Long Distance Cycling

[dan_the_man]

Hey team

A few mate and I are going to do the The Great West Australian Bike Ride next year.

Haven't ever done any long distance riding like this before so I'm really keen to do it.

Anyone here been on a similar ride/adventure?

Some tips would be great

http://www.bwa.org.au/events/111/ (There is no new site for 2012 yet)

A previous riders blog can be found here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/developingfordynamicsgp/archive/2011/03/19/the-great-west-australian-bike-ride-introduction.aspx

[Trozzle]

Dude next to me at work has done "Around the bay in a day" and some 160km Mt Bulla beast of a ride among other things.....though the furthest I've ridden would be like 25km in a day lol

[dan_the_man]

yeah my daily commute is 20km round trip. 100km a day is going to kill me

[R31Nismoid]

Dude next to me at work has done "Around the bay in a day" and some 160km Mt Bulla beast of a ride among other things.....though the furthest I've ridden would be like 25km in a day lol

Ye thats a Vic thing. Its funny as our work has a "team". You never see the "team" come in for 2 days after it LOL.

They are all busted up to the shizen as they ride 10-15km and think they can bust 150+

Cracks me up every year and they are still broken for a good 2-3 days after getting back to work

Events like Le tour have always attracted my attention. Such a tough tough test of mental and physical. I think its more about the mental for long distance stuff.

[xALmoN]

Train, always train. Cadence training, you need to be able to spin and keep a constant speed for sometime, it takes at least a month or two to actually prepare for this.

Padded cycling shorts, yes, they look gay, but if you are gonna ride more than 60km, you'll need it, unless you have those massive lady saddles, then you'll end up chaffing your thighs.

Just train, ensure you can ride 50+km one day, then get up and ride again the next. I used to cycle thursdays, fridays, sat and sundays. I'd join this if i had a bicycle next year. I have a frame, fork, stem and handlebar, and front brake, cranks and a 9 speed shifter.

[dan_the_man]

Train, always train. Cadence training, you need to be able to spin and keep a constant speed for sometime, it takes at least a month or two to actually prepare for this.

Padded cycling shorts, yes, they look gay, but if you are gonna ride more than 60km, you'll need it, unless you have those massive lady saddles, then you'll end up chaffing your thighs.

Just train, ensure you can ride 50+km one day, then get up and ride again the next. I used to cycle thursdays, fridays, sat and sundays. I'd join this if i had a bicycle next year. I have a frame, fork, stem and handlebar, and front brake, cranks and a 9 speed shifter.

I will have to start doing longer rides on the weekends. Or perhaps change my commute home to take detour with a longer distance.

Have the cycling pants already. they look ridiculous but they are so much easier to ride with.

[xALmoN]

I used to have them under what look like berms, its a whole set, something like mountainbiking pants. they work for roadbikes too, they dont look as ghey.

[dan_the_man]

Yep got them too. Found the straight up cycling pants to be less restrictive. Uncool but less restrictive.

[25GTT]

Funny, i was just looking at the BWA website the other day as they had the bridge cycle to the island, Looked amazing! they seem to have a few smaller long distance events dan that might be worth a go at, we could even invite Eps as well as he is always wanting to go for a ride.

I did the 30km freeway bike hike this year on my mtb no worries at all and definately heading to the 60km bike hike next year, would love to do something between then though.

[Yts]

the hardest part about trying to train like an event like this is the time constraints of trying to get a 60km ride in usually 2 hours ish depending on hills and gradient ect...

if your riding every day 20 or so km thats a really good start, but its a huge difference as some have said about backing it up the next day, start easy then work your way up.

remember on your longer rides it is not about speed, like said it is about Cadence training, you need to be able to spin and keep a constant speed for sometime, it takes at least a month or two to actually prepare for this.

on your shorter rides, substitute your cadence training for sprint rides were you go as hard as you can for the small below 20km rides, this will improve your overall riding as well as your stamina and longer rides while there is no substitue for actually doing it, this is your next best thing.

good luck

[Gus-]

most ive done in a day was about 80km's. with about 15 km's worth of climbing (which meant 15km's downhill )

[xALmoN]

Well, do the distance first, before doing the distance in a shorter time. Makes for a more progressive training.

