Badger_South wrote:


I'm toying with the idea of doing a long ride this fall, after a summer of
400 mile/months, and I'm interested in some ideas as to pacing. Here's
something I've been thinking about:

Ride for three hours, then 30 min rest (and take a shower?), eat, then
ride for 2 hours, repeat rest, then ride for an hour, repeat rest, then
ride final 2 hours. Does that seem like a good scheme? 3-2-1-2?

People who do touring and stuff ride about 8 hours a day for like 2 weeks.
'Course they're sightseeing so it's more fun. It would probably require a
"support crew" to bring food and change of clothes and stuff. If you were
gonna do it how would you break it up?

I'm thinking the mental aspect would be the most difficult. Gonna try and
get the family interested in it to help with that.

I'm sure some here would say 'just ride for the 8 hours, what's the big
deal', but that would be OK for those who have ridden a lot (like frequent
3-4 hour rides), but my longest ride has been 3.5 hours, and only did that
once. I'm hoping to get some posts on others who have done something like
this, and their experiences vs the initial expectations.

I plan to start the ride early in the AM, like 5-ish, or first light.
o 5:30-8:30
o 9:00-11:00
o 12:-1
o 2-4pm

It's now 15 days before I will do my longest ride so far this year. It's a
16-18 hour long ride (540 km). I will be riding with a group and we plann
3-4 stops during the ride. Each stop will be about 5 minutes - enough time
to fill up bottles and the jersey pockets with food. Eating will be done on
the bike.

We start early in the morning. The worst part is when it gets dark. Some
people can get very sleepy during the dark period of the night (we live far
north, so it will not be completly dark), and it can cause some dangerous
situation if riders get too sleepy.

The amount of training before such a long ride, is very important. Long
training tours is a must. So far I have 3 rides over 100 km (3 1/2 hour or
more each tour). I hope to get at least one more 100+ km ride before I do
the looooong tour...

Good luck on your 8-hour ride.

--
Jørn Dahl-Stamnes