Ultradistance Cycling?
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A question for those who do long bicycle rides (or marathon runs or other lengthy sports) ...
If you are trying to lose weight while doing these sports, how do you structure your eating the day before, the day of and the day after the event?0 -
Saturday -- My husband and I cycled the Tour de Granny Gear (not the official name
)
Distance - 212.7 km
Elevation - 2,123 m (6965 ft)
Moving Time - 11:40:27
Elapsed Time - 12:48:25
Speed - Avg: 18.2 km/h; Max: 50.4km/h
Heart Rate - Avg: 144bpm; Max: 176bpm
Queen of the Mountain on a 58.8 km segment.
Challenging ride.
Hills: According to Ride with GPS, there's over 2400 metres of climbing ... Strava's total is a bit lower. Nevertheless there were a number of significant climbs (Cat 3 and 4) and numerous lesser climbs.
Weather: The temperature hit 29C, officially. My on-bike thermometer showed 37C at one point. Whatever it was ... it was surprisingly and unexpectedly hot. And believe me, slogging up a long Cat 3 climb in that heat was definitely more of a challenge than expected. And then we were hit with a strong sea breeze right at the end. Didn't need that.
Ride Length: Because of a last minute route change, the length of the route changed from about 203 km to 212 km, and yet it had to be completed within the same amount of time that a 200 km ride would be completed in. So not only were we faced with more hills than I usually do on a 200 km, but also 12 extra km.
But despite the challenges, it was a good ride. Although it was hot, at least we didn't have rain or much wind throughout the ride (until near the end). Plus, the event was well supported and the route was good. The ride organiser went out of his way to make sure we were fed and watered throughout the event.
For example, I have a set of waterbottles which are rather old but I'm still using them. Today I had a new waterbottle and an old one. The old one cracked mid-ride, so I could only fill it halfway up. The ride organiser met us between controls to refill our bottles because he knew it was hot and I was working with 1.5 bottles instead of 2.
So that's our March Century done and also my 32nd 200K.
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Since the ride above, we've done another 200 km, a couple 100 kms and several other rides.
March Totals
Walking Distance (km): 90.6
Walking Time (min): 1132.5
Cycling Distance (km): 1002.7
Cycling Time (min): 3231.8
Stairs Climbed Number: 108.0
Stairs Climbed Time (min): 86.4
Totals
Total Distance (km): 1093.3
Total Distance (miles): 679.3
Total Time (min): 4450.7
Total Time (hr): 74:10:45
For the first time since December 2011, my husband and I have cycled a 1000 km month!!
Not only that, but we also hit 7500 metres of climbing. 7530 metres (24705 feet) to be exact.
And the month isn't even quite over yet.
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I'm the local RBA for my area. I recall you from Bikejournal, don't I Machka? Did you have a bike come up missing some years ago? Anyway, great to see you riding.0
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fullylugged wrote: »I'm the local RBA for my area. I recall you from Bikejournal, don't I Machka? Did you have a bike come up missing some years ago? Anyway, great to see you riding.
Yes, I am sort of still on Bikejournal.
And yes, one of my bicycles was stolen in 2010 ... and then recovered in 2013!!! I've since done quite a few more long rides on that bicycle.
I had a bit of a slump in my cycling what with DVT in 2009, my favourite bicycle being stolen in 2010, and then travelling the world in 2012. But I'm getting back into it again.1 -
A question for those who do long bicycle rides (or marathon runs or other lengthy sports) ...
If you are trying to lose weight while doing these sports, how do you structure your eating the day before, the day of and the day after the event?
I personally don't try to lose weight while training for anything endurance related (this year is 2 half ironmen tri's; next year will be IM Wisconsin) - but I tend to naturally slim down as my distances increase (even if I'm eating all the things).
That being said, on many of the triathlon forums I hang out on - there are always people (both men and women) who want to drop weight while training for an ironman and the general advice is to not try it because of the demands on the body - do it during the off season but not during specific training
I can give you an idea of what I eat during my long training/race days - but not sure if it will help you since I'm not actively trying to lose weight0 -
deannalfisher wrote: »A question for those who do long bicycle rides (or marathon runs or other lengthy sports) ...
If you are trying to lose weight while doing these sports, how do you structure your eating the day before, the day of and the day after the event?
I personally don't try to lose weight while training for anything endurance related (this year is 2 half ironmen tri's; next year will be IM Wisconsin) - but I tend to naturally slim down as my distances increase (even if I'm eating all the things).
