serra

Holy frak my legs/arms hurt! Last night I figured I could do a metric century, it would only be 30 km more than I can already do with ease. I sorta forgot about how murderous the hills were over those 20 km (out and back). A bit more than 400 meters of climbing, substantially more than I'm used to, around 80 meters. Then there was the heat exhaustion. I think I pushed myself too hard on the hills, I couldn't finish the last 2 km, GIANT hill psyched me out. I just drank water, a LOT of water, a bananna, 2 bagels, a pack of gu, and some sort of trailmix bar. I'm guessing I should just start out a bit more incrementally, any insight would be much appreciated.

tallmantim

Yep - plan out routes slightly harder than you've done before, but doing what is a much harder set of hills + a longer distance will see you have trouble.

Perhaps try the same hill again next time with a shorter ride, or do a longer ride without the hills.

You need to work up to it.

serra

Hm, figured. Well 88 km is a nice number too. I think I'll do 80 on flats next weekend, and see how that goes. I'm thinking I could do 100 without the hills, but after today, I don't want to chance it. Lesson learned.

late

Take along some pretzels. You might need something salty (or a drink with electrolytes or Endurolytes)

Carbonfiberboy 

You made it back to the car though, didn't you? Anyone say it's easy? No, it's not easy for any of us. Painful legs are good. Next time they won't hurt so badly, but they'll still hurt because you'll be able to push harder. 63 miles on the tandem today, about 3500' of climbing, Stoker's first season of serious biking. Last week's pass climb was good prep for what would have been a very hard ride for her 2 weeks ago. So keep at it. She's grinning now.

It's kind of weird, thinking that self-torture is good. Maybe it's the endorphins. Whatever it is, that's the mindset to develop.

lucille

My racing friend always told me to finish a hard ride by spinning fast in the lowest gear for 10 minutes or so, to flush out lactic acid. Give it a try, seems to work for me.
But you also need to work up to a certain distance gradually. This spring we were riding 60-70 kms, then went out of town and somehow ended up doing 97 kms with some hills... I couldn't move the next day, even though I have done 100 kms the year before.

serra

Home, well, the University, but yeah, if only just. I know it's not easy, but I actually had to get off and take shelter in the shade of my bike for ~20 minutes, almost passed out. My fault for biting off more than I could chew. That's quite a bit of climbing! The most I've done is 1500 feet. Good luck to her
I try to keep that mindset, realizing that the more it hurts, the better I'll become. That last hill was too much for my mental state though Maybe in a month or so I'll try again.

Ha after getting up this morning I realized that's what I completely forgot to bring! I usually bring a small bag of pretzels with me, but I forgot to. The saltiest thing I had was the trail mix bar, but I really needed more than that.

Well, let the training intensify!!

Thanks everyone