On Fri, 11 Jun 2004 13:22:38 -0400, David Kerber
wrote:

In article ,
says...

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:

How long is "long" (mile-wise, that is)?

I'm not too worried about the mileage, although I would hope that after 8
hours of well-spaced riding that it would be around 100 miles.

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'd probably put the first rest stop well before the 3 hour point, and
space them more evenly. Maybe 1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5, or 2-2-2-2. Also,
30 minutes might be too long of a break; it might give your muscles too
long, so that you would need a long warm up again when you start back up
YMMV a lot on this, and will probably depend on the weather (temperature
particularly). More frequent, shorter breaks work well for many people,
such as 5 to 10 minutes every hour.

Oh, I forgot to mention that. I find that a 2 min rest every 10-15 miles
helps a lot, and I plan to incorporate that in addition to the other rest
stops.

I like the idea of the first segment being around 3-4 hours, b/c I have
that much motivation, initially. Then knowing I'm 1/3 to 1/2 way there
helps with the last part. But I like your plan of 2 hours and a 10 min
break after that. As I said, I'm anticipating that the major hurdle will be
80-90% mental. ;-)

-B

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

TIA,