When I was running the CTC shop I was often asked if I had any advice regarding tour preparation; for what it's worth here are a few tips from me:
If you have bought the right bike and all the correct gear how do you prepare for a cycle tour like ’
LeJog’. For a healthy reasonably fit person with the correct preparation a two week 1,100 mile plus tour like that is an achievable challenge, it does strike quite a good balance between the tour being a holiday and something that you will be pleased you have achieved. As someone who has done this kind of tour a few times here are a few tips from me:
1) Get the miles in during the months leading upto the start of the tour, a typical day on something like ‘Lejog’ will normally have you on the road at about 8 to 9am until late afternoon, so try and do a few training rides that replicate that. However that’s not to say that the old saying of “all miles are good miles” doesn’t apply, when preparing for a tour it is indeed not a bad train of thought. Plan a a day ride that also replicate the style of terrain, potentially '
Gps System' of some kind where you can enjoy plotting them riding that route is something I know many find of value.
2) As well as making sure you get the right type of bike, make sure that when you start it’s in good working order, so many waste time on tour addressing what were avoidable maintenance issues when they should enjoying the holiday
3) It’s folly to invest hundreds if not thousands of pounds on a bike if it then isn’t set up to fit you correctly. Many will quite rightly take great care to get the correct style of bike, in the correct size, with all the correct clothing, shoes and kit, yet with all these important factors in place I so often see riders with the incorrect set up on the bike, so they have to try harder than they need do and often get aches and pains they don’t need to have as a result.
4) What will work on a single long day ride may not work quite as well on two weeks worth of long day rides. For example I like to eat at lunchtime and not graze on energy snacks all day, the latter I may often do on a Sunday over the familiar roads at home. Stopping on tour for lunch like this will probably have you feeling a bit lethargic when you get back on the bike, but personally I find this will pay dividends later in the ride and helps me to finish the day feeling good, as far as I am concerned there is no substitute for solid food, I use the popular energy products as a top up, not a substitute. Note that often at lunchtime you may not actually feel that hungry, be careful though for by the time you do it may be too late.
Another advantage of a lunch stop is that it mentally splits the ride into sections, novices often start a day concerned that they may have eighty miles ahead of them, this can seem daunting especially if starting in the rain and the forecast is not good, with a proper stop this splits to the ride into smaller less daunting and more achievable targets.
5) On a group tour, some you will find will treat each day as a stage of the Tour de France, others, novices especially, like to get it over and done with as they are nervous about reaching their goal, it's often the same faces that will reach the days end first each day, these riders may prefer the grazing theory as they will reach their destination much earlier. Personally I like to take my time, some of my best memories are the stops! Training for this ride will give you and indication of what style of tourer you are, for my ten pence worth it as much about enjoying the journey as it is about reaching the magnificence that is John O’Groats; after all it’s far easier to admire the view when you are not trying so hard that you are all boss eyed or concentrating so hard that all you are focusing on is the road in front of you.
6) I mentioned above that some of the first to reach the days end are not only the competitive types but the novices who may be a little anxious; to the former I say that’s great if that’s what you like to do, to the latter I say try not to be anxious, take your time and give yourself time, leave early not late so that you are not always clock watching at each stop, go at your pace and you will get there, in your own time; but you will get there