That being said, on many of the triathlon forums I hang out on - there are always people (both men and women) who want to drop weight while training for an ironman and the general advice is to not try it because of the demands on the body - do it during the off season but not during specific training
I can give you an idea of what I eat during my long training/race days - but not sure if it will help you since I'm not actively trying to lose weight
I've kind of settled into eating in a deficit on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and eating closer to maintenance the rest of the week. Means I haven't lost any weight, but I haven't gained it either.
The thing is, I'm right in the middle of my normal BMI range. Technically I probably don't need to lose weight. I just think if I were a few kg lighter, I might be faster up the hills.
That said, cycling 1000 km this month has helped my fitness a lot and I am a bit faster in general. 0 -
My Easter Weekend ...
Quick summary ... more detailed report to come in a blog.
This weekend was a 5-part saga.
Part 1 - Cycle a 300 km randonnee. This is 300 km which needs to be completed by bicycle within 20 hours, including all breaks. Check! Completed on Good Friday. Rolled in at 11 pm - 17 hours of cycling.
Part 2 - Support riders on 300 km randonnee. Check! Completed on Saturday. We saw them off at 6 am, napped, then headed out to find them on the road.
Park 3 - Cycle a 200 km randonnee. This is 200 km which needs to be completed by bicycle within 13.5 hours, including all breaks. Check! Completed Sunday - 12 hours and 11 min of cycling.
Part 4 - Relax. Working on this now. We've had a good night's sleep and have just been for a 2 or 3 km recovery walk.
Part 5 - Do some route checking for 400 km randonnee. We'll do that on Tuesday and it will be done by car.
So ... 500 km of cycling in just over 60 hours ... with a day off in between.
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A question for those who do long bicycle rides (or marathon runs or other lengthy sports) ...
If you are trying to lose weight while doing these sports, how do you structure your eating the day before, the day of and the day after the event?
I don't do anywhere the number of long rides you do but typically in the week before the event I'm tapering down the intensity and duration of my rides while tapering up my calories to maintenance. I also reduce my caffeine right down to try and get some caffeine response on the day, but I'm not very responsive to caffeine at the best of times.
For a long or intense events (keeping up with faster riders for example) I might supplement with beetroot juice in the week before and on the day - pink pee is fun.....
Tend to go for a carby meal the evening before the event. I don't eat in a low carb style so there's not a lot of carb loading to be done.
Day of the event would be a big bowl of breakfast cereal and a protein shake.
I mostly fuel the ride on a mix of sports drinks and cereal bars / malt loaf. I get a queasy stomach if I don't have some solid foods. Carb gels are revolting but convenient, I go for ones with 2:1 glucose/fructose formula, often just added to my bidon.
Recovery meal afterwards I'm looking for a mix of protein and carbs.
For a 160km I don't have to be very precise but for a 200km I need to be far more disciplined in terms of hydration and calorie intake. The extra 40km make a disproportionate difference for me.
Day after a 160km I'm eating normally, after a 200km I will overeat to make up some of the previous day's inevitable deficit.
See my food diary for Sunday 5th June last year if interested in the detail. A hilly 9 hour 200km.
My first Audax of the year is coming up shortly in the beautiful New Forest. Which in true English style is neither new and mostly isn't forest!
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I've pretty much worked out how to maintain my weight. I appear to be really good at that. Now to set about losing a bit.
This weekend, however, I made two mistakes ...
1) My training was good. I had the strength to do both the 300K and then the 200K and still be able to walk around after. But I didn't include much core work in my training and I paid for that. My back!!!!! Ow.
2) I used a protein shake for breakfast and forgot that the main ingredient is milk. Last time I used these, they worked fine because I used an anti-milk tablet with them. But I didn't do that this time and suffered from nausea for much of the ride ... and after.
On the bright side, I haven't eaten nearly as much as I planned to eat. So who knows ... I might have lost weight this weekend. 1 -
6th May - doing the 160km event.
I did fancy the 200km alternative on the same day but it's a bit early in the season for me.
Lovely varied countryside from small country lanes to open moorland to forest to coast, quite a few fords and plenty of cattle grids to rattle your teeth!0 -
This was my Easter weekend:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Machka9/view/campbell-town-canter-easter-adventure-weekend-200-km-300-km-924682
And today's recovery ride ...
Saturday
Distance: 56.1 km
Elevation: 362 m
Moving Time: 3:13:50
Elapsed Time: 3:47:21
Speed: Avg:17.4 km/h | Max: 42.5 km/h
On our ride today ... a casual recovery ride with our touring bicycles ...
