indyfabz

WhyFi

All of this constitutes planning, not preparation.

You're right that no one knows what they're capable of until they try, but people usually do more than jog around the block before deciding that they're going to run a marathon. There are times when it's good to push and times when it's absolutely foolish to continue pushing. I get that you're a head-strong 21 year old, but this isn't merely about fitness, it's also about physiology.

Will your feet be able to cope or will you need to make adjustments to avoid hot spots or numb toes? It doesn't matter how strong your legs and lungs are when your feet are in too much pain to push the pedals.

How will your nether regions deal with your clothing choice and saddle? Will you need different clothing to avoid chafing? Have you seen runners with bloody nipples at the end of a marathon? Think about something along those lines, but in your shorts.

Will you need to adjust your saddle, or get a different saddle altogether, to keep your junk from going numb? My friend, who was in his late 20s at the time, ignored his discomfort and gritted out a ~150 mile ride. As a reward, he spent a limp three months wondering if he'd ever be able to get it up again.

How will your nutrition stack up? Is that drained feeling normal after X miles or is it because of depletion? How long will each water bottles last you once you actually need them? Are you carrying too much? Not enough?

There are several other things that will crop up on a long ride that are not at all problematic on a shorter ride (and 30 miles is a short ride). Go on an 80 mile ride this weekend and see how it goes. If everything goes smoothly, great! If you need to make adjustments, do so.

Machka 

All of it, but especially this ^^^^

colnago62

We have ride called The Seattle To Portland. It is 200 miles. I think it is one of the largest one day rides in the country. It also has a two day option. Lots of riders do the two day with zero training. Is two days an option for you?

2manybikes

One way to conserve energy is to not ride too hard/fast. Most people can maintain a 10 mph average, even if it is a little hilly. That will make comfort issues more important though. 168 / 10 mph = 16.8 hours pedaling, that's a long time on a saddle. Easy 19 hours total including bathroom, food, and maybe photo stops. 4 am to 11 pm is a long day. Plan how much water and food to bring, and where to get more as you go. I do a lot of rides around 100 miles. I also built up to it gradually.

I agree with the others... Try an 80 or more mile ride now and see what happens.

CliffordK

Getting tired and sore is expected.

I don't consider "injury" as being an expected part of any ride I go on, or have ever gone on.

scplus5

Good luck...and lots of it.

am I the only one that's looking forward to May 6th to hear how it went?

merlinextraligh

Cushion is a very bad idea. It will in all likelyhood lead to chafing and do more harm than good.

I think your insane for trying this. As other have said, 32 to 168 is a huge jump. And being generally fit doesn't prepare you for all the things to go bad on a 168 mile ride, such as pains in your butt, back, neck, bonking, heat exhaustion, etc.

Pace yourself, eat and drink regularly, and you should be able to do it. Although it may take more than 15 hours (bring lights), and it will only be by force of will that you finish it.

Yankeetowner

This is really good advice! Since March 7, I have ridden two 400k's (250+ each); a 400k (250+ miles) flesche; Cross Florida 168 miles (20.2 mph rolling speed average); a 600k last weekend (90 degrees hot, flat, very windy); AND THEN IT HAPPENED!!! Despite top of the line Assos bibs and chamois cream a grape like cyst that had developed before the ride became worse during the ride, causing me to shift my weight to the other "cheek." By the time we hit mile 376 I had a swollen, oozing, very painful mess on the other cheek. This morning I had my second shot of antibiotics in the hip in as many days, and I am taking oral tetracycline 2x's a day. I see the doctor again Monday for probably another shot, and according to my doctor, if the pad of infection is reabsorbed he won't have to "cut it out." I am pretty skinny and don't have a lot of tissue to lose back there! In hind sight (no pun intended) I pushed myself too far and didn't read the signals my body was sending me. I can tolerate pain, but what I can't tolerate is not being able to ride my bike at all for at least 10 days! I am missing a great ride with a super group of people this weekend because of my own stupidity. Good luck.

dtrain

Relevant for sure...but maybe a little too much graphic detail?

Fastfwd01

If you're just determined to do it then good luck, but I think these folks are giving you good advice to work your way up to it. I know I nearly 'bonked' out at the end and after my first few longer rides (around 100 miles). I was all dizzy in the shower afterward, etc. It wasn't that I didn't eat enough I don't believe. I just hadn't developed enough fitness to go that far. I'm older though and I was in relatively poor health in previous years. You may have better luck with it. 168 miles is pretty far. There is a forum on this board for longer rides like that you might check out.

I'm going to participate in my first organized event of nearly 100 miles tomorrow and I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes. I've previously only ridden solo on my century rides. I'm hoping I'll knock it out well enough to feel good about it. We'll see.

JerrySTL

I've done 162 miles twice (a century + metric century) and over 200 miles four times. Keeping fed and hydrated are the biggest issues.

As far as mileage, you need a lot more distance. One year my longest was only 86 miles before doing a double century; however, I had about 2000 miles in before the ride. Plus I've done hundreds of centuries and knew what to expect.

