LeeG

and that's an experience you can't afford to repeat if you want to get up and ride the next day. Riding sequential centuries can end up feeling like that ONE 116mile day by day 3 even if you are more fit.
Don't be afraid to be conservative. These numbers 80-100m/day aren't the road or your body. It's just a number. Pretend you're an 18wheeler, slow to accelerate, steady speed, downshift early. When I did high mileage riding I was lean and carried about a third of what you've got. If I was in your shoes and on a limited budget I'd be real conservative so that bed rest and hotel costs didn't become a necessity and your choices start getting whittled down to a bus ticket. If you have to hunker down camping to recover for a day make sure you've got lots of water. Absolutely the worst thing is to find a secluded camping spot and start a recovery day without enough water.
The other thing you might consider is that high mileage days and high load carrying really don't go together. Your glycogen fuel tank is finite so if you are able to stay out of depletion it might be riding 75miles and not 100, riding at 11mph average and not 13, carrying 25lbs of gear and not 40lbs. If high mileage is REALLY a priority be willing to jettison those big rear bags and just go with the front set.

Joe Padilla

Well I can't afford a plane ticket and don't own a house. I WILL ride across the country. I don't own a car, I ride 7 days a week as it is. Pain is Temporary!

I can post here from my phone so you can bet I'll be updating thru my whole trip. I leave June 18th.

Joe Padilla

Those big rear bags cost a lot! Your right though I can prly get 70 75 a day, 80 to 100 with the right conditions. but I can accept those numbers! I've become keen to my body and how it works! and I'm willing to call it a day and set up camp instead of pushing myself to far and being miserable for a week after.

staehpj1

That probably happens to a significant number of them and some of them probably do as they planned, but my bet is that the majority just wind up doing less mileage (probably more like 80 miles per day in most cases). I have met a few on the road that fit that last category.

oldskoolwrench

Joe,

Props to you for taking the plunge and hitting the open road; reading this thread it's like "The Ultimate Car Free Re-Location!"

A couple of hints, but I'm sure you've thought of these before...

-- Be real keen on what you plan to take, and if at all possible go through your gear lists one more time to eliminate any excess cargo, if you can. I think that's one of the biggest factors in the overall success of your trip... not carrying anything you really don't need. Especially with the nature of your trip, see if you can get everything down to the essentials and your trip will be 'lighter' and more efficient.

Like everyone else has said previously... let your body tell you how far it can go, plan on the unexpected, be spontaneous, and in between... stop and smell the roses!

Please... let us know how your tour is progressing, and know that your travels may very well motivate others to hit the road and take a tour!

Good Luck!

Alan

staehpj1

That is certainly an option, and a good one in my opinion.

I went with something about like your front bags on front and my tent on the rear rack two tours ago. Gear and bags weighed 22 pounds. I didn't miss a thing and found it more pleasant than what I carried on previous tours. That trip was not coast to coast, but it was fairly long at something like 1300 miles.

I have since cut back even further and am now carrying 14 pounds of gear and bags. That worked out well on my recent trip from San Diego to Pensacola and I expect to carry a similar amount on my upcoming tour of the Colorado Rockies.

I think I had something like 45 pounds on my first tour (TA) and mailed stuff home several times. I have since found touring with less and less to be more pleasant. I guess it isn't for everyone though.

BigAura

The terrain you can plan for, the wind you should not. I hope it "prevails" for you.

pacificcyclist

116 miles in 13 hrs translates to about 8.9miles/hr. If you are attempting 137 miles with an average of say 10mph, then I can see it as doable in about 14hrs.

Here's your problem. With any endurance sport, your heart rate will eventually go up and up as fatigue sets in. What feels like a 15mph workout that you can do with ease will become physically harder to do as the time drags on. It happens to everybody and that's the way it is. You have to expect that you can not achieve an average of 15mph for the rest of the way. You have to expect that you'll be slowing down a bit and seeing what you did last year seemed to me that you are just as fit then as you are now. You are just fitter at short distances and at higher intensity higher heart rate workout. Rather, you should be DOING long slow intensity low heart rate Zone 1 to Zone 2 workout to get your body to burn fat efficiently. This can only be trained not at 15mph nor at 12mph, but rather at around 10 to 11mph (roughly 18-20km/h)period or at whatever your Zone 1 or 2 HR is for 100 miles or more and meeting your base target mileage. Please don't confuse endurance training with strength training-- you are confusing both. You are currently only doing strength training the same way Lance Armstrong did with his first marathon race. But Lance raced in the TDF so he's got some latitude.

