Just an update on this...Since I do not want to commute into work (for obvious reasons) and right now the lunchtime loop has been boring me I decided to do the Dunkin Donuts coffee break tour! The Dunkin Donuts tour consists of me picking a Dunkin Donuts in my area that I want to ride to. I leave from my home office and if I want to ride for 10 miles I find a DD 5 miles away, if I want to ride 20 miles I find a DD 10 miles away. I did my first DD tour today and had a fun ride plus I was able to enjoy a coffee with some of the seniors who hang out in DD.

Keep in mind we have the Paris Roubaix crowd in attendance here. And that is all fine, it has to be better to be in shape, and it has to be a waste of some time to start out a tour slow. But we also have people who take their kids cross country. Knowing kids, they probably didn't spend all winter on rollers in the garage. I don't think it serves any purpose to make some super athlete myth around touring, just about anyone not dead can do it. How many other sports are done from a wheel chair.

As someone else sagely pointed out, one can crash the first day and then do short mileages the next few, and be up and running on the third or fourth. My only thing is that if one just takes it easy the first few days anyway, then one can avoid the crash. If you are at all times comfortable you should do fine.

Oh, here is another tip. If you are starting from a large metro, take a ride, or the transit out about 40 miles. First you probably have all that under the belt by now. Second you won't feel as likely to press since it should be nicer to start out there. Third, you won't feel you have to do a first big day just to get out to somewhere you can set up camp. If you are starting out from a foreign ugly city, do the same thing so as: Four, not to get creamed by local traffic you don't understand, or five, to waste a lot of time route finding in hell.

In my two local cities, the west end of town (fresh air side) is picturesque, the east end side is gross and industrial, Super Fund Country. So ride into town if coming from the west (as maybe one should be), and leave town by transit. I have to say I haven't done this, I like city driving, but I can see how it might make sense.

Oh, another thing, how about not training? If you already are the super athlete, and are planing on going on a tour with mere mortals, how about slacking off and riding in the back. Two days of super hero stuff has been known to break up families.

One of the issues to deal with, and a reason to get some winter mileage on, is to get the kinks out of your touring setup. I would try to look for some weekend days where you can fully load your bike and get out for a few hours here and there loaded. Break a bolt or a pannier connector or learn your headlight battery doesn't recharge properly at home. That may not be practical in the winter but to whatever degree you can, get your equipment field tested before you go. You don't want to realize your headset is loose on tour and you're not sure how to adjust it. I'm facing the same issues as I try to plan a tour with a new bike in the middle of winter. I won't be able to fully load and test my bike on our locally icy roads so I'm going to give myself four or five days of some local riding at my destination before I actually head out. I once went on a tour with my wife during the summer in the lower 48 and she heard me cursing as we began to setup camp the first night. Turns out that in spite of our checklist of necessary gear, which we went over and over, we had not brought a flashlight. Who the duck uses a flashlight in summer?? It doesn't get dark ! oh...but in the deep south (Washington state) it DOES get dark at night. We spent hours sitting around in pitch black before we could get to sleep. Woke up, broke tent and ... had to wait for light.

Conditioning is important. The other thing that can make a tour challenging is saddle sores. I've been prone to those, but discovered over the years that the key (for me) is to spend consecutive days in the saddle training. This doesn't necessarily going more than 10 miles, but doing it every day is important.

I will start out with a disclaimer I hate riding on a trainer but if you have to the Spinnervals racing videos are awesome. 45 to 60 minutes of killer workout that really build leg strength, aerobic capacity and technique.

Well it looks like (as usual) our opinions are split and we all have our personal preferences. I personally do not have a lot of 'training' time so I just keep doing ny normal riding of 1 - 2 rides a week of 10 - 20 miles each. That keeps my skin tough enough to not have a chafing problem and ensures I have a bit if a physical base. When I start to tour I just plan 2 0r 3 ramp up days, 40 the first day or two then 50-60 miles, then whatever after that. I considered riding 40 nile training days with a load, but then realized why do that and wind up back at home when I can wind up 40 miles away from home on my way to wherever.

For comparison, I am in my early 50s, in generally good physical shape (but not exceptional), and I have been doing an annual summer tour for the past 8 or 9 years. I tour with friends at a 14 - 15 MPH pace in moderately hilly areas, self supported and really do not care about my pace as I an out to enjoy the ride regardless. If I am in poorer shape I drop the pace a MPH or two for the first few days. Longer days for me (loaded) are probably 60 miles.

By ramping up on the tour at a comfortable pace every day I still am completely enjoying every day of the tour and manage to do it without a rigorous training schedule.

