Planning to do a super long all-day ride this summer as a personal goal. Plan is to go solo and just bang out as much mileage as I can manage in one day (sunrise to sunset).
Not an organised event; so will be picking the route and deliberately planning a flatter course on roads that best suit me
Aiming to do a series of out and back āspokesā from my home, each around 100k, so I can refuel etc. as effectively as possible.
Plan is to do a minimum of 300k and aim for 400k for the day. Speed is irrelevant as a goal but clearly Iāll need to hit at least a reasonable pace to achieve the latter, even if I have all day.
Longest ride Iāve done to date is 217k but it was quite hilly (3500m of elevation gain). I fuelled that effort on a plan of 100g of carbs and hour and this worked well for me, starting with more solid options and transitioning to gels towards the end, supplemented with dissolved carb drink throughout. Average speed ended up around 17mph.
Training wise - my plan is to continue with a TR plan (masters or polarised) that limits intensity efforts to 2 a week and supplement with ever increasing distance a week outdoor rides, to build up to the day. I applied this approach last year to my A event and it worked well for me.
My questions for those who have done VERY long days in the saddle are:
- what nutrition lessons are transferable for me in terms of fuelling such an all-day effort?
- What approach is optimal for breaks / stopping
- From a riding fatigue (arms / shoulders / back / saddle sores etc). is there anything specific that I can do / need to be aware of that wouldnāt apply to a āregularā ride but needs considering for such a longer day?
- anything unexpected / not obvious that I need to think about that wouldnāt be immediately apparent
- Training wise - anything fundamental I should consider doing differently to what Iāve set out above?
Thanks in advance