ride two days, rest a day, and repeat until done -- even that has a good chance of getting 3k miles in before winter. Or start cycling to work and back; if you can get 15 miles a day, every day, and perhaps you'll want to throw in some longer rides on weekends (they're fun!), 3k miles is eminently do-able.

From your post, it sounds like you want to do a long distance tour spiffily. 100 miles a day, day after day, in flat terrain in a temperate climate without a lot of luggage is relatively easy. Add lots of weight, mountains, cold rain or desert conditions and it gets more challenging but very doable.

A famous cyclist once said something like ride upgrades, don't buy upgrades and ride lots.

Go out on flat terrain and ride hard for 5 hours. If you are close to 100 miles, pretty good. Sleep and do that again the next day. If you get close to 100 miles and can throw the leg over on day 3, you are close. If not, there are lots of training programs out there, most are wrong for long distance riding.

And even then, if those friends and acquaintances are not cyclists, they might just say "Why would you bother doing that, you must've been raising money for a good cause?", which is what was said to me after doing a 325 mile (525km) 24hr ride, to which my answer was "No. I simply wanted to push myself and see if I could do it." Not everybody understands that philosophy.

When George Mallory was asked "Why?" prior to his third attempt at climbing Mt Everest he said "Because it's there." He never returned home from that attempt. May his reply live on forever.

It isn't something you just want to start off doing. If you injure yourself, such as knees, fanny, wrists, neck then you could be down without ability to ride at all.
Best thing would be to start with a bike that fits and ride it. According to your age and fitness level it may come easy to you once your butt gets used to the bike seat. There again, you may never be able to do that far in a day.
At the peak of my riding I was doing 60-80 mile rides 2-3 times a week, had been riding steadily for years, club rides, solo rides and even at that the longest I have ever been able to stay in saddle was 93 miles. Literally 7 miles from the end of my first "english" and I simply could not continue. My personal comfort zone ends around 75-80 miles and that is not while climbing mountains and such. In my current state I would be surprised if I could do 20.

Many of the tour blogs I have read were people who just decided to go on a tour and rode what they could. Many of them quickly progressed from 25-ish mile starting points to within 100 or so within a couple of weeks. YMMV

Treat it like an experiment.
Try a century and see if this is really what you want to invest your time and effort in.
Maybe it is? Maybe it isn't?

If you have the conditioning, it would be more of a mental game to stay invested over a month long series of centuries.

For me, the terrain and sights would have to dazzle me to even think of riding 500+ miles over a week.

100 miles each day would likely be doable for a fraction of that time. The body will need rest if it is not conditioned for those long rides back to back. A lot more goes into it than just doing it.

Some might be able to click off over 150 miles a couple times in a week whereas others would be better breaking it up throughout the week. 700 miles is... 700 large ones. If I did 700 in a week, I know the following week I'd be forced to resting a lot & the mileage would be really low in that second week.

Judging from the OP’s thread in Touring, it sounds like he might be considering riding the East Coast Greenway. But who knows for sure due to the lack of specific. Garbage in, garbage out. :innocent:

I've done a few century rides and routinely do 65-85 mile rides almost every Sunday and I can't imagine doing 100 a day for 30 days in a row nor do I have any desire to do so. If you seriously want to do that, I would suggest starting by biking every day a comfortable distance and keep extending it as your get more fit.

Same. I consider myself relatively fit and could knock out an imperial century tomorrow if I wanted to, but 100 miles for 30 days straight? I would struggle. Maybe mostly mentally.

I'd imagine you'd need to dial the intensity waaaaaaay down to keep it sustainable for a month.

Ride just 3 miles every day and you will reach 3000 miles in approximately 2. 75 years ( 2 3/4 years or about 33 months )
Laugh all you want about that but I'd bet that at least 30% of "cyclists" on this forum don't even ride 1000 miles in a calendar year.
I'd also bet that the 95% of the ordinary general public, adult population that owns a bicycle hasn't come close to riding 1000 miles on a bicycle during a single calendar year since they were about 13 years old.
This is not to say that many of those adult bicycle owners will ride perhaps between 7 and 15 mile distances perhaps once in a while on a nice, pleasant sunny pleasant valley sunday afternoon.
Now, here on bikeforums, one would guess that perhaps almost 70% of "cyclists" do probably compile 1000 total during a calendar year, even those living in the Frozen North where winter weather begins Oct 10th and spring weather finally arrives about May 25th each year. My guess is that the segment here on BF that < 1000 during one calendar year starts strong with intentions of riding regularly but for whatever the reasons (other sports/hobbies/activities/work pressures--lack of time/family responsibilities/injuries/etc........they don't get to 1000 during the calendar year.)
The ordinary general public adult population bike owners are far less motivated/interested than so called self described "cyclists".

