Cycling UK Forum

Hi all.

I'm training for a 50 mile charity ride next month, it'll be my first 50 (having only taken up cycling in June this year).

I generally do 2 or 3 rides a week of around 20 miles each. I don't find this too hard and have got to around 15mph average. I'm 35, 5ft 7ins and about 13 stone. So a bit over weight and unfit. But I am getting there.

I went for a 30 mile ride today and completely ran out of energy at about 25 miles in.

Does anyone have any tips for training and keeping energy up on the slightly longer rides.

I appreciate for a lot of you this is probably a small ride.

Thanks

Out of interest, what did you eat and drink before and during your 30-mile ride?

Did you try to go the same speed on the longer ride? You’ve only so much energy so use it wisely when you go further. Slow down

Paulatic wrote:Did you try to go the same speed on the longer ride? You’ve only so much energy so use it wisely when you go further. Slow down

+1

And eat food ... real food ... Avoid gels and other sugar based stuff .... eat food ....

Armorel wrote:Out of interest, what did you eat and drink before and during your 30-mile ride?

Breakfast was scrambled eggs and mushrooms.
Lunch 12.30pm was a medium bowl of pasta and mixed veg.
Ride was at 3.15pm. I drank water only.

Paulatic wrote:Did you try to go the same speed on the longer ride? You’ve only so much energy so use it wisely when you go further. Slow down

I went out with the intention of averaging 14.5mph, however as I was fatigued after the 22/25mile route I was slower, around the 13.5 average over 30 miles.

landsurfer wrote:

Paulatic wrote:Did you try to go the same speed on the longer ride? You’ve only so much energy so use it wisely when you go further. Slow down

+1

And eat food ... real food ... Avoid gels and other sugar based stuff .... eat food ....

What would you recommend I take out?

Thanks All!

Gazelain wrote:
What would you recommend I take out?

Thanks All!

Bananas, Sandwiches, fruit, homemade flapjack ... porridge for breakfast, full English for 2nd breakfast .... soup ...more bananas .... food ....
it's all i eat ....

landsurfer wrote:

Gazelain wrote:
What would you recommend I take out?

Thanks All!

Bananas, Sandwiches, fruit, homemade flapjack ... porridge for breakfast, full English for 2nd breakfast .... soup ...more bananas .... food ....
it's all i eat ....

That's right, food. You don't need anything special for fifty miles.

Mike Sales wrote:

landsurfer wrote:

Gazelain wrote:
What would you recommend I take out?

Thanks All!

Bananas, Sandwiches, fruit, homemade flapjack ... porridge for breakfast, full English for 2nd breakfast .... soup ...more bananas .... food ....
it's all i eat ....

That's right, food. You don't need anything special for fifty miles.

Thanks everyone, really appreciate your comments, I'll definitely be taking some grub out next time I do a longer journey!

Cheers

Hi,
Your body runs out of energy after 2.5-3 hours.
so if you're planning to ride for longer than that, you need to start eating during the ride.
Don't leave it longer than two hours to start eating.
If you don't eat and only drink water during the ride, you will start to wash the salt out of your body.
So remember to eat as well as drinking.
Sandwiches are not a bad idea As suggested et cetera

NATURAL ANKLING wrote:Hi,
Your body runs out of energy after 2.5-3 hours.
so if you're planning to ride for longer than that, you need to start eating during the ride.
Don't leave it longer than two hours to start eating.
If you don't eat and only drink water during the ride, you will start to wash the salt out of your body.
So remember to eat as well as drinking.
Sandwiches are not a bad idea As suggested et cetera

Thank you for the reply. I'll be taking all of this advice on board and making sure I fuel up properly.

Just don't over eat.
Something as simple/little as 1 fig roll per hour can/will keep you going all day.

Better still learn to pace yourself a little better.
The great temptation if you're doing a longer ride is to set off to fast.
So you use 1/2 your energy in the first 1/3 of the distance and then struggle for the last bit.
So treat the first 10 miles or so as a warm up.
You can keep the average speed up, just no big energy spikes.
So use your gears more and no blasting up hills, racing away from traffic lights, etc,etc.
The whole idea is to hit a nice steady rhythm early that you can keep going all day if needed.
Get it right and 50+ miles is so easy, get it wrong and you'll suffer on the last few miles.

Luck ...........
Ps, It took me a few years/rides to get it right.

Tigerbiten wrote:Just don't over eat.
Something as simple/little as 1 fig roll per hour can/will keep you going all day.

Better still learn to pace yourself a little better.
The great temptation if you're doing a longer ride is to set off to fast.
So you use 1/2 your energy in the first 1/3 of the distance and then struggle for the last bit.
So treat the first 10 miles or so as a warm up.
You can keep the average speed up, just no big energy spikes.
So use your gears more and no blasting up hills, racing away from traffic lights, etc,etc.
The whole idea is to hit a nice steady rhythm early that you can keep going all day if needed.
Get it right and 50+ miles is so easy, get it wrong and you'll suffer on the last few miles.

Luck ...........
Ps, It took me a few years/rides to get it right.

Thank you! I'll be buying some fig rolls

Best advice I've ever had - pretty much mirroring the advice above - is that when out on a long ride:

Eat before you get hungry and drink before you get thirsty

Prevention is much better cure

I don't think the issue here is food/nutrition, it's fitness. The OP rode for a couple of hours, and was tired out due to pushing too hard for their level of fitness. Eating more food won't help. I think the best advice would be to ignore your average speed and pace yourself, concentrate on building distance and stamina. With a reasonable level of fitness, 50 miles should be doable in 3-4 hours with no extra food if you're eating sensibly before the ride. No harm in having a banana or something with you though, a morale boost if nothing else.

the snail wrote:I don't think the issue here is food/nutrition, it's fitness. The OP rode for a couple of hours, and was tired out due to pushing too hard for their level of fitness. Eating more food won't help. I think the best advice would be to ignore your average speed and pace yourself, concentrate on building distance and stamina. With a reasonable level of fitness, 50 miles should be doable in 3-4 hours with no extra food if you're eating sensibly before the ride. No harm in having a banana or something with you though, a morale boost if nothing else.

Good advice, thank you. I've not been riding for very long and the reason why I took it up in the first place was indeed to increase fitness and lose some excess weight. I've now found a hobby that I actually enjoy doing and am starting to push myself to gain speed and distance; sure I'm certainly not the fittest but I'm sure we all started out somewhere. I wanted to achieve the 50 as a big milestone based on my fitness and confidence of cycling when I started out a few months ago.

To have all of this support and advice from experienced riders is great and I shall take it forward with me when I'm out doing the 50.

I agree, however, that I do need to pace myself and I probably did go out a little speedy.

Thanks again