Strength training has its place in the training regimen, but it should not take precedent over endurance training until closer to race day. Ideally, you should have done your base mileage FIRST, meaning you should have done at least a few 100 mile rides during the early spring season and then to raise your fitness level so that your average speed improves over the 13 to 15 hr period is to do some strategically well placed build phases as described by Lee G. You had not done your base mileage, so how do you expect to finish the ride faster than you did last year.
I suspect that you did on the tour training on base mileage on tours. Most newbies do this with catastrophic consequences. Many hung up their bikes to never tour again because it is a painful experience to ramp up mileage from 45 to 137 miles in such a short period of time.

By asking the question is 80-100 miles reasonable simply means that you are unsure. You have doubts, so you need us to make you feel better so you don't have that doubt.
There is no doubt you can do 116 miles in 13hrs, so expect around 15hrs of riding if you so wish to and the only way you can prove that you are fitter than last year is by doing the same route again for 116 miles in less than 13hrs. 116 miles with lots of hills is a different workout than 116 miles with little hills and flat as pancake terrain.

I really wish you good luck on your trip!

LeeG

Yep, as much as four nights in a cheap hotel or a month of high calorie fast food meals. They're great bags worth having and if you decide to mail them to your destination you'll still have them.

robow

When asked this question, my next question is always if you're being forced into those long milage days because of a limited time schedule. If that's the case, what are your plans if you have a mechanical, become ill, or just have a "bad day". Are you going to tack those miles missed onto the next week because now you're looking at 100-120 mile days 5 days in a row, and believe me, not a lot individuals can do that and keep it fun. If you are not concerned about a time frame and can take a day off after those kind of miles, then enjoy!

Doug64

This is a portion of a post I made on another thread. I can tell you from that brief venture that while it may be possible to average 100 miles a day, it is not a lot of fun. I was doing training rides of 103 miles from where I lived to my Mother-in-law's house about every other weekend. In favorable conditions, I could ride that distance in 5.5 (tail wind, and 1st 25 miles is generally downhill) to 6 hours. My long day on that tour was about 12 hours on a loaded bike. Even though I was in excellent shape (6'@150lbs), I'm not sure that I could have sustained that pace comfortably for too much longer. I think it might have been more of a mental challenge as well as being a physical challenge.

Having said that, I met a couple of guys in Yellowstone when we were riding across the US that were doing a lot of 100 mile days. The duo split up in Yellowstone because both riders were not on the same page. One wanted to see a little of the country he was riding through, and the other had to be back to work on a deadline. We rode on and off for a week with the "slow" guy, and kept track of his X-partner through e-mails. He made it to Boston in time, but I am wondering which guy had the most enjoyable trip.

Try it your way- you can always adjust as you go. In my work world we call it adaptive management

saddlesores

do you absolutely, positively NEED to go cross-country? by that i mean MUST
you cover every single mile under your own power? from sea to shining sea?
there's a lot of awesome stuff to see, and there's an awful lot of boring bits.
.
greyhound would be a problem, but what about amtrak? can you take a bike
on the train without a box? skip the boring bits, enjoy the train ride for a day.
(noone will think less of you if you skip kansas...even if you do miss the world's
largest ball of twine.)
.
better to spend your time in the more interesting places. crossing utah, there
must be a cool national park or recreation area every 50 miles. if you gotta
cover 100/day, which do you skip? if you take an extra couple days to hike
arches national park, will you need to add 200 miles to the following week?

spinnaker

Why not just do 100+ mile loops around your hose for a few weeks? It will be just as interesting and you will have a place to sleep for the night. And it would satisfy a challenge if that is what you are looking for.

I fail to understand the rush some people have when it comes to touring. Touring is about the journey not just getting there.

The post above says it very well. Slow down and enjoy the journey. There is nothing wrong with using the help of motorized vehicles if you need to make up time and get across a boring or inhospitable part of the country.

Joe Padilla

I was just seeing if anyone has done 100 miles a day and enjoyed themselves. This for me is all about the adventure. I know I can ride a bike cross country, I have no doubt in that ability. The boring parts are all part of the adventure. I would like to get across in 2 months. Seems like doing anything less then 60 to 80 miles a day would not accomplish this goal. I know Oregon and I want to arrive before the rain season. I can plan on sprinting across Kansas, getting ready for the Rockies. I can't wait to see Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons! In the end I'm relocating to Oregon, so even though I don't have a official time limit, I still need to get there in enough time to find a job and not be out of money.

