Training for a long ride

Well I have 5 weeks to go before my big trip and I hoping that I am putting
in enough kms to be able to sit back and enjoy my little epic at the end of
April.
Do you think an average of 50kms a day over the next 5 weeks will set me up
for an enjoyable ride for a 1400kms ride over 17 days?
A live in the hills of the Atherton Tablelands and believe me I am doing
some awesome hillclimbs now and actually doing them with ease. How do
people work up for a long ride with panniers front and rear (rear will be
4kgs each and front will be 1.5kgs each hopefully!). So the panniers should
not weigh more than 11 or 12 kgs all up. We will be carrying water though -
Any suggestions on what preliminary training I should be doing?
Thanks Kathy

the middle aged still learning this cycling business wannabe :P

just us Wrote:
Well I have 5 weeks to go before my big trip and I hoping that I am
putting
in enough kms to be able to sit back and enjoy my little epic at the
end of
April.
Do you think an average of 50kms a day over the next 5 weeks will set
me up
for an enjoyable ride for a 1400kms ride over 17 days?
A live in the hills of the Atherton Tablelands and believe me I am
doing
some awesome hillclimbs now and actually doing them with ease. How
do
people work up for a long ride with panniers front and rear (rear will
be
4kgs each and front will be 1.5kgs each hopefully!). So the panniers
should
not weigh more than 11 or 12 kgs all up. We will be carrying water
though -
Any suggestions on what preliminary training I should be doing?
Thanks Kathy

the middle aged still learning this cycling business wannabe :P
you'll manage admirably, but to add to the training and make the extra
load not become an unwelcome nightmare,

- train with your panniers and full water load, and also (for fun)
- change a tube every day, just deflate one and remove it and put it
back and pump it up,
- take off a wheel and untrue one and true it again,

its more than riding the distance that makes it pleasant, its also
being able to deal with the rudimentary things that happen and keeping
them rudimentary rather than shattering...

if you are able to handle

- all the mechanicals, like
- replacing a bottom bracket,
- a chain ring,
- a cassette,
- a bent derailleur and
- a busted seat rail, etc,...

then nothing will surprise you and the trip will be better than you
ever imagined...

oh, and one day for training,

- don't ride the bike, push it...for 10 klms
and see how it feels, what you have to do to get through and how to deal
with the mental and physical demands that will make on you...

still want to do the ride?...of course you do! and you will never
forget it...they can be life changing.... !


--
rooman

just us Wrote:
Well I have 5 weeks to go before my big trip and I hoping that I am
putting
in enough kms to be able to sit back and enjoy my little epic at the
end of
April.
Do you think an average of 50kms a day over the next 5 weeks will set
me up
for an enjoyable ride for a 1400kms ride over 17 days?
A live in the hills of the Atherton Tablelands and believe me I am
doing
some awesome hillclimbs now and actually doing them with ease. How
do
people work up for a long ride with panniers front and rear (rear will
be
4kgs each and front will be 1.5kgs each hopefully!). So the panniers
should
not weigh more than 11 or 12 kgs all up. We will be carrying water
though -
Any suggestions on what preliminary training I should be doing?
Thanks Kathy

the middle aged still learning this cycling business wannabe :P

We rode through The Atherton Tablelands last year on the Queensland
bike ride and if you aren't having trouble doing those hills you'll be
fine.
Perhaps try doing intervals up one of them on the way home once a week
would be good but if your only doing 1400kms don't worry about making
it.
We trained a bit with a few kilos in each of the panniers to get used
to carrying them them again.
Just make sure your bike has been serviced a couple of weeks before you
go, not at the last minute in case something is wrong. We are up to
nearly 9,000kms on our tandem with no problems. Tyres every 2-3,000 kms
and we are on to our third chain and second cassette.
A good tool kit and some spares and you'll be fine.
Pack light and
Enjoy yourselves

Cheers

Geoff


--
geoffs

just us wrote:

Well I have 5 weeks to go before my big trip and I hoping that
I am putting in enough kms to be able to sit back and enjoy my
little epic at the end of April.
Do you think an average of 50kms a day over the next 5 weeks
will set me up for an enjoyable ride for a 1400kms ride over
17 days? A live in the hills of the Atherton Tablelands and
believe me I am doing some awesome hillclimbs now and
actually doing them with ease. How do people work up for a
long ride with panniers front and rear (rear will be 4kgs each
and front will be 1.5kgs each hopefully!). So the panniers
should not weigh more than 11 or 12 kgs all up. We will be
carrying water though - Any suggestions on what preliminary
training I should be doing? Thanks Kathy

the middle aged still learning this cycling business wannabe
:P

I reckon you qualify as a touring expert in your own right by
now Kathy

I'd just make sure I was up to a 100km ride with load on hills
first - toughen up the bum and the leg muscles! If possible do
such a long ride 2 or 3 days before you set off as well (not
the day before).

Equipment-wise, you mentioned in another thread that you carry
spare spokes. Make sure you've also got the right tool to
remove your freewheel/cassette. You shouldn't need to carry a
huge spanner to drive it - any servo/farmhouse will have a
shifter. Don't forget a couple of screwdrivers and allen keys
that will fit the things which might come loose or need
adjustment - they're small and light. Also, tools to
reassemble any cooking stove or similiar - they can disassemble
themselves quickly on bad roads.

