First 100km

[London424]

No point to this at all other than to say I did my first 100km ride this weekend.

I was only planning on doing my first 50 miler and ended up over 100km.

I took the approach of slow and steady (keeping heart rate below 150 as much as possible) as I just wanted to get the longer mileage in my legs.

My biggest learning is on previous shorter rides once I was getting to the 3 hour mark and my legs had no energy at all (felt like peddaling through glue). This time I had lots of flapjack mini squares and a couple of gels and felt much better.

The thought of doing 100 miles doesn't seem as scary as it did only a couple of weeks ago.

[ChrisMCoupe]

Congratulations, I'm just starting to up my distances from the usual 50 - 60km weekend rides to around 100km and beyond.

I've found the most important factor when out for 3+ hours is fuel, make sure you have enough of it or your legs really start to feel it.

[okgo]

Takes time, just keep at it. As your muscles get used to it you'll be able to go longer and longer without the need for endless food.

Bowl of oats before a ride and a bottle of water does me for 50-60 miles now. So its quite useful to know, usually I now have that before I go, then do 35-40 hard miles stop for coffee and a bit of cake which is enough to get me home again.

[DrMekon]

The original long distance cyclist was Velocio. His rules still stand:

1. Keep your stops short and few.
2. Eat before you're hungry, drink before you're thirsty.
3. Never get too tired to eat or sleep.
4. Add a layer before you're cold, take one off before you're hot.
5. Lay off wine, meat and tobacco on tour.
6. Ride within yourself, especially in the first hour.
7. Never show off.

Well done on your first metric century. If you decide going far rather than fast is your thing, Audax UK is the long distance cycling association.

[racerbob]

well done. 100km at this time of year can be tough. You'll find by May or June that with the warmer weather you'll be doing 100 miles no probs.

[Gizmoish]

Top work

I'm a big fan of riding within yourself: then if there's an unexpected hill or you get lost you have margin, and you can relax and enjoy the ride. Better to reach the end thinking you had another ten miles in you than have ten miles to go and nothing in the tank

[London424]

Thanks everyone. It was a pretty miserable day and there were snow flurries for a couple of hours. I was seriously thinking about turning back after the first 30 mins as I just wasn't feeling it.

I picked a pretty flat route as I didn't want to be pushing too many hills. I did get caught by surprise coming out of Henley though.

Here's the route:

http://app.strava.com/activities/41950905

[upsidedownmark]

Just a routing tip if you want some quieter roads - turn left just outside windsor onto the B3024, stay with that to twyford, turn right in the middle of the village / traffic lights and follow the A321 to henley - it's a nice mostly flat, relatively quiet road. Chocolate cafe on the left over the bridge is a nice coffee/cake stop, they're pretty good about re-filling bottles.

http://www.strava.com/activities/12622788

Obviously not coming from exactly the same area, and I went up to nettlebed for some extra k's, but this is my Henley route - mostly on fairly quiet roads.

Serious kudos for doing it in that temperature - mine's bolted to the turbo / I'm concentrating on my swim at the moment!

[TKF]

London424 said:

I did get caught by surprise coming out of Henley though.

Remenham Hill is a bit of a git. I've only been up it once and you'll be happy to know you are quicker up it than me by 0.2mph

okgo is in the top 10 and MadDad in the top 25.