Thulsadoom

I did most of the Northern Tier route a few years ago (3850 miles of it). I did it in 40 days, with two rest days, so I averaged right around 100 miles a day. I tow a trailer and my rig weighs around 115 pounds (bike and trailer loaded). I camped every night, never rushed, saw everything I wanted to see, took pictures, talked to folks, made side trips, etc. I was not on a endurance ride. Now, that said, I tend to ride a lot when I'm home. I love to ride a lot of hard "training" rides, even though I rarely race or compete, but I enjoy the buzz of hard riding. So....maybe I'm in slightly better shape than some tourists, but I still think of myself as a lightweight. How many miles you can ride, comfortably or whatever, totally depends on you. People who tell you that you shouldn't try it are only relating to themselves. I know one guy who tours and rarely rides less than 140 miles a day. I know a couple who tour and rarely ride more than 30 daily.

Joe Padilla

I rode 60 miles yesterday in 4 hours even. I woke up today not sore at all. I even slept in my tent in my friends big back yard. This is gonna be a awesome summer. I could keep a 12mph average in a 15mph headwind yesterday as well. I'm gonna do the same run next week, and camp, then do a 100 mile back to back day trip at the end of may. I'm not gonna ride this hard when I officially leave on this tour. But it will be nice to know that I'll have the power and endurance to easily keep a decent pace. Fast enough to get miles, slow enough to see the people and sites!

Bike Hermit

Yes!

BILLB58

I did the Southern Tier in October, '09 (credit card)........found my day's miles were more determined by the available light and available motels than by my mileage goals........many times I would hit a town after about 80 miles +/-about 5:00pm and the next town that was listed as having a motel was 35-30 miles down the road. With the sun setting at 7:00pm +/-, that meant I stopped early. Although I carried bright lights, I generally tried not to be on the road from dusk on. I made a few exceptions to that.....once to outrun a heavy line of tstorms due in (124 mi. day) and another time when I got to my planned stop, and the only motel in town was closed...(129 mi. day)...my bike weighs 37 lbs, and I carried 28 lbs of "stuff" plus water......I think your goal is doable, but I think, fully loaded, I might consider scaling it back 10-20% or so....

Leaving in June will give you a big advantage in that you will have far more daylight each day than I did in October......but unless you are well acclimated to riding in high heat, you will find that in high heat conditions, you just can't make the kind of miles you may wish to. High heat and humidity take a lot more out of you than you realize.

Good Luck !!!!!!!! am very, very envious!

Joe Padilla

i rode the whole summer last year here in North Carolina, and it was the hottest summer here in 80 years. And its hot as hell here in the south! I'm so ready. I'm a strong rider club riders couldn't keep up with me yesterday on their race bikes!

Machka 

Sounds good! That's the way to prepare for a trip like what you're planning.

LeeG

I'm an old fat fart but I remember riding through the Central Valley up to the mountains in the heat when I was young, fit and lean. Being able to handle heat is a good capability. Managing cold is a lot easier, just add insulation and food but heat and dehydration is a killer. Good base to have.

Joe Padilla

tarwheel 

Good luck, Joe. That is a nice looking Trek 520; I love the color.

I'm planning to ride from Raleigh to Swansboro, NC, this weekend. I'm taking two days, camping at Cliffs of Neuse State Park near Goldsboro. Should work out to about 80 miles/day. This will be my first loaded tour, although I have ridden numerous week-long supported tours. I'll let you know how it works out. I bike commute daily with long rides on weekends, so conditioning shouldn't be an issue. My main concern is the wind, which can be tough in ENC if you're fighting it. Here's a photo of my bike (Bob Jackson World Tour) unloaded.

Joe Padilla

You my muscle's were sore from spinning into the winds out by reaford NC this weekend. But you will be ok ENC is pretty much flat! I commute daily as well, have ridden every day except one in the last 2 months. I found a way to add 6 more miles onto my daily commute! Have fun this weekend and let us know how it went. Be sure to take some pic's! Nice bike btw!

Joe Padilla

Did a 120 mile round trip camping trip. Rode with a friend though and he doesn't ride like me and I had to slow down a lot and would still always eventually lose him! But he did it and it was fun. I was loaded to the gill and had no problems with the weight. Got a Therma Rest Trail lite sleeping mat and had the best sleep I've ever had in a tent!