There is no law that says you gotta ride 3000 miles within 150 hours of seat-time on your bicycle ( approx. averaging some ~ 20 mph overall )
Hey, if 10 mph avg ride pace is your favored pace then realistically you're gonna need some 300 hours of seat-time pedalling in the sunshine.
Nothing is wrong with a SLOW PACE, as certain bicycles such as 3 speeds, 5 speeds, 7 speed upright tourist style steel wheeled, steel frame heavier bicycles would naturally be slow, given the same human pedal power that one would give to a much lighter purpose built racing bike that weighs half as much.......the 18 pound racing bicycle will be much faster for the same human pedal effort as one gives to propel the 38 pound upright geared tourist cruiser. Nothing is wrong with that as you can see that you can get at least as much physical exercise without traveling nearly as far of a distance as one would travel on the 18 pound racing bike. It is all about just how you prefer to get your enjoyment & physical exercise on a bicycle. One isn't necessarily better than the other. It might not be popular to say that here on Bike Forums, as there is an overwhelming majority here that does feel the need for speed.
One thing is certain though, heck, you cannot just wish it, and without first getting into reasonable athletic fitness to be capable of doing XXX number of miles in a day, or even XX number of miles in a day. You gotta get actually on the bicycle, outdoors in the sunshine, and you gotta move the pedals with your legs.
Don't be an idiot and try to bite off more than you can chew by doing trying to do too many miles at first. You'll only injure yourself, and you could get badly hurt if you find yourself in the path of an oncoming speeding SUV because you are struggling and no longer mentally focused.....or because you just crashed because you could no longer concentrate and pilot the bike...... ......Just don't be that Idiot!!! Yeah, some will say, oh keep goin' and grind the miles out.........Those morons are F.O.S. on that as unless the rider is riding on a non-traffic closed course such as within a park's roads with fifteen or eighteen mph automobile speed limits and very limited slow speed vehicle traffic, you should NEVER encourage an INEXPERIENCED rider to keep goin and grind the miles out on streets/roads with significant traffic and 30mph or greater speed limits. Like the saying goes, you gotta walk before you can run. You aren't gonna be ready to do a Century this afternoon simply because you had a dream last night that you'd ride 100 miles today, if you haven't ridden more than 20 miles at one time on any day in the last twenty years.
If you have your sights set on Touring long distances by bicycle, there is even more seriously consider before embarking on such a journey.
You gotta be in ride ready shape. The bicycle must be also, and not only that you must be prepared for contingencies and weather conditions. You better plan and be prepared with adequate essentials, like clothing, water, food, spare tubes, needed tools.......for when you're almost 2000 miles from home out somewhere in Minnesota not far from Hwy 61 with no direction home, seeking shelter from the storm....ooh well the storm is threatening....and you're getting pelted by pea sized hail and the rain is chilling you to the bone, and the wind begins to howl...........
Have fun, and do set out a goal to get your 3000 miles completed sometime soon, but be realistic and build up your fitness, riding skills and experience before you essentially try the equivalent of jumping out of a plane without a parachute......or with one that the parachute rigger who packed it was just someone with no knowledge or experience in doing so but figured they could pack it okay enough......
Ride On. Have Fun. What it seems like you want to do, does seem like a really fun adventure that will be beyond memorable. Have fun doing it, when you are ready. Like the fab four once sang: it won't be long .........

This needs dedicated, consistent training over a long period of time. Certainly not something you could hope to do with just a few weeks or even months of preparation. How long it would actually take depends on your starting point i.e. your current fitness level and riding experience.
My advice is to get on your bike and start working up to completing a single 100 mile ride and then go from there. That in itself could well take you a few months to achieve, even if you are reasonably fit. I'm assuming here you don't have much biking experience or you wouldn't be asking the question.

100 miles a day for 30 days straight is actually a very serious challenge. In reality very few people can do this kind of thing. To give you some idea I consider myself to be a pretty fit cyclist with decades of experience and regularly enter Century rides. But there's no way I'm ever going to attempt 30x 100 mile back-to-back efforts! It's hard enough attempting 2 or 3 straight. I could dial the pace right back and then in theory I could do it fairly comfortably. But I think the reality would be like a slow, painful death of a thousand cuts, lol.

