50 miles - 22nd June - help

[Eagone]

Hi
Just got back into cycling hoping to shed the 5 stone Ive put on since I stopped before.
As a way of an incentive I've entered the Nottingham Cycle live in June 50 miles.
Been back on my bike for 3 or 4 weeks, and averaging 20 miles a ride, twice a week.

Any advice on how to get up to 50 miles?

 

[Supersuperleeds]

Slowly build it up. Something along the lines of:

January rides - take both rides to 25 miles
February - take them to 35 miles
March - 40
April 45
May 50

Check the elevation out on the Nottingham ride and make sure your rides are doing similar.

The more you ride, the more weight you will shift, the easier the rides will become

 

[Dusty Bin]

Any advice on how to get up to 50 miles?

Don't waste your time building up to it. If you can ride 20 now you can ride 50 now. Maybe not at the same pace. Plan a circular route which never puts you too far from home, ride at around 10/15% less effort than you do on your 20 milers and just do it.

 

[50000tears]

Don't waste your time building up to it. If you can ride 20 now you can ride 50 now. Maybe not at the same pace. Plan a circular route which never puts you too far from home, ride at around 10/15% less effort than you do on your 20 milers and just do it.

Agreed. Whilst building up slowly is often the way to go for longer distances a 50 miler is not as big a number as it sounds. Get the distance under your belt early then you can just work at fitness to make it both easier and quicker.

 

[fossyant]

Just keep riding. Do it as often as you can. Slowly build the bigger distances up, but, most importantly, is to be cycling as regular as possible, which means riding in the week also. If you can, commute by bike, or get out for 30 minutes. Little and often.

 

[ColinJ]

If you are doing 20 miles now in the wet and windy winter, after just a few weeks of riding, you are doing well. Just keep on doing what you are doing and enjoy your rides. By the summer, 50 miles should not be a problem!

Two things to watch out for though:

1. 50 miles is far enough to deplete your energy reserves so make sure that you eat and drink plenty
2. 50 miles is also far enough to hurt if you are not comfortable on your bike so tackle any niggling aches and pains before they become more serious. Often a slight adjustment to the saddle, cleats or bars is all that is needed

 

[BSRU]

If you know the route go and ride it.

 

[young Ed]

If you are doing 20 miles now in the wet and windy winter, after just a few weeks of riding, you are doing well. Just keep on doing what you are doing and enjoy your rides. By the summer, 50 miles should not be a problem!

Two things to watch out for though:

1. 50 miles is far enough to deplete your energy reserves so make sure that you eat and drink plenty
2. 50 miles is also far enough to hurt if you are not comfortable on your bike so tackle any niggling aches and pains before they become more serious. Often a slight adjustment to the saddle, cleats or bars is all that is needed

agreed i back his up
make sure you eat and drink plenty but nothing really big all at once i.e don't have a huge roast dinner to fill you up then go ride it! have snack bars and fruit and for drink i will link you through to a good tread in a minute but i reccommend putting a bit of salt in with ribena to help prevent cramps or stitches i always forget which one it is!

try a 30ish mile ride soon then 40ish then go for the full 50
Good luck
Cheers Ed

 

[young Ed]

worth a gander
http://www.cyclechat.net/threads/best-water-bottle-mix.146214/
Cheers Ed

 

[Cyclist33]

Don't waste your time building up to it. If you can ride 20 now you can ride 50 now. Maybe not at the same pace. Plan a circular route which never puts you too far from home, ride at around 10/15% less effort than you do on your 20 milers and just do it.

Sort of half agree. No harm in building up distance in advance of June but to be honest if you're regularly doing 20s now in the winter then a 50 in the summer will be straightforward enough, just take a bit more food on before you go and in your pocket

 

[DiddlyDodds]

Don't waste your time building up to it. If you can ride 20 now you can ride 50 now. Maybe not at the same pace. Plan a circular route which never puts you too far from home, ride at around 10/15% less effort than you do on your 20 milers and just do it.

We did a circuit of 7 miles a cpl of times a week in preparation of doing the Manchester to Blackpool ride (60miles), and had no problem doing it, it was just a lot slower than the year later when we were a lot fitter and better bike.
So as Dusty bin says , if you can do 20 miles you will easy do 50 on the day.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Only you can answer how you feel after 20 miles and those stating if you can do 20 miles now you can do 50 miles may well be much more fit and healthy than you are. And it all depends on your health - if you are fit and healthy, then you should be fine by summer. If you are not, you probably need to work on it carefully. I know I do if I am considering a 50 mile bike ride and I ride most days of the week and have a long commute a couple of times a week (2 * 21 miles with decent rest in between). Yet for a 50 miler, I would still want to know I could manage 40 miles without any major breaks in the run up beforehand. It comes down to confidence.

Just keep at it and keep trying and as stated above - make sure you can getting the same level of climbing in. A 50 miler on the flat will be much easier than 50 hilly miles and just because you can manage the former does not mean you can manage the latter.

 

[justkeeppedaling]

all good advice above Eagone
June is quite a way off in training terms, and I would expect you to see great improvements when the weather picks up. I would suggest carry on as you are untill end Feb, early March and then start putting some miles in. Maybe even enter a mini sportive 30 miler to get your confidence up.
Riding in a large group is so much easier and the first twenty will fly by if you can get into a pack. Good Luck

 

[Bryony]

hello and good luck with your ride

 

[OldCanal]

Just keep riding. Do it as often as you can. Slowly build the bigger distances up, but, most importantly, is to be cycling as regular as possible, which means riding in the week also. If you can, commute by bike, or get out for 30 minutes. Little and often.

A lot of sound advice here from everyone already. If you are doing 2 x 20 miles now, that's probably c. 3 hrs or so per week, which is a good base to build on. If you can get out for just one more ride of say 10-15 miles (about 1 hr) in decent weather, you're doing 25-35% more and that will make a big difference to fitness and achieve it that much quicker. The circuit of say 7-8 miles is a good idea. If weather permits and you feel ok, why not go out and just keep going for as many circuits as you can without completely blowing up. You'll probably do 4-5 circuits without too much difficulty right now if you pick a good day and that will give you a target for the following week. If you build in a 'time/distance' element that will be something else to aim at in subsequent rides. If the circuit is no more than 1-2 miles from home at any point you've also got the comfort of knowing that you don't have a hard slog to get back. This in itself will give you an incentive to build up distance from week to week and give you more confidence to push your other weekly rides out beyond 20 miles as the weeks go by. Try to mix it up with different routes as well and don't avoid the hills too much as steady uphills will improve your aerobic capacity enormously. The trick is to make it interesting (and a little challenging) for yourself and set some little targets. There's nothing like achieving a pb, at any level. You'll be doing 50 miles before June, no problem.