Ride the Night - London May 2024 - 60 miles

[CharlotteBog]

Sorry if there is already a thread about this (MN advanced search is a pile of 💩).

I have signed up for this. I am NOT a big cyclist. I am a runner, who has been injured for a bit so am not oozing fitness.

I last cycled around Xmas time, 12 miles there and back to a cafe. All fine.

Oct I wanted to do 30 miles, but failed after 27 - was lost, fed up, and dizzy with tiredness, no food (I am a bit of a noob on the bike).

So my general level of fitness is OK, but I really need to up my game if I am to manage 60 miles in about 6 weeks time. I'd like to enjoy it as well!

Can anyone advise what I should be doing?

I know for (running) marathon training it's fine to train up to 20 miles because you have to balance recovery with training your body and if you can run 20 easily (ish...ha ha) the other 6 will be fine. How does it work for cycling?

What about food and stuff? I can run about 15 miles on a cup of tea.

HELP!
I am doing it with my sister, non competitively so we will have a super time, I just want to enjoy it.

[TheOneWithUnagi]

Little bump for you in case anyone else has done it!

I've cycled 100 miles a couple of times, and trained up to 80 max so ideally you'd do 50 before the day.

As for food, you want to be eating a lot!
Mix between real food and gels, gels are easy to get down you but do get very sickly. I'd be aiming to have a gel every 10 miles or so and also some real food. As well as electrolytes in your water bottle. Bananas are perfect for this, also dry roasted nuts (purely because they are savoury!) and energy bars. You need to eat before you feel your energy dip.

However this is coming from someone who needed gels for anything more than 10 miles on a run, so possibly you do need less.

The main thing I got from your post is that you need to improve your fuelling. I don't think you'll have any issue with the distance given what you say about your fitness. Just keep your legs spinning on the day and you've got this!

[TeresaCrowd]

I’ve been a Ride Angel at this event a couple of times. Not doing it this year because it clashes with something else I’m volunteering at. My role was basically to ride amongst the riders, keep them motivated, make sure people had company if they wanted if they were alone and stop and fix punctures/basic mechanicals on the ride.

it is a relatively simple ride in that it’s flat. The bit in central London takes some concentration. However the big challenge is that it’s overnight and that’s quite hard to train for if you are training alone and aren’t used to antisocial hours. I work antisocial hours reasonably frequently so was easy enough to adapt.

in terms of training, try upping the miles just a few at a time, consistency is key and you have the cardiovascular fitness from running, you need to train your pedalling technique and your resistance to fatigue in holding the riding position. Definitely if you can do 50 miles the event will get you through the last bit.

For fuelling, take something long acting and savoury every hour or so and something sweet/fast acting energy (3 jelly babies, 1 block of Kendal mint cake (assuming the small bars are 6 blocks, like a 20g portion is what you want) every 20-30 mins or a ‘serving’ of an energy product. There are feed stops on the ride that offer the savoury bits. The half way point has traditionally had ham/cheese rolls and a packet of crisps. They also have some excellent home made cake.

finally keep hydrated. I don’t know how long the ride will take you. I would aim to do a 500ml bottle between feed stops which would usually take me just under an hour on my own, but when assisting probably closer to 90 mins so you may need more than this if riding slower. It’s roughly 15 miles between the stops.

[CharlotteBog]

Thank you for these replies, they've all been really helpful. I do want to reply more fully.....but I've been out on my bike and will do soon. I don't want you to think I posted and ran biked off