​​​​​​I haven't had the weather yet this year, but for the last few years, I have been doing imperial centuries every non-rainy Saturday during bike season for the last few years. I've also done centuries two days in a row. I don't think I could stand doing more days in a row because of the boredom that would set in. People who do this tend to ride circles around their home, so it's the same few miles again and again and again and.... That makes it possible to reliably keep the streak of days going. I'd go nuts doing that.

I still don't know if op has ever ridden anything approaching a century. I'd think that the first question that needs to be answered before you could know if you can tolerate 30 would be can you tolerate one?

I'd think that if you do it every day for such a long period, you're probably going to end up losing muscle mass as you're not giving your muscles sufficient recovery time. A thousand cuts might be very apt.

It'd take me 30 days to struggle through that rambling,, but the little bit at the beginning I managed to get through was strictly from the Department of Made-Up Statistics.

When I used to tour long distances, 100 miles would be in like 7-10 hours saddle time and the pace would feel like a walk in the park or maybe an easy hike. There is no muscle mass loss doing that. If OP can't do two back to back Centuries right now at pretty fast pace, he won't be able to noodle along all day on a tour and enjoy it and thus,lots of training is needed to get there. OTOH, if OP can do two days in a row quickly now and then on day 3 FEEL like wanting to ride, he/she is in pretty good shape and has a chance of doing 30 x 100 miles in a month.

Having to ask? I'd say OP has no chance without many months of dedicated riding and building it up.

^^^^^^ And that would be the key at least to me, can I enjoy the experience?
I would need some scheduled rest days in between not just for physical recovery but mental recovery.
Otherwise, it just becomes another task.

I don't care how fast you do it, 100 miles is a very large calorie burn in a day, so let's settle on there might be muscle mass loss. I'm really not willing to run the experiment on myself.

I don't tour, but isn't doing 100 miles per day for 30 days pretty unrealistic? First, the route has basically got to be flat for 3000 miles, second there's weather, and third, you're carrying gear. Does anybody pace a long trip that way? Honest questions as I know nothing about touring.

Doubtful. Pacing is complicated. Depends on the scenery, weather, terrain and such. On flat terrain, 100 miles would cost me 2500 calories at the most. At basal metabolic of 1800 and let's call it 4500 calories needed per day. That is not hard to eat. 60-80% of the riding calories would be fat if riding 12-15 mph. So, I would probably only eat 3000 calories if I started a bit heavy. But no question one would need adequate protein input. I've not lost muscle on such tours. Why pace that wayon part of the tour? What if you are going from one area of interest to another, you might prefer to get there quicker to enjoy where you are going. Some tour to ride their bikes a lot, others tour to camp. I hate camping and cooking. Maybe OP has those kinds of thoughts, but it looks like we will never know. 100 miles per day is sort of like doing 20 miles per day as a thru hiker, plenty can do those miles 4-5 weeks into the hike and some can do it out of the gate. Few can even do 30 miles per day. Starting at 20 miles per day requires pretty darn good training, much like being able to do 100 mile days in good climate and not too hilly like say the Southern Tier in late Winter, for example. I am not recommending OP do this and the "test" that I outlined would give an idea if it is doable right now.

100 miles a day sounds like a big deal but it really is not. If you can average 15 mph and ride for 6-7 hours you will go 100 miles. Most important is having the right gears on the bike for the terrain you will encounter. A 12-34 gear range will get you anywhere.

It is easiest to go with at least one other rider so you can share tools and to use the same size wheels so you can share spokes and tubes. Good idea to attend a bike repair clinic so you can do basic repairs on the road. I would take spare tubes, spare cassette, spare spokes, and ideally a spare tire. Problem with going any distance is that bike shops become rare and may be hundreds of miles away from where you encounter a problem with your bike.

If using racks and panniers try to avoid using front panniers if you can as they can make the bike far less stable with any winds. For a rear rack get something like the Blackburn Outpost Rear World rack that will not flex while riding.

Something not often considered is being out in the sun day after day. Even with a helmet I had a sunburned scalp on one trip and badly burned the tops of my hands where the gloves did not cover them. I had the outline of the burn on the top of my hands for years after that trip. White is also the least effective color for blocking UV to the skin. Even SPF 50 lotion is not going to last more than a couple of hours and so not good to rely on with many long days out in the sun.

Something I learned the hard way is that although I could run for miles in 100 degree temperatures out on the desert I could not ride in the same weather on my bike without risk of heat stroke. The pavement absorbs the UV during the day and by mid afternoon the heat radiates back up to anything on it. Not something you notice in a car but definitely a problem on a bicycle.