First 300k?

Commuting, Day rides, Audax, Incidents, etc.
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Audax67
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Re: First 300k?

Post by Audax67 »

The day before a long ride I usually eat toast and a boiled egg in the morning, then pasta either at lunch or in the evening. Nothing that's too heavy to digest but will give me a good reserve of energy. On the day itself a solid breakfast, e.g. bread, a little cheese, ham, jam, tea or coffee. During the ride I usually try to stop every 50k for a coffee and take a proper meal at lunch- & dinner-times rather than a quick snack at the roadside.

The ACP allots 20 hours for a 300 and I suppose AUK complies, so if you pace yourself at 20 kph you'll have five hours over to spend on halts (but see below under "cushion") - pretty ample. On our UAF Audaxes the time limit is 17 hours, and we usually spend an hour and a half of that on lunch.

On ACP rides there's usually a pack of strong guys who pile away from the start like the hammers of hell. It's great fun going with them but the fun stops when after 60k at full belt you hit the first hill and find you've left your legs in the plain. The rest of the ride then becomes very uncomfortable. The key to going far is to work out a realistic pace for each section and stick to it - and keep a cushion of maybe an hour in case of difficulties.

FWIW in 2011 I did a 300 through the Vosges mountains after 3 years of treatment for a coronary problem. After ~100k I developed a cartilage problem in one ankle and fairly limped round the circuit. I still finished a couple of hours before time was up.

Sorry if I've been preaching: here endeth the lesson.
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Tonyf33
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Re: First 300k?

Post by Tonyf33 »

When I was 21 in the summer of '90 I bought a new Raleigh Record Sprint 2 weeks before going on a 10 day/700 mile lightweight tour around Northern France, I'd not ridden a bike since leaving college 2 years previous. It was bang in the middle of Le Tour..bloomin hot 90F+ every day, spent more dosh on fluids than food..it was an amazing adventure having not booked anywhere to stay :D ..I just wish that healthy, unbroken body was still around :(

However, I'm kind of thinking of doing a 152 miler this June from Letchworth to my home city of Hull(okay, I've been saying this the last 2 years..lol)
I've already figured out the route & how many daylight hours I've got (though would have lights anyways)..at the moment I do 30-40 miles a week but the only problem I have is my right wrist as it's shot..
I have bags of determination as a solo rider and I can ride into the red if need be and beyond but luckily only 3500ft ascent so pretty flat until a 12% incline with about 20 miles to go.

I won't decide to go until maybe a week before but personally I think if you can cycle 62 miles then 186 is achievable with not a huge amount of training (certainly less than 3 months focused) thinking about your intake, going at a steady pace and knowing when to take breaks, mentally breaking up the distance into smaller chunks & a bit of guts go a long long way IMO.
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Audax67
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Re: First 300k?

Post by Audax67 »

I tend to think of it as turning yourself into a calorie-burning engine: food goes in one end and the legs turn at the other. Achieving that state does take a certain amount of training, but after that it's all in the mind, plus the backside and a few linkages. And the missus's forbearance, of course...
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NATURAL ANKLING
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Re: First 300k?

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
300km = 186mi 723.99yd, 1 Mile = 1.609344 Kilometers.

I would'nt under estimate doing 300 K in daylight hours, add the wind, hunger, lack of food at the correct time and even not drinking enough and it will be hard but not unacheivable for most.

Two years ago I did (380K) 236.5 M in 22 hrs at 13.9 mph in the saddle, 10.75 mph overall so 5 hrs rest. Timed it wrong as when the sun came up ( 12 hrs in) I had already been awake for 20 hrs with no sleep!
And (476 K) 296 M in 32 hrs at 13.5 mph in the saddle, 9.25 mph overall so 10 hrs rest, struggled with no sleep after 18.5 hrs (235 Miles) awake, unsurported carrying all food from start and drawing all water from a river. If you dont rest early enough then you will find it impossible to ride later as I did. All my rest was done on a plastic bag on the grass verge, but too late, I just tried to keep cycling, over ten hours in the saddle in just 11.5 hrs (155 Miles) total time :? Riding faster means being fitter.
If you bank on 10 mph overall (UK soil) then you are on the verge of human limit of staying awake, resting to ward this off or like I should of done means you need to be fitter and faster, riding in a group etc is easier for sure, just the metal comarady will spur you on and time will fly.

At present I am doing 2 -3 x 1 hr turbo rides at 20 mph 2% gradient and road / off road 2 x 40 miles at 14 mph with a 23 kilo bike a week.

