35 miles bike ride, no training

[LeroyJenkins]

I've just seen on a Facebook local page where someone's child is doing a 35 mile bike ride for charity *town to town

With next to no training as we've been to busy having fun

now call me a killjoy but why would you do that??? Surely you would build up to 35 miles even as an adult...!
Yes it's a great chase, but come on...

[LeroyJenkins]

Cause not chase

[Oysterbabe]

I think it would be fine as long as they have a good level of fitness generally and it's not super hilly.

[Gottokondo]

Sure. They are going from town to town so probably resting in between. My obese and unfit DH did 40 miles on a beautiful sunny day this spring just because he was enjoying it. We are dutch so might feel a bit more confident on a bike though...

[Gottokondo]

Oh I now see that it's a child. Depends on the age then. A teen would be fine imo.

[Ifailed]

Agree with others, unless they have some kind of physical issues, or are young, 35 miles is doable, so long as they pace themselves.

[arethereanyleftatall]

Depends. 4 years old, that's too much. 14 years old and generally fit, no training required whatsoever to spend a couple of hours on a bike.

[lljkk]

How old? MN calls 17 yr olds 'child'.

[PuntCuffin]

35 miles for a fit teen would be easy. I did a 100 mile sportive without training aged 40something. Now that was —hard— stupid. The first 50 miles was fine, the second 50 nearly killed me.

[TooTrueToBeGood]

35 miles on a bike shouldn't be a big deal even without training for a moderately fit child or teen. Besides, they can always stop if they get too sore or run out of energy.

[bridgetreilly]

I am super unfit and I did 12 miles last week with zero training. And actually, would have felt completely fine about carrying on for another 12 miles. So long as there aren't serious hills involved, I think a fairly fit child should be able to do this, taking rest breaks as needed, and with a support car, without any prior training.

[enjoyingscience]

35 is ok for an averagely fit person - they will have a sore bum the next day, but nobody ever died of that (not a doctor- apologies to anyone who knows someone who did die of post biking sore bum)

[Etymology23]

I’m pretty unfit and did 26 miles in hot hot weather with no training and not even a pair of cycling shorts and wasn’t in a state the next day. However, I did stop for lunch and to visit a farm shop so it wasn’t all in one go.

[Sparklfairy]

Reminds me of jade goody running the London marathon bragging that she'd done no training and had a Chinese the night before. Wasn't she carted off in an ambulance part way through?

[Ihopeyourcakeisshit]

I would think that was fairly easy for a fit teen.
The only issue I could see would be a sore bum possibly?

[AuntieStella]

I have post-cycling sore bum at present, and not dead yet! I'm reasonably fit, but rather dreadful on a bike.

DC got me out on a hired bike yesterday, and I did 20+ miles in reasonable time, and with no cycle training, on mix of road and leisure track (various surfaces) will rolling slopes rather than beastly hills. I could have kept going for longer - but would definitely have been even more sore if I had.

If it's an older DC, and they are reasonably fit/sporty, they'll ache like billy-oh, but be OK.

[SpoonBlender]

They'll be fine but almost certainly badly crotch-damaged next day and walking like a cowboy for the next week. Hope the kid at least wears padded shorts to mitigate the worst things.

[LeroyJenkins]

Age around 10

[Oysterbabe]

If you don't cycle you may not realise that 35 miles isn't that far.

[TooTrueToBeGood]

Tbf, even if they find it a challenge, it's far healthier for body and mind than trawling facebook looking for things to criticise.

[arethereanyleftatall]

A ten year old should be able to do that with not too much difficulty.
I would actually argue the other way, that this shouldn't be thought of as unachievable; should be a normal thing to do.

[LeroyJenkins]

it's far healthier for body and mind than trawling facebook looking for things to criticise
Hahaha

[PurpleFlower1983]

35 miles isn’t far on a bike.

[LeroyJenkins]

Fair enough, I thought it would need a bit of building up to, but happy to be wrong

[runningkeenster]

35 miles with no training isn't very sensible. Yes you'll have a sore bottom but when I jumped from about 15 to 35 without working up to it I did something to my hip flexor and it wasn't completely right for 2 months. You can inure yourself cycling very easily especially if you don't have a good bike set up.

OP you are not wrong, it DOES need building up to.

However, I also agree that it should be perfectly do-able with a bit of training - just not jumping straight to it.

[runningkeenster]

Injure not inure!