Challenge

GerryRyan

Ok, here goes.

I've just signed up for a four day cycle form Mizen to Malin Head, it's on next June.

For someone who never took cycling too seriously (just a few miles the odd weekend), how would I go about preparing for this.

Should I just start adding mileage every other weekend or start using leg weights or something.

I have few months to get in shape for this.
What else should I take into account ?

Any help / suggestions would be appreciated.

Genghis

ThatGuy wrote:

Ok, here goes.

I've just signed up for a four day cycle form Mizen to Malin Head, it's on next June.

For someone who never took cycling too seriously (just a few miles the odd weekend), how would I go about preparing for this.

Should I just start adding mileage every other weekend or start using leg weights or something.

I have few months to get in shape for this.
What else should I take into account ?

Any help / suggestions would be appreciated.

The best preparation you can do for this sort of challenge is cycling, focussing on a long-distance weekend cycle, a hills session, a spinning session and at least another short session.

As you will probably be riding in the region of 160kms per day, you will need to endure about 7hrs in the saddle. Consequently you will need to build up the long-distance weekend cycle to this level by (say) late April / early May. In the intervening time start with maybe 90 mins and build up from there. Make sure you never miss the long-distance session, and remember to increase it gradually.

As for the other sessions - you could do the hills session on the weekend (an hour or two would do you here if it is reasonably hilly), but the other sessions might be more challenging to fit in over the winter months. Can you get outside in the daylight during the week? You might consider getting a trainer for indoors whereby you can hook the bike up indoors / in your backyard and fo a substitute session.

At the start the mid-weeks spins need only be 30-45 mins in duration, and you would never really need to go over 2 hrs with these.

It might also be an idea to take a couple of weekends where you do 100km rides back-to-back so you get a sense of whats needed for recovery etc.

One other thing is important - when you cycle you are probably burning 700-1000 calories per hour (depending on the terrain, your pace, your weight, your bike, etc). This will be less of a problem when you are going to 2 hours, but oiver this you need to take sufficient food with you for the ride. If you are doing, for example a 7 hour cycle, you are going to run out of breakfast 2 hours in, and from that point on you need to eat to keep yourself in fuel - it can be quite substantial the amount of food you need to take with you.

Hydration is also v. important - sip water / diluted orange with dash of salt / lucozade sport every 10-15 minutes throughout.