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This past weekend, I tried an experiment to figure out how much preparation you need for a a tough ride with over 15K feet of climbing. My theory is that it's mostly all about pacing so I needed no riding experience beyond my regular commute. This is only the 5th ride I've done over 6 (yes, six) miles this year.

Most people would consider such a plan to be stupid/suicidal, but I wasn't going in totally blind. I knew the course like the back of my hand (I've done this ride 10 times). My base from my other sports is solid. I've done plenty of distance and hills in the past. The other rides longer than 6 miles this year were the de Ronde PDX, a flat century, and a hilly solo 80 miler I did a couple weeks ago. No problemo.

A couple wild cards got tossed in. One was that it was unseasonably hot -- highs of the day were getting into the triple digits. The other was that the forest fire smoke was bad.

The first part of the ride went well. Local racers were conspicuously absent. I wouldn't ride in this much smoke either, except I only have to do it for one day unlike someone who lives in the area.

As I hit a rest stop at mile 62, I realized I'd only drunk a bottle and a half of water -- not nearly enough. I stopped for a turkey sandwich, washed it down with a can of pepsi, resolved to drink more water, and continued onwards. At mile 95, I started experiencing heat exhaustion symptoms. I stopped to nap in the shade which was much more enjoyable than getting baked while slogging up steep grade in heat until I woke up when a wasp landed on my leg and stung me. I continued to the 100 mile checkpoint, drank more fluids, and took a break.

The last climb on this ride is just a 6% even grade that goes up 4,000 feet and change. There's no scenery, you get baked in the sun, and due to the modest incline, you don't get much speed coming down. I decided that between being so late and the remaining part of the ride not being that great, I didn't need to finish. I bailed 11 miles from the end.

Afterwards, I went to a local pub where downed a couple pints of water before switching to beer. Only one other person was there -- a huge muscular guy with tattoos on every square inch of his body save his face. He also had a pit bull on a chain that would have been overkill for securing an elephant. I love dogs so I asked for (and received) permission to pet it. We chatted briefly and I learned that he earned 35 grand on his last litter of pit bull puppies. I decided it best not to bug the guy and sat elsewhere to nurse my beer.

While he chatted up the bartender, his dog got away from him came to visit me. He apologized for his dog, and as a joke I said, "Now I have to kick your ass. But tell you what -- I've had a long day and I'm feeling generous, so I've decided to cut you a break." Apparently those triple digit temps baked my head worse than I thought. Fortunately he had a sense of humor. He thanked me for letting him off easy and left with his dog.

So in the end, I logged a DNF. But I still consider my experiment a success. Despite a total lack of distance and climbing this year, I still climbed 12K feet in smoke and serious heat. That's hard to feel bad about. But I think I'll stick with more practical rides for awhile.

How long can you go between longish rides and still be comfortable on the bike when you go long? Sit bones etc?

I started using my bike for transportation about 2 months ago. My typical commute is ~6 miles one way. This has stopped me from doing my once or twice a week 20 mile rides that I used to do during the week. I still do my ~50 mile Saturday group ride. While the total mileage is about the same, I'm just as fit doing more short rides as I was doing a couple of longer ones per week.

Months -- I've found saddle conditioning is not an issue. Nor do I have problems with back, hands, etc. on the few times when I do go long. Having said that, I normally ride 5 days/week so that even if the distance isn't there, there's some opportunity for my body to adapt.

I find that shorts matter on long rides. Some of the really cheap ones can leave me feeling kind of sore if I'm out too long. Also, saddle has to be adjusted properly.

Given your old and new routines, I'd be surprised if you notice much change in your fitness. I reduced cycling by about 80% from what it was a couple years ago and the overall impact has been much smaller than I would have guessed. My experience is that moderate exercise yields a massive benefit, and that working your ass off improves things, but the diminishing returns curve is steep.

I personally think there's also some muscle memory, for lack of a better word... you've previously done tons of riding and have acclimated, so it's not like you've never ridden a bike and only rode 6 miles each way daily. I think half the battle of those long rides is mental and you've done it 10 times before.

I don't know, it's just a theory. I also agree with your diminishing returns idea.

That's a heckuva ride, even if you DNF so congrats.

How hard to you push it on your short rides? One thing I forgot to mention was I push hard, for me, on my short commutes.

That was a huge effort on your ride! I wouldn't have had the guts to attempt it, congratulations.

You are a lab rat.

Epic

"The last climb on this ride is just a 6% even grade that goes up 4,000 feet and change. There's no scenery, you get baked in the sun, and due to the modest incline, you don't get much speed coming down.."

nitpicking, i know. but, don't get much speed on a 6% 4000ft decent********** typo?

anyway, good test.

I ride hard on commutes. I'm lucky in that mine involves more than 1000' of climbing so I get a better workout than you'd normally expect for that distance.

I don't like riding according to a plan. I find if I do that, everything works the way it's supposed to unless I'm unlucky. Much more fun to try stuff that shouldn't work at all and discover that it does anyway the vast majority of the time.

On a descent as straight as that one is, I'd hope to hit 50mph. But you need more than 6% to hit speeds like that. Alternatively, a bunch of hairpin curves would be fun. As the ride stands, it's just an easy coast down. The first 3 descents are way better.

i hear ya...

Yeah that's cool! Mine has a whopping 35' of elevation change