dspaff088

Ok so I have been doing some 40-50 mile rides lately and I want to ride my bike to school. Haha i mean i want to ride my bike 165 miles back to school in virginia. I live in baltimore and i think it would be really cool to ride through the shennandoah valley and what not.

Thing is I have no idea what to pack. should i go for it in one day? stop at what mileage to sleep? I dont know what to do... Should i even start training for 100 miles at a time first?

Pardon me but i dont know all of the language, centuries... brevets... all that nonses, i just like to ride my bike haha.

any help as far as gear, training plans, or anything of the sort will be GREATLY appreciated.


thanks!

Toth

Hi, I'm a just a lurker here but I feel like replying because I did almost the same thing a few months a go.

In my case, after some shorter rides, also in the range of 50 miles I rode from university back home, about 145 miles in a day. It was the longest ride I've done so far but I enjoyed it very much. I didn't train or anything, just took it easy, I spent 10 hours on the bike and took plenty of time for breaks and to find my way. (door-to-door time was exactly 12 hours). I'm not in great shape but I had no trouble getting home. Your area is hillier than where I ride, but I suppose you're used to it. There was 1 puny baby-hill on my route, but after 130 miles it felt like Alpe d'Huez to me. By that time you're so close it's ok to suffer a bit .

I didn't have anything special to carry gear, just a small saddle bag with the usual repair stuff, everything needed to fix flats and broken chains and stuff to tighten every bolt on the bike. I carried food and water, a map and my jacket in a small backpack. The backpack worked out well for me but maybe you want to try that first. My backpack was very light because there were so many gas-stations on the route where I could fill up on water and snacks. I needed them because I definately underestimated how much water and food I needed. If you want to spend the night it's going to be a totally different trip, wich isn't a bad thing but at the very least you're going to need to carry a whole lot more stuff.

I was a bit uncertain but I knew I was always within about an hour of a trainstation. It's reassuring to have a back-up plan.

My advice, if you're kinda in good enough shape just go for it in 1 day. Leave early so you can take it easy and not have to worry about getting home before dark. Take plenty of food or make very sure you can stock up on the road.

MTBMaven

Just take it easy, especially in the beginning. Don't go harder than 70% of your max, meaning you should be able to comfortably hold a conversation or sing a song out loud while riding. Make sure to drink enough and get electrolytes (think Gatorade). Also make sure you consume close to but not too much more than 300 calories/hour. It is best to east those calories consistently throughout the ride rather than in spurts. 3 squares a day doesn't work so well biking. Also don't get behind on any of these (water, electrolytes, calories), because you really can't come back most of the time.

If you can get in a 70-80 mile ride with no problems you are set. Try to get in some weekday training rides on hills. Remember it is best to do more frequent shorter climbs rather than one big climb on these training rides.

ks1g

How do you feel after the 50 milers? ready to do another 50, or do you lie down and take a nap? If I were doing this, I'd break the trip into 2 or 3 segments: Baltimore to Northern Virginia, NoVA to Shenandoah Valley, and a 3rd segment to school. Which school? Do you have classmates or friends where you could crash for the night?

For routes, there is a cue for Balto-DC on bikwashington.org and this question comes up regularly on the BIkeWashingtonDC Yahoo group list. I'd ask there and on the Northeast and Southeast regional forums for suggestions on routes from NoVA to the Valley, something from the Purcelville VA area (western end of W&OD trail) might work. An alternate idea would be west towards Frederick MD, then cross the Potomac at Point of Rocks (get off Rt 15 ASAP!) or Brunswick MD. I'd also search mapmyride.com, it will be time-consuming but you'll get the benefit of local knowledge. Sorry I cannot provide specific suggestions. I'd do some web searches for routes in the Shenandoah Valley. Or maybe piece together segments of published century routes - Civil War (Thurmont MD/Frederick area), PPTC (Berryville), and there's a Shenandoah Bike festival out of Harrisonburg this weekend.

For gear, I'd say it depends on length of trip and where you will be staying. Obviously you need more if camping than if begging a bed at a friend's house. You'd still want a change of clothes and sandals for off-bike. At a minimum, be able to repair flats and other minor trail-side repairs, have the bike in good shape beforehand will minimize the chance of a mechanical failure.

Interesting idea, riding to school. My son's starting at JMU this fall, maybe I could bike down for Family Weekend and my wife could meet me there and be my "sag wagon" support? Nah - I don't think she'd go for it, or decide I've really lost it!

dspaff088

yeah I am making the trip to jmu also... from the looks of it i made not ride down before the first day of classes. But i will make the JMU-Maryland trip sometime this next semester.

as for a route i went on mapquest. mapped it. then just hit 'avoid highways' and i got a nice network of backroads all the way there.

btw, my younger sister is starting this year too, small world eh?