[mad082]

as people have said, just start racking up the kms. 40kms seems to be the magic distance to start improving your fitness. shorter rides will pick up your fitness but rides of 40kms or more will really make a difference, and then build up to regular rides of 60kms. or slightly shorter rides with decent amount of climbing will be a good way to do it. a good way to keep track of this is either with a fancy cycle computer, such as one of the garmin edge range, or if you have an iphone or a phone running android you can get an app called runkeeper (there are others too). runkeeper is good as it logs your ride on google maps, and shows your elevation change (not 100% accurate, but close enough). it shows the stats as well as a graph like this one (from one of my rides a few weeks back)

rides of about 40kms or more are good not only because of the amount of energy that you need, but because they get your legs used to pedalling for longer periods of time. 100kms on dead flat ground will actually hurt more than 40kms through the hills. as it is i find that i get the occasional cramp in my legs after 35kms or so (depending on what route i take), but i'm still getting used to the longer rides and they only last for a short amount of time. my rides are also somewhat hilly compared to some others rides. my 40kms rides generally have between 450 and 600m of elevation gain, while some of the group rides that the guys are work go on will be between 55 and 65kms with about 450m of elevation gain, yet one ride they do is 100kms and it only has 450m of elevation gain, so it is a somewhat flat ride. that said, the guys at work also did the noosa century ride. they did the 100 miles (there was also a shorter 100kms). it had something like 1400m of elevation gain and they averaged about 33km/h. they finished in the top 70, out of about 500 riders and were only about 20 mins behind the front group. they were both back at work the next day, lol. they do 50 to 60kms pretty much everday before work, and it's generally pretty fast paced. i don't think i'm fast enough yet to keep up with the bunch, but i'm working towards it. hope to go with them in the next few weeks on one of the easier rides. going with a bunch that is similar speed to you, or preferably a bit faster so you have to work a bit harder, is the best way to get more kms done without getting bored. at the moment i'm going by myself and i find it a bit boring, but it isn't so bad because there are quite a few hills on my regular ride so i spend a fair bit of time focusing on pacing myself. on the flats though it would be nice to have someone to talk to as well as to share the pacemaking so i get a bit of a break, especially since i've had a head wind on the return trip, so instead of sitting on around 40km/h on the flat i've been knocked down to about 30km/h.

hill repeats are a good way to build up your fitness as well. you want to find a hill that is long and steady. i use a hill that is about 3kms long and gains about 100m in elevation. this takes a bit under 10 minutes to climb at a steady, repeatable pace. another hill i use is about 2.5kms long and gains about the same altitude (can be seen on the graph, starts just before the 5km mark, has a quick climb before a short drop before the main climb). you could use shorter, steeper hills, but you won't want them too short. need to be at least a few hundred metres long. then you simply ride up them in the hardest gear you can manage, roll back down and repeat. the longer hills have the advantage that you have a little bit longer to recover when rolling back down. if they are too long, or too steep then you won't want to ride them more than once or twice at a time and you lose motivation. the good thing about the hills i use is that 1 is about 5kms from home and the other about 4kms from work, and both rides to get there are relatively flat so the legs have time to warm up.

something to keep in mind is that you need to eat on longer rides (of about 2 hours or more), as well as eat before hand (not immediately before, but a little bit before hand, or if going first thing in the morning a quick snack before you go). some gym goers won't eat before a workout. this doesn't work with cycling since it is over such a long period of time. you need to have energy in reserve before you go. a short ride of about 30 to 40 mins you can get away with not eating, but any longer and you need to. i also use a sports cordial when out on the road. i find it better than water. there are plenty of products out there that you can use. the guys are work use a BSC product and swear by it. we only started selling the stuff at work about a month after i started there and before that the other guys weren't using anything (just water) and they found the BSC stuff to make a difference in the recovery after the ride. they also BSC protein powder within 20 mins after a ride and find that this dramatically reduces soreness in the legs. i've started using it too and can say that it does help. you could use other brand stuff as well. you just have to make sure it has magnesium in it (i think magnesium oxide is the best, but i could be mixed up). i also think that the protein is a lean protein rather than a bulk muscle gain one. when i get a chance i will link to the products so you can see what's in it and find similar products available near you.

also as people said, cycling knicks make a big difference, especially the better quality ones with asculpted, padded chamois. some have gel in them too. a tight fitting jersey helps a lot too as it cuts down wind resistance which is a major benefit if you happen to find yourself riding into a head wind. i don't care how silly people might think i look, the missus thinks i look hot in my kit with my shaved legs. she likes riding along behind me so she can check me out, lol. having the bike setup properly for you is advisable as well. seat position is one of the key factors.