It's autumn here and today was a heavily overcast day with a hint of fog and smoke in the air. But because there was no wind and the temp was in the high teens, it was actually quite nice out there.
We kept it pretty relaxed including a lunch stop in the middle.
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A little weekend short tour ... with a Randonneuring event included.
Saturday -- My husband and I cycled what was probably the most difficult / challenging 200 km randonnee (long distance cycling event ) I've ever done. 210 km with 2700 metres of climbing in a heat we haven't experienced since we were in Queensland at Easter in 2016.
We made a guest appearance with the BC Randonneurs and did the 200K event of the Peace to Parliament "hell week". Some riders also did only the 200K, but some did the whole set of four rides from Fort St. John all the way down to Victoria.
Peace to Parliament - 4 brevets from Fort St John to Victoria in June 2017
My husband was all right in the heat. He is usually the one who struggles with hot temperatures. But this time it was me. By about the half way point I knew I was battling heat exhaustion. I think May's surgery put a dent in my fitness level.
Nevertheless we finished the ride in Victoria within the time limit ... with 30 min to spare! Our total time was 13 hours.
And then went for a 2-3 km walk to find dinner!
Distance: 212.1km (including the ride up to our B&B)
Elevation: 2,729m
Moving Time: 11:39:32
Elapsed Time: 13:36:03
Speed: Avg: 18.2km/h | Max: 50.4km/h
Sunday -- After a deep 8 hours of sleep, we were up for a delicious breakfast at our B&B, and then off again.
We needed to cycle back to Duncan to complete the circle. Today's ride gave us a chance to ride some of the cycling trails in Victoria and that was a really pleasant part of the ride. Then up and over a hill to the ferry to take us across to the second half of the journey. That second half of the journey was a little bit more difficult with a few more climbs ... and heat. The official "in the shade" temp reached 32C, but our on-bike computers showed as high as 40C while we were cycling.
We finally stopped for lunch where we ate salty food and had quite a lot to drink to rehydrate.
From there, we only had about 10 km to go, and were into our destination in no time to complete a challenging little short tour loop (a randonnee + recovery ride) on a hot, hot weekend!
Distance: 51.6km
Elevation: 422m
Moving Time: 3:24:10
Elapsed Time: 5:52:08
Speed: Avg: 15.2km/h | Max: 47.9km/h0 -
Saturday 01 July -- Canada Day!
We cycled our first Canada Day Populaire ... 150 km for Canada's 150th birthday.
There were about 600 riders on this event which ran throughout the lower mainland BC. We got some hills, some flat, lots of wind and lots of sun!
And then we cycled a bit more to get our century.
Distance: 161.5km
Elevation: 1270 metres
Moving Time: 7:49:22
Elapsed Time: 9:06:31
Speed: Avg: 20.6km/h | Max: 50.8km/h
It's been a busy couple weeks!
The goals we completed:
1. We successfully completed yet another Petite Year Round Randonneur cycling distance, making this the 9th month in a row.
2. We successfully completed yet another Century (100 mile) ride, making this the 7th month in a row for that.
And as a bonus, we did two long rides (the 213 km ride last weekend and the 161 km ride this weekend) in Canada with a club I have ridden with in the past, and got to see several people I knew back then. 0 -
Saturday -- My husband and I travelled to the north of the state with the intention of starting ... and perhaps finishing ... a 400 km. We weren't sure if we'd complete the 400 because we haven't been well in recent weeks, and haven't done nearly enough cycling recently ... so we figured it might be a bit of a struggle.
Also, while this weekend presented us with sunshine during the day, it was not at all warm. Shortly after we started, my husband's thermometer read -1.8C and the high reached 12C for a little while. Tonight it is supposed to drop below freezing again with frost.
So, we started the 400 km, and covered the part of the route I really wanted to ride ... a section we've driven but have never ridden. And it is beautiful! The route twists and turns and climbs a little and has some flat sections, and presents riders with a lovely view of the Great Western Tiers which are topped with snow at this time of year.
All up, we covered 183.8 km and I really enjoyed the ride. I was so pleased to be able to do that distance, and had fun out there!
Also ... when we reached 157 km, we decided to go out for dinner to celebrate our anniversary (it's next week). Evil husband made the booking for 6 pm, which gave us an hour and a quarter to cover the last 27 km, a quarter hour to get ready and half an hour to get there. We made it! I can move briskly when there's Mexican food at stake.