Arange food in small packs to pack in your jersey etc so you can eat on bike, not eating something every hour is foolish.
Be preparred to rest lying down with eyes closed for 20 to 30 minutes after 12 hrs, dont waste time when off bike do it double quick.
If you dont close your eyes when resting early enough you will not stay awake near end, unless you are super fit and can fit it in in daylight, take a torch / lights etc.
I dont do stimulants............
Like Audax67 says you are "a calorie-burning engine" that needs lots of fuel.
NA Thinks Just End 2 End Return + Bivvy - Some day Soon I hope
You'll Still Find Me At The Top Of A Hill
Please forgive the poor Grammar I blame it on my mobile and phat thinkers.
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Audax67
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Re: First 300k?

Post by Audax67 »

In 2007 I did a nightmare 600k. Well, the first 300 were sort-of OK, but then one of chum's knees started playing silly buggers and we did the next 100 in 9 hours instead of the 5 on the road and 4 in a hotel that I had calculated. We did the entire night that way, and at 6am next morning rode into featureless fog that was utterly soporific. Eventually we stopped but could find nowhere to stretch out - everything was wet with dew. We sat down on a log and snoozed maybe half an hour with our heads cradled on our arms, but every time we dropped off we went sideways and woke up again. His knee got steadily worse over the next few hours, until he decided to drop out, leaving me to hare away on the last 150, up & over the top of the Jura Plateau. A few hours later on the fast, curvy downhill back to the valley I started talking with all these nice folk in evening dress all round me, then woke up and shied away from the concrete blocks in the middle of the road that were really the dotted white line standing up in 3D because I was seeing double. Once down in the valley I got 15 minutes kip on a picnic-area bench. Half an hour later I went through the 600k mark, still 40k from home because the organizer had drawn up the circuit in the Good Old Days with a Michelin map and a ruler. About 20k from the finish a storm broke, and I was so befuddled that I stood 5 metres from shelter to unpack and don my rain jacket, so that I was dripping by the time I zipped it up. I finished with half an hour to spare.

Hairy. But fun.
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NATURAL ANKLING
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Re: First 300k?

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
Once sleep deprevation has set in its like nodding off in your car, hairy and dangerous.

1ST time for me was dificulty in keeping in a single lane (2.5 mts wide) so got off and walked as I was on a duel carridge way :(
2ND time was not being able to cycle on a line two feet wide, by then its too late to recover through closed eye rest.
3RD time simmilar to 2ND and blanking of the mind to find that you are not where you were a nano second before :shock:

Its all too late, and the only solution is to rest up, but even 30 minutes rest may just give one hours ride duration.

As I have also experience this riding home from a National orienteering event on Dartmoor on my motorcycle, ending up six inches from the fence on the right of road :o There is not going to be a next time, progress is so slow at that point that sleeping for a few hours would render better milage.
The body says yes but the mind says no........................
Closing eyes has to be a Power Nap not full sleep.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_nap
I did fall asleep on a wooden bench at night but was awake in 1 & 1/2 hrs due to my teeth chattering :lol: When I do get home its four hours then I just wake up.
NA Thinks Just End 2 End Return + Bivvy - Some day Soon I hope
You'll Still Find Me At The Top Of A Hill
Please forgive the poor Grammar I blame it on my mobile and phat thinkers.
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Trigger
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Re: First 300k?

Post by Trigger »

One thing I must do is train myself to back off a bit, when I'm feeling good I ride far too fast too early and suffer for it on the the way back.

I'm a bit more positive about it since my 85 mile trip on Monday and I think that was the spur on I needed, I thought that sort of distance (even fairly flat-ish) was way beyond my current level of fitness so to do it and complete it in a reasonable amount of time was encouraging.
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Mick F
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Re: First 300k?

Post by Mick F »

Trigger wrote:One thing I must do is train myself to back off a bit .......

Me too.

I tend to go at riding like a bull at a gate, and I'm off Up North next week and will cover 850 miles in two weeks. I need to relax and take my time, but I'm not good at this. It's taken me some concentration to slow down and take it easy.

Hopefully off for a long training ride tomorrow with the trailer in tow with some weight in it. I usually use concrete block to slow me down!
Mick F. Cornwall
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Trigger
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Re: First 300k?

Post by Trigger »

Mick F wrote:
Trigger wrote:I'm off Up North next week and will cover 850 miles in two weeks.


Really? You've kept that quiet :wink:
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Mick F
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Re: First 300k?

Post by Mick F »

Join me? :D

Here to Bridgwater on Sat 10th May, then Ledbury, and Ruabon, and then Manchester for a couple of days.
Mick F. Cornwall
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Audax67
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Re: First 300k?

Post by Audax67 »

The first 400 I did was with a squad that went like the hammers. When I got into the car afterwards and drove off, both my legs cramped up solid at the first traffic lights. Two weeks later I did the UAF version of PBP: the first stage was 435k and I was dreading it, but they held to an average of 22.5 kph over every 50 km leg, and when we reached the end I rode into St. Brieuc as supple as when we left Paris.
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