[xALmoN]

I find that, with just water, i cramp up really quickly, but with sports drinks, it actually helps with the distance..

[grandmasterb]

I used to average 150k's + in a weekend (one or two day trips) when I was riding seriously with a close bunch of mates, now I average that in a week lol

The tour looks like fun, what are you doing for prep?

[dan_the_man]

mate I have no idea. we're total amatuers

[25GTT]

dan - out of interest how are you going with this?

I am now managing Craigie Leisure Centre and some of the staff are looking at doing the Busselton marathon. Couple are in a team, one doing the run, one doing the swim and they have asked me to do the 90km bike ride!!

Ok so the question is, will i still be competitive on a flat bar road bike? other than wind resistance is there a massive advantage of a road racer over a flat bar?

Looks like Eps may have a riding partner out of me yet if i am going to have to do some long distance rides. Might also need to lose a bit of weight, sitting at 9k kilos at the moment, not too much fat but still 90kilo would be a nice riding weight.

[dan_the_man]

Don't ask me mate. I have little clue what I'm doing. a leisurely ride to work isn't really helping me much

[mad082]

dan - out of interest how are you going with this?

I am now managing Craigie Leisure Centre and some of the staff are looking at doing the Busselton marathon. Couple are in a team, one doing the run, one doing the swim and they have asked me to do the 90km bike ride!!

Ok so the question is, will i still be competitive on a flat bar road bike? other than wind resistance is there a massive advantage of a road racer over a flat bar?

Looks like Eps may have a riding partner out of me yet if i am going to have to do some long distance rides. Might also need to lose a bit of weight, sitting at 9k kilos at the moment, not too much fat but still 90kilo would be a nice riding weight.

the best answer is: sort of. yes a flat bar doesn't have the aero of a drop bar road bike, but also they generally are a bit heavier, the gearing is more mtb spec (unless it's a higher end model running road bike gearing) so your top speed will be lower but cruising speed will be similar, and they generally run slightly wider tyres, which increase resistance and lower rolling speed. the quality of the wheels will generally be lower (again, depending on what quality bike you have) so the rolling speed of the bearings will also be lower.

there are a few things that you can do to help your cause though. first is to get the wheels serviced with a good quality grease and make sure they are adjusted perfectly. this will mean you are rolling as fast and easily as possible. second is to get a set of road bike tyres (700 x 23c) for your bike. they will fit on your rims. expect to pay atleast $60 each for decent ones (decent ones are lighter, will last longer and get less flats because of a higher density casing). next is to lower your handlebars. if you have a stem that only has a slight upwards angle then flip it upside down. this will lower your handlebar height by about an inch and make you a bit more aerodynamic. also if you have spacers under your stem that are only about 5mm thick then pull one out and put it above your stem, again lowering your bars. finally, make sure you have your seat set at it's optimum height. when the pedal is at its lowest point you want you leg to be almost straight.

that will have your bike as fast as it's going to be. then just get yourself some lycra. there is a reason why they wear it. first is that a decent pair of cycling knicks have both a chamois and some pading in them. cheap ones just have a chamois. the jerseys have pockets on the back as well as being tight fitting, making you as aerodynamic as possible. to put this into perspective, on flat gound in shorts and a jumper my top speed if i really push hard in a sprint i can hit just over 40kmh (depending on wind direction). on the other hand if i'm in my kit i can hit about 10km/h faster than that.

[25GTT]

Ahh ok,

I took your previous advice on this Marc in another thread you helped me with.

I got the Mavic Aksium wheels and some 28' Gatorskins.

Ok so what i could so is then maybe 4 weeks prior to the race get some nice 23's for it.

The bike is a GT Tachyon 3.0 2010. Its a mid range flat bar roadie with FSA bits but lower end shimano components.

Modded bits so far are:

-Mavik Aksium wheels

- GatorSkin Tyres

- FSA SLK carbon fibre seatpost

- Serfas egel saddle

I still notice though the riders on their proper roadies going past me easily, and i think is it me or the bike?

So yeah, would be nice to see what else i could get, or save up for a carbon flat bar roadie eheheh now that would be schweet! Makes me wonder of something like the Orbea Diem would be comparable to a proper road racer but with the flat bar?