To be fair to my husband, he did try to get a booking for later, but this place is popular and busy and 6 pm was the only time we could get in.
Distance 183.8 km
Elevation: 1256 metres
Moving Time 9:021 -
On October 1, my husband and I finalised the Audax/Randonneuring season's Petit Year Round Randonneur (PYRR) series.
An Audax/Randonneuring season is (for reasons I'm not sure about), from November 1 to October 31.
The Audax Australia's Petit Year Round Randonneur requires a total of 1200 km for the year, made up of rides from 50 km, 100 km or 150 km in length. You can do the 50s, for example, in the cold winter months, and make up the distance with 150 km rides in warmer months. Also, the rides can be made up of Permanents (official rides that can be done any time) or organised Audax events which can only be done when they are scheduled on the calendar. A bit complicated, but we like the concept for (a) an Audax award, (b) the need for strategising throughout the year to end up with the minimum 1200 km, and (c) it encourages riders back into the sport.
Our rides were as follows:
November - 100K
December - 100K
January - 100K
February - 160K
March - 100K
April - 100K
May - 160K
June - 50K
July - CanPop 150K (this one was in Canada)
August – 50K
September – 160K
October – 50K
There have been lots of other rides, of course, but these are specifically the ones for the PYRR.
And we're hoping to do it again next year. 0 -
Saturday -- My husband and I got our October Century today. Getting that century this month was a bit of a challenge because both of us have become quite a bit busier than we had imagined we would be ... and somewhere along the way we realised that we needed to get it done this weekend because we won't have an opportunity next weekend.
Next we had to decide where we wanted to ride. We've been doing centuries in northern Tasmania or in Canada lately, but this one would have to be done in the Hobart area, where it isn't particularly flat. We picked a century route my husband had designed and which we rode several months ago as a Permanent. But we weren't riding this one as a Permanent because we didn't want the time limit.
It has been 7 weeks since we've ridden a century, and we haven't done a lot of longer rides in those 7 weeks so we just wanted to make it through.
The route was more or less an out and back from Hobart to Maydena, and back.
Although the temperature reached 19C in Hobart, it was only 13C up at Maydena. And it was windy with quite a strong west wind gusting up around 45 km/h. We encountered a bit of mist up near Maydena but it was pretty much dry for the rest of the ride.
To distract us from the wind, the scenery was beautiful. It's spring here, so everything is green. We topped one particular hill and were presented with a gorgeous view of the green valley and hills ... and a rainbow off to one side.
There were also quite a number of animals out and about ... mostly domestic, but not all. There are wild hens, geese, black swans, cockatoos, plovers, and an eagle. And also cows, sheep and chickens ... including a flock of chickens who were milling about the road and in no hurry to actually cross until we were almost on top of them.
The Stats
Distance: 164.0 km
Elevation: 1,301 m
Moving Time: 8:59:19
Elapsed Time: 10:05:06
Speed: Avg: 18.3 km/h | Max: 52.6 km/h
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We completed a century in each month of 2017, so we're trying again in 2018.
Friday -- Australia Day!
Today we cycled our January Century ... 100 miles!
We had to wait till the end of January to do our January Century which meant that it has been almost 7 weeks since we've done a century, and my longest ride since then was the 63.7 km last weekend. Meanwhile my husband has been working rather than cycling. So this was a bit of a challenge!
The first challenge was trying to find a relatively flat, unchallenging route. In the Hobart area?? Hahahaha! But what we ended up with was probably one of the flatter options for a ride of that length without too much route duplication ... believe it or not.
The second challenge was that we also wanted to complete a Permanent (ride on the Audax list) for the Petit Year Round Randonneur challenge. We've kept that challenge going for 15 months now. Fortunately, Permanents can be as short as 50 km.
So we decided to ride the flattest 50 km Perm in the area, then immediately upon finishing it we returned the way we came and went quite a bit further out then returned to the start. Essentially it was two out-and-backs, one short and one long.
In one direction, we were able to keep up a pretty good pace with the tailwind ... in the other direction, things slowed a bit. But it kind of balanced out and we actually finished the ride within Audax time!!
The temp hit a high of 28C and the wind spent most of the day at about 22 gusting to 30 km/h with the occasional gust up to 50 km/h.
Distance: 161.83 km (100.5 miles)
Elevation: 1,702 m (5584 feet)
Yeah ... that's relatively flat for the Hobart area.