If you want to start out riding 100 mile days at a 19 MPH pace in hilly Pennsylvania,you may need to train first, but that takes the fun out of it for me at least.

Figures...got a flat on my DD run. Did not bring a spare tube so had the nice 4mile walk back.

Tires have a few hundred miles and a VERY tiny piece of glass penetrated the tire. Time to research and upgrade tires from the standard LHT tires.

Lesson 1: bring a patch kit, a tube and a pump.

Lesson 2: look at the various screws and bolts around your bike and bring the appropriate hex keys and screw drivers to tighten them up.

Next touring lesson: Why do flats occur when it rains.

agreed! I have not patched a tube since I was 13 but will be patching and replacing one tomorrow.

I am guessing that the rain washes all of the objects in the road to the sides of the road where we ride.

I've always found the best training for touring is to commute daily whatever the weather. If I were closer to work I'd ride clear through the winter again this year. I found that exercise outside of actual riding was borderline useless. If you have to pedal indoors. I just have a hard time riding for the sake of training. I have to be going somewhere.

I'm with those that find commuting to be good training. I don't have a car. Commute 40 miles round trip. I don't train to tour. I don't even do one loaded ride first. I just live my normal commuting lifestyle. I just took a three week tour. The first day out I rode 75 miles. My load is probably five times my touring load. The first day was "ok". The 2nd day was harder but not bad. The 3rd day was about the same. The 4th day I felt really good. After that it all started fading into the background. I was not spending so much time thinking about the ride and how I'm doing. That was all more and more incidental and just an unconscious side effect of exploring the world.

I also identify with a comment I saw here about day 14! After that I was really on auto-pilot. Never thinking for a minute that I might run out of energy or something. I also learned to keep moving more. Sure, I took breaks when I wanted to. But slowing down, coasting some, scooting around in the seat, doing lazy figure 8s in a parking lot for a minute are about as much rest as stopping but don't kill your daily mileage nearly like out rite stopping and doing 0 mph.

I partially agree with what you say. I find it much easier to make the miles while on a trip. There is no excuse "Oh well, I'm home". When home isn't in a fixed location getting in the miles each day is much, much easier. I can ride consistent high miles away from home much easier than I can around home. If I can't find routes around where I live that gives me the miles than I can come up with too many excuses to stop once I get home and not do any extra riding for the day.

The simple problem is the training does help make the travelling much easier. The key secret to keeping the training going to make a challenge for yourself. Set a crazy, unthinkable goal and shoot for it. I ran into a simple problem last month of giving up on my plans to be heading south for a winter long bike trip down south this winter. I knew I had to get everything ready to spend the winter up here in New Hampshire. I don't have a car so I knew I needed to get the house ready, food and miscellaneous items that I needed to buy. As a result I started making numerous trips to the grocery store and other places to get ready for winter. By the time I had all the catch work done I was pretty much riding 60+ miles a day. I had started nice long stretch of at 40 miles a day and decided to see how long I could carry it on. My summer had been such trash for biking this year...compared to last year, that I felt like a horrible slouch. I even had a nice stretch of back to back 100+km days going. I decided to keep up the stretch. Today makes my 30th consecutive day I've ridden at least 62.3 miles. Stumble into crazy challenge and let them take you over and that will help to keep the monotony of training from taking over.

I use a heart rate monitor when I ride and when I am indoors on a exercise bike at the gym or on a trainer at home.

Outdoors on a bike, I find it easy to maintain a high enough heart rate that I am getting a good workout, that is harder to accomplish indoors. But, using a heart rate monitor I can tell if my effort level indoors is too low so I increase it to where it would be if I was outdoors.

Indoors, a tv or something else mindless helps. Sometimes I read a novel or read the news on a tablet, but I find it hard to concentrate when my heart rate is up so I do not try to read anything that requires too much thought. My gym broadcasts tv audio on fm, I use a radio headset there. At home I have my DVR audio output plugged into one of those little transmitters designed for you to broadcast from your ipod into your car radio so I can also use a radio headset at home on my trainer.

Indoors in the winter, I usually am pedaling for 75 minutes each time, three times a week. Any less and I am not getting much work done, I find that 75 minutes is the minimum I need for a good workout. I am not sure what the physiological aspects are but I think I need to exhaust my muscle stored glucose or something like that for it to be effective for endurance training.

And about once every two weeks, instead of biking, spend time on the stairmaster, also at the heart rate I would have if I was biking. That way I am better prepared for hill climbing.

I ride on an indoor trainer during the winter months. It's so boring that I can't do more than an hour. I am not trying to get into touring shape but keep my butt in riding shape. I find that I have no saddle sore problems in the spring when I start the real training.