Building up mileage - hitting wall around 35 miles
Discussion
To be fair my cycling is always a bit sporadic with long periods of not cycling and then really getting into it for a bit. My speed and stamina for the early parts of my rides seem to improve quickly but always seem to be completely spent at about 35 miles.
A icy ure of legs aching but also just no strength left. Tried gels every ten miles, plenty of water but always seems to happen. This then puts me off. On the other hand I always attempt this length after about 2 rides after months off.
Terrain is very hilly around Yorkshire. Do I just need to stick at it. What mileage should I be doing to help improve. Do more 20 milers or keep going at 35 till I can do it comfortably?!?
A icy ure of legs aching but also just no strength left. Tried gels every ten miles, plenty of water but always seems to happen. This then puts me off. On the other hand I always attempt this length after about 2 rides after months off.
Terrain is very hilly around Yorkshire. Do I just need to stick at it. What mileage should I be doing to help improve. Do more 20 milers or keep going at 35 till I can do it comfortably?!?
You may well be going too hard too early and using up what little fitness/energy you have. If you have a HRM/Garmin then set it so you cant see your speed/avg speed and only display heart rate/cadence and then keep yourself in your tempo zone and keep your cadence high. You should be able to maintain this for quite a long time as long as you keep yourself hydrated and fed.
Edited by paulmon on Saturday 4th October 20:35
Some general thoughts.
Adjust your pace to distance, no one rides 50 miles at the same pace as the ride 10 miles.
A gel every ten miles is way too much carbs to consume for anyone, they take at least twenty minutes to digest, too many carbs is as bad as too little. You have enough stored energy in your body for twenty miles or an hour of riding at a good pace before thinking about refuelling, try proper food too, a small ham roll for example is far better for you than gels.
Don't put pressure on yourself to ride a set distance, pace or time, just enjoy it and the miles/pace will come.
Stretch before and after the rides, quads, calves and hamstrings.
Enter a cycling event longer than any distance you have completed to date. This might sound like madness but it will be a good target, riding with others will help you complete the distance and the routes are usually designed to test you but still be achievable. The sense of achievement will be a good psychological boost for your next target!
Adjust your pace to distance, no one rides 50 miles at the same pace as the ride 10 miles.
A gel every ten miles is way too much carbs to consume for anyone, they take at least twenty minutes to digest, too many carbs is as bad as too little. You have enough stored energy in your body for twenty miles or an hour of riding at a good pace before thinking about refuelling, try proper food too, a small ham roll for example is far better for you than gels.
Don't put pressure on yourself to ride a set distance, pace or time, just enjoy it and the miles/pace will come.
Stretch before and after the rides, quads, calves and hamstrings.
Enter a cycling event longer than any distance you have completed to date. This might sound like madness but it will be a good target, riding with others will help you complete the distance and the routes are usually designed to test you but still be achievable. The sense of achievement will be a good psychological boost for your next target!
good advice so far, up the cadence & lower pace is a good one, I often see my mates who dont do big miles pushing massive gears at the start , their legs then tire easily.
If I am doing a long one, I will stay on the small ring for the first 25 miles at least.
Legs tire before lungs, took me years to learn this!
In fact on my last long ride doing 150 miles I only used the big ring once or twice on long descents, nearly all of it was spent on the 39/13 gear @ 17/18mph
If I am doing a long one, I will stay on the small ring for the first 25 miles at least.
Legs tire before lungs, took me years to learn this!
In fact on my last long ride doing 150 miles I only used the big ring once or twice on long descents, nearly all of it was spent on the 39/13 gear @ 17/18mph
Think I just need to build fitness.
My cadence is already pretty good - I have bad knees so like to spin the gears. I have a triple and always in middle gear with lowest at the back if I'm going up a hill.
Re carbs every 10 miles - bearing in mind that average speed was 11.5 mph then it did equate to about an hour apart. I would like to cut these out but because I've hit a wall like this before, and because it feels like my bloody sugar is low, I felt I should keep at it with the gels.
My cadence is already pretty good - I have bad knees so like to spin the gears. I have a triple and always in middle gear with lowest at the back if I'm going up a hill.
Re carbs every 10 miles - bearing in mind that average speed was 11.5 mph then it did equate to about an hour apart. I would like to cut these out but because I've hit a wall like this before, and because it feels like my bloody sugar is low, I felt I should keep at it with the gels.
torqueofthedevil said:
Think I just need to build fitness.
My cadence is already pretty good - I have bad knees so like to spin the gears. I have a triple and always in middle gear with lowest at the back if I'm going up a hill.
Re carbs every 10 miles - bearing in mind that average speed was 11.5 mph then it did equate to about an hour apart. I would like to cut these out but because I've hit a wall like this before, and because it feels like my bloody sugar is low, I felt I should keep at it with the gels.
The issue isnt the duration but the speed/distance. Fuelling should be based on what you use not based on time. Imagine you are sat in a traffic jame for three hours, you have barely used any fuel, now imagine driving flat out for three hours, your tank is empty. Same period of time, different pace/distance. On ab ike its the same principle, you wouldnt need to take a gel every hour if all you were doing is 10 mph, not that 10 mph is too slow but simply becuase its hard to imagine even in hilly terrain you can need that much carbs.My cadence is already pretty good - I have bad knees so like to spin the gears. I have a triple and always in middle gear with lowest at the back if I'm going up a hill.
Re carbs every 10 miles - bearing in mind that average speed was 11.5 mph then it did equate to about an hour apart. I would like to cut these out but because I've hit a wall like this before, and because it feels like my bloody sugar is low, I felt I should keep at it with the gels.
I honestly think gels are pretty pointless for 90% of riders. I take one as an emergency on long rides over 75 miles but feel much happier eating solids. The marketing behind them is worth challenging though, it says that we need them becayse Wiggo needs them but Wiggorides a lot faster for a lot longer than 90% of us so alhtough he needs them, we dont but we are suckers for all things pro and are happy to buy them. A pace of 11mph does not require a gel every hour, there are many reasons why you hit the wall in the past but gels are not likely to be the answer. As I said, the recent lucozade advert which was pulled by the ASA claimed that lucozade was better than water but it was proven that this was only the case for periods of exercise over an hour long where prior to that, there was enough stored energy to not require additional carbs, and that was without carb loading too. I honestly believe we have been dumbed down through marketing into beliveing the human body is s
te and needs all this artifical crap in order to cycle round for a few hours.Have a read of [url]this|http://www.bicycling.com/training-nutrition/nutrition-weight-loss/eat-light-your-bike/url] and see if it sounds familar whilst considering that the average person can only process 1g of carbs per minute when excerising.
article said:
It's easier than you think to overload on carbs. Take Dave as an example. His half an energy bar (23 grams of carbs), one gel (27 grams of carbs) and bottle of sports drink (about 50 grams of carbs) meant he was taking in about 100 grams of carbohydrate every hour. Early in his rides, he was doing great because he was getting all the fluid, energy and sodium his body could handle, but after a few hours the excess carbohydrate sloshing around in his system was making him nauseous, bloated and ill.
Edited by anonymous-user on Monday 6th October 17:10
If the hills are sapping your energy, go and practice riding up hills. Don't worry about distance, just go for a spin and ride up a few hills - regularly. Once the hills start getting easier, ride up a few more, or find some steeper ones. You should notice one of two things happening: either it will get easier, or your times will improve (or possibly both!)
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