One thing that I noticed is your route will probably be riding towards the north west. You could hit some very strong prevailing winds and that will really hurt. You might actually be better off going from Glascow to Durham.

Loveless4577

+1.....I need a truthful and accurate follow up on this!

cwar

I hope you have your bike fit dialed in. There are bike fit issues that will not present themselves on a 30 mile ride, but might start to show up around 70+ miles. My longest ride is a bit over 100 miles. I'm sure I could do 168 miles right now, but I ride over 100 miles per week, every week. I still imagine 168 miles would be tough, mostly from a nutrition and comfort standpoint.

I think taking a long ride this weekend would be a very good idea.

Mindcrime

/subscribed, if only for the inevitable flameout and/or excruciating (and likely poorly punctuated) ride report. Good luck dude!

bbbean 

Cushions are a bad idea. You need more time, and need to allow a rest / easy week before you try the ride. Your butt and legs will not be ready by May 5th, unless you mean May 5 2016.

3alarmer 

...the problem with telling kids the story of the Little Engine That Could, is that, at that age, they are prone to believe it.

3alarmer 

.
.. @Russik, go for it kid. You'll either finish and learn something, or you won't, and you still learn something. We had a girl about your age come through the bike co-op a couple of years ago about in August, maybe July. She was riding on the worst POS bike boom steel cottered crank nightmare bike you can imagine, had a plastic milk crate on the back for panniers, and was going to ride that sucker up the Sierra, across the trackless American Great Basin and Range, and all the way to some new life in New Hampshire. Everyone she talked to tried to talk her out of it, but we adjusted her brakes and off she went.

I got an e-mail address, and checked up on her a few months later. It took her and the guy she was riding with about a month and a half to make Reno from here, she realized they were running out of warm weather, so they ditched the bikes and snagged a ride. You are only young once, enjoy it while you can.

Willbird

If you had said "100 miles" I'd be more optimistic :-).

Bill

GuitarBob

That? All kinds of awesome.

tigat

All great advice here from many wise elders who have been there and done that. What we may be underestimating though, at least a bit, is the power of a 21 year old ego and the heart, legs and lungs attached to it.

In the summer of 1979, at age 22, I volunteered to ride my college roommate's newly purchased Schwinn 5 speed from Oslo up to his home in Flisa, roughly 100 hilly miles on the route we plotted on a map. The plan and the plotting took place over beers at midnight the night before, just after sunset, when the four of us drinking and needing to get to Flisa the next day realized that the little Honda could not carry all of us and the new bike.

No way that bike was going fit me in any respect, seeing as how Gunnar was 6'6" and I'm a good half foot short of that. I had smoked more cigarettes than I had ridden miles in the months leading up to this ride. Cells phones and GPS were sci fi fictions at the time. This was a thinking person's recipe for disaster. At the time, thinking person I was not.

I left after sunrise, wearing gym shorts, a t shirt and running shoes without socks. It was 4 or so in the morning, and I figured a noon arrival would be appropriate. Seventy miles in, I managed to miss my turn and ended up a mountain valley removed from Flisa. Thirty miles up the valley, thirty miles back, a bunch of conversations in broken English and tortured Norwegian, and I rolled into Flisa late afternoon, with 160 or so miles to my credit.

More than 35 years after the fact, the pain I surely felt then I can't remember now. The saddle sores I must have developed, and the anxiety of being lost in a foreign land are just assumptions, not recollections. But the journey, and the people, and the joy of reaching my destination have all endured. Looking at what I do now to prepare for an organized and supported century on my custom made, push button shifting, 16 pound wonder bike, I am embarrassed at how soft I've become.

My advice to the OP. Epic fails or epic memories can only come about from audacious efforts.

Go for it!

2manybikes

It's possible on a bicycle, because you are seated, you can ride so far and get so tired you can't stand up at the end of the ride. And being wobbly as you ride. And not being able to pay attention to the road. Possibly even seeing things that are not there.

If you can ride 30 miles, you can ride 60 miles and still do things wrong, like eating or hydration. If you start eating and hydrating at 60 miles to go 100 on the same day, it's likely too late, you probably can't make it safely. It's called a "bonk" when you run out of energy to keep going. It can be very serious. By 100 miles you may be too tired to be safe. You might be fine too, no one knows what will happen. You are not prepared at all, not even close. Your good planning will help with some problems. Good luck.

Willbird

I think maybe the key to success here for the 168 mile ride without the proper conditioning might be to totally remove the seat and seat post for the first 100 miles, do that standing on the pedals then you can sit down for the final 68 ;-)

I only ridden have one century so far, it was very flat, but the second half was grinding into a wind that never let up.....and I did not have enough low gear for the rider and wind that day. Well I DID, but barely enough. Terrible feeling grinding into a wind like that, tired, barely keeping cadence, no lower gears to shift down into.

alexaschwanden

The longest ride i have done was 121 miles in ten hours on a carbon road bike, i ride slower so i can last longer. 168 is possible but it will take alot of determination and fit level has to be high. Ride slower and on flatter terrain and you can do it.

2manybikes