Moving Time: 8:35:23
Elapsed Time: 10:07:06
Speed: Avg: 18.8 km/h | Max: 54.0 km/h
How about you??
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This something I am interested in doing. My longest ride to date was 75 miles(120 km) in 2016. This year I've set a goal of 135 miles(216 km). Once I can ride that I would like to try an actual randonee/audax.0
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Another weekend ... another training ride ...
Saturday we cycled 100.2 km on Bruny Island. We drove out to Kettering, caught an early ferry and spent the day on the island.
First we cycled out to Adventure Bay, and we stopped along the way for a few photos. In Adventure Bay we had an excellent lunch ... panini sandwiches and a large slice of carrot cake. Then we cycled to Alonnah, and on our way, we stopped and bought some fudge. And then we cycled back to the ferry again.
The day was fairly relaxed with a goal of covering 100 km without stress, and testing a few things.
One of the things I was testing was my new helmet. My previous helmet just hasn't been quite right, especially with a thick headband under it. It was either strangling me or blocking my vision and I was finishing rides with a really stiff neck and shoulders. Today I rode with my new helmet, and it was good! Hardly noticed it was there and my neck and shoulders feel normal.
Rowan was testing narrower handlebars, which seemed to pass the test.
I was testing a raised saddle height because it seems I've done something to my right knee which might be related to my new boots. Raising the saddle height does seem to be better, but it might need to come up a little bit more.
And we were testing Bushells Coffee and Chicory Essence. We mixed up a bottle with Ensure and a decent amount of Bushells Coffee and Chicory Essence which contains 66 mg of caffeine for every 20 ml (2 tablespoons). Well ... it tasted good and I (who drank most of it) felt awake and energetic by the end of the ride!
It was about 10°C on the ferry going over ... and cooled to about 8°C at one point along the way out. But it did warm again to near 10°C in the middle of the ride. With the bright sunshine, which made a rare and welcome appearance, it felt quite a bit warmer than that. Toward the end of the day, it dropped to about 6°C ... and that's when my feet started getting cold again. I need to solve that problem soon!
Overall, it was a really good ride ... first one in this recent batch of training where I've felt really comfortable on the bicycle, like I could keep riding.
Distance: 100.2 km
Elevation: 1154 metres (3786 feet)
Moving Time: 5:38:49
Elapsed Time: 7:16:34
Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/machka-bb/albums/72157668975966700
Inspiring! I recently began riding again after 20+ yrs layoff for a lot of reasons, but which include (with my wife) ambitions for some sort of long-distance retirement cruising on our sailboat (that's our other, and continuously current, pursuit). Our far fantasies include South Pacific, Aus, NZ, Tasmania [didn't realize you were there]. I've seen some of your recent your bike-oriented posts. If you don't mind, I clipped the bike/harbor pic out of this post to be my new laptop desktop background to spur us on. Might never make it that far, but that's the value of having dreams and ambitions - to get you somewhere down the road.1 -
i'm seriously considering doing RAGBRAI this year - its 7 days of riding, approx 60-70 miles i day1
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BNB 200K - Hot Hot Hot
We decided to do our first 200 kilometre Audax cycling event, since the one we did in Canada in June, on mainland Australia in Victoria this weekend. As some of you know, my cycling club is Audax Australia, and Audax cycling or Randonneuring is timed ultradistance cycling. Some of our events are a bit shorter 50 km or 100 km ... those are often warm-up events early in the season, or winter events later in the season. But then the bigger events start with the 200 km distance, and go up from there.
This particular event is called a 200K but that's a minimum designation. They can be a bit longer than that, and this one was 215 kilometres. But whatever the distance, it still has to be completed in 13 hours and 30 minutes.
We've cycled some of the roads included on this event before, so we had some idea what to expect, but we've done it under cooler conditions. This ended up being a very hot ride!! Our on-bike thermometres were recording over 40C out there on the road in the sun and the recorded high (always recorded in the shade) was 33C. Fortunately, the clouds did gather toward the end of the day, and the last 50 kilometres were somewhat cooler ... with a threatening storm and a decent tailwind!
There were so many birds ... living in Tasmania, I miss the melodic magpies of the mainland. And there was one large kangaroo.
And now I look like Australia ... I blend right in! I'm very reddish brown like the Australian soil.
Distance: 215.47 km
Elevation: 1,484 m
Moving Time: 10:55:56
Elapsed Time:12:34:18
Speed: Avg: 19.7 km/h | Max: 49.7 km/h
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