John

just us wrote:

Well I have 5 weeks to go before my big trip and I hoping that I am putting
in enough kms to be able to sit back and enjoy my little epic at the end of
April.
Do you think an average of 50kms a day over the next 5 weeks will set me up
for an enjoyable ride for a 1400kms ride over 17 days?
A live in the hills of the Atherton Tablelands and believe me I am doing
some awesome hillclimbs now and actually doing them with ease. How do
people work up for a long ride with panniers front and rear (rear will be
4kgs each and front will be 1.5kgs each hopefully!). So the panniers should
not weigh more than 11 or 12 kgs all up. We will be carrying water though -
Any suggestions on what preliminary training I should be doing?
Thanks Kathy

the middle aged still learning this cycling business wannabe :P

I recommend you obtain a copy of The Memory of Running by Ron McLarty.
Read it and do nothing else out of the ordinary for the next five weeks.

P

Laughing at the suggestion of "pushing uphills". Have done a bit of that in
the past and thought that I was over it! LOL.
I have a decent little tool kit now and yep have changed tyres more times
than I care to remember, have taken things off and put them back on, have
adjusted this and that but I am really worried about that wheel truing
business. I am going to Cairns to day and will ask LBS for some pointers or
a book or something.
Actually I am going to Cairns to pick up a Trekking Bar like this one -
http://harriscyclery.net/itemdetails.cfm?ID=2109 which should be interesting
Kathy.

just us wrote:

I am really worried about that wheel truing business.

OK, for what it's worth I'll have a go at typing "John's guide
to on-the-road wheel truing".

Firstly, deflate the tyre so you don't damage the rim tape.
Then use the brake blocks as your measure of what's true.

As per my comment in your earlier thread, you can usually
replace a single spoke and get the wheel quite true by
adjusting just that single spoke. The same goes for replacing
2 spokes if they're not close together at the rim. Just adjust
those. The rest of this assumes you need to approach truing a
bit more seriously.

If you're replacing quite a few spokes at once, first get them
roughly to the tension of their neighbours.

Always tighten spokes to true them, don't loosen any if you can
avoid it. There are 2 reasons for this. Spokes usually loosen
over time, so they probably could all do with a bit of a
tighten anyway. Secondly, by just tightening, you keep the
whole situation much more under control.

Spin the wheel to find the places where the rim needs to be
pulled back towards centre. Then (one area at a time) adjust
the spokes on the side where tightening will achieve this. So
with the rim moving too far to the left in a particular spot,
tighten the spokes in that area which go to the right of the
hub. Tighten each spoke by a half turn (180º). If any of them
seem excessively loose, then do those by a full 360º turn
instead.

Spin, reassess, and continue as necessary.

Actually I am going to Cairns to pick up a Trekking Bar like
this one -
http://harriscyclery.net/itemdetails.cfm?ID=2109 which should
be interesting Kathy.

Now that looks like it will be comfortable - plenty of choice of
riding position.

John

I wrote:

Tighten each spoke by a half turn (180º).

To clarify, there's no need to tighten spokes right arund the
wheel - far from it. Just work gently on the ones which will
work to pull the wheel into line.

John

"John Henderson" wrote in message
...
just us wrote:

I am really worried about that wheel truing business.

OK, for what it's worth I'll have a go at typing "John's guide
to on-the-road wheel truing".

Firstly, deflate the tyre so you don't damage the rim tape.
Then use the brake blocks as your measure of what's true.

As per my comment in your earlier thread, you can usually
replace a single spoke and get the wheel quite true by
adjusting just that single spoke. The same goes for replacing
2 spokes if they're not close together at the rim. Just adjust
those. The rest of this assumes you need to approach truing a
bit more seriously.

If you're replacing quite a few spokes at once, first get them
roughly to the tension of their neighbours.

Always tighten spokes to true them, don't loosen any if you can
avoid it. There are 2 reasons for this. Spokes usually loosen
over time, so they probably could all do with a bit of a
tighten anyway. Secondly, by just tightening, you keep the
whole situation much more under control.

Spin the wheel to find the places where the rim needs to be
pulled back towards centre. Then (one area at a time) adjust
the spokes on the side where tightening will achieve this. So
with the rim moving too far to the left in a particular spot,
tighten the spokes in that area which go to the right of the
hub. Tighten each spoke by a half turn (180º). If any of them
seem excessively loose, then do those by a full 360º turn
instead.

Spin, reassess, and continue as necessary.


John

180º is a lot if your close to being true only a few º are needed.

I have built / repaired more wheels than I can count and can get them within
a sheet of paper in run out.

I tighten the ones on the side it needs to go towards a few º and loosen the
ones on the other side a few º, that way your not pulling more tension on
one part of the wheel and causing it to have run out in the vertical plane.

Have a read of Sheldon's guide for wheel truing.

http://sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html#tensioning

On Mar 14, 1:17 pm, John Henderson wrote:
I wrote:
Tighten each spoke by a half turn (180º).

To clarify, there's no need to tighten spokes right arund the
wheel - far from it. Just work gently on the ones which will
work to pull the wheel into line.

John

A fibre fix spoke is a good cheats way out. This is a string spoke
(actually made out of kevlar) that comes with instructions and fits
any size wheel. You don't need to mess around taking clusters off if
the broken spoke is on the drive side. The are available from, amoung
other places, St Kilda cycles http://www.stkildacycles.com.au/prod...ccessories.htm
They are cheaper from various overseas on line bike shops.

Peter Damm

Peter Damm