[Closed] Make a 137 mile road ride better

I sure others will disagree (this is STW after all), but road shoes and pedals are much better. Not sure how to justify this, but feel more stable, locked in, don't move around etc. Downside to this, they need to fit and be set up right. Sore legs sounds like lack of training, or maybe not training in the right positions, especially if you were in the drops a lot and not used to it, changes the whole dynamic of your lower back/pelvis. Eat something every half hour after the first hour. Eat a decent breakfast (porridge or similar) before setting off. Drink lots, even on a windy day. dehydration can lead to sore legs as well i believe.

Strap your phone to your bars and watch netflix.

😀😀

I’ve not been out any where near as much as I could, a new wee one in the family has put paid to that

Not sure I have the data on my phone for that much net flix 😀

Hand pain from the vibration over the last 50 miles.

Thicker bar tape, bigger tyre (a 28 should fit in almost any bike, but some 25's are actually >28mm so find some reviews), lower pressure.

Knee pain in my right knee, perhaps my saddle is squint?

There's some fairly basic rules of thumb like pain on the back of your knee, move saddle forward/back/up/down, front of knee do the opposite (I can never remember which, google it).

Feeling absolutely dead inside about 100 miles. I felt much better after 3 gels in an hour. Any suggestions for timing food to avoid this? I already had a written plan that I mostly didn’t stick to

Take nicer food. Including savory stuff and a variety of treats. Not just sweets. A mini pork pie will do nothing for your energy levels but everything for your morale. I work out what a ~100 calorie portion of carbs is (ignore far and protein content those are a bonus it's the carb's your body needs and it needs about 300 an hour (the other ~300 you burn is fat which unless super skinny you have plenty of to last you 140 miles), and eat that every 20 minutes. Take several different foods for variety (savories, sweets, cakes, biscuits, whatever).

e.g. a biscuit has 75 calories, but the magic number your looking for is ~25g of carbs (1g = 4 calories). Which is probably 2-3 biscuits. Much more than 100 calories, but you need the carbs.

Neck pain from being in the drops due to the wind

Raise stem and practice I'm afraid.

Sore legs 4 days later. I’m out as much as is reasonable with a 2 month year old😀

My bars are high (for a road bike). Is dropping the stem a good idea given the neck pain above? If it’s 40mph gusts I’m unlikely to do the ride again.

I’ve got the thickest lizard skin bar tape over bars with foam padding on the tops and gel stuff on the drops.

Tyres are continental gp in 25c. I’ve got 28c that fit but not with mudguards. Is it worth binning the mudguards from a ride of this length? Is it worthgetting some kind of clip on ones that allow the 28s?

Would moving from time mtb clips with specialized carbon mtb shoes to road clips and shoes make much difference? My feet felt mostly fine.

Loosing weight from me is going to be more effective than off the bike

The bike is a Cannondale synapse with 105 group set. Wheels are 1400g cosine ones.

Suggestions welcome 😀

I was replying to it in order, then realized you already had exactly the same answers.................

Stop for lunch and have a proper break. a 70 mile ride before lunch sounds easy. A 67 mile ride after lunch sounds even easier. If you fuel properly it's no different really to doing them on consecutive weekends as long as the pace is steady.

eat a little and often, try not to rely on gels and have proper food. have a decent stop halfway-ish at a cafe for a refuel if possible, in fact break the ride down into manageable chunks and plan some food around them. there's no need to pack loads of food, do some research and look for garages/cafes/shops where you can refuel. as well as being good for you energy levels this can help psychologically as it's just the next place to get to rather than the finish miles away

if it's not raining and the roads are okayish, ditch the mudguards and put the fatter tyres on

hand pain could be anything from position on the bike to tyre pressure to your bars actually being over-padded

knee pain could be lots of things as well, if it was windy it could just be pushing a big gear into a headwind for a prolonged period

if your neck hurts from being in the drops practice being on the brake hoods with your forearms as horizontal as possible, this can be more comfortable over longer periods

if your shoes and pedals feel fine then leave them, i've done thousands of miles on carbon soled mtb shoes and spd pedals with no issue, it also makes walking into cafes easier 🙂

Feeling absolutely dead inside about 100 miles. I felt much better after 3 gels in an hour. Any suggestions for timing food to avoid this? I already had a written plan that I mostly didn’t stick to

As above, it's not a race so stop at a cafe and have a proper meal. Try not to linger too long as it can be hard to get the legs spinning again. Refill your bottles while you're there.

Knee pain could be any number of things. It might be worth investing in a proper bike fit before you go splashing cash on new components.

Firstly good effort getting these sort of mileages in at this stage of the year with the recent weather - you're well ahead of me/most!

Agree with above about the morale bit being important on a long ride.

I can't stand gels and other artificial "sports" foods and drinks. Caffeine does help provide a morale/performance boost, but I'd prefer to stop at a cafe for 10 min than have a gel - see above re. morale

Everyone will be different but my body seems to need salty foods quicker than pure carbs/sugars so for big rides I make a bag up of salted cashews with dried apricots or mango (sounds cringingly STW middle class but helped me through chase the sun). The rare occasions I've bonked it's been because I've not had enough water and salts.

Well positioned stiff (carbon-soled) road shoes make a huge difference. Badly positioned mtb ones could explain your knee pain.

Play around with spacers in the headset and saddle position over some shorter rides if you can. Doesn't have to follow any convention just be right for you.+

I'd ditch the mudguards - pretty sure they will be negating a large chunk of the aero gains you think you're making by being on the drops.

Sorry you actually want to go to your in-laws?

I already had a written plan that I mostly didn’t stick to

My advice is stick to your plan!
There's not a lot to say about fuelling for a long ride. Make sure you eat plenty the day before, have a good breakfast and keep eating and drinking regularly while you are riding. Don't wait until it all goes pear shaped.

It's not so important what you eat, as long as you enjoy eating it while riding.

Your knee problem could be all sorts of things, so no-one here can diagnose that for you remotely. You need to investigate that before you ride and try to work out what is causing the problem. Not necessarily easy to do if it only appears after long hours on the bike, but I would look at things like saddle height, saddle fore/aft position, shoes and plates.

Sorry you actually want to go to your in-laws?

Perhaps the answer is to do the 137 miles from the inlaws

(if for no other reason than the wind is more likely to be behind you)

Bike fit for rides of that distance to sort out any niggles

Wider tyres if you can, maybe thicker or double wrapped bar tape.

Stop and have real food every 50 miles, and some other smaller snack in between. Aim to drink a litre of whatever you fancy in between the meals.

Ride 1mph slower than you you think you should be doing. Spinning along will relieve pressure on aching joints and muscles.

You've managed to pick a direction where it'll almost always be a cross/headwind!

As others have said, your lack of food is probably what's made it grim. Whatever you can do to keep food going into yourself regularly should help. I find that the odd gel really helps with this, but will usually rely on an array of foods. Starting off fully fuelled is important too - if it's an early start and you won't have time to digest breakfast then a good meal the night before and eating as soon as you get moving will probably help.

Since I started doing core strength exercises I've found longer rides much easier - I think it just helps to keep good posture for longer so everything else tires less quickly. I did the Dirty Reaver 200 the other year on minimal training when my son was 3 months old. I'd been able to fit in 3 x 20 min sessions a week (I just do bodyweight stuff in my living room when the others are in bed) and I felt OK after 9.5 hours in the saddle!

137miles is a bloody long way!! Its going to be tough whatever you do.

I should just add that you've become an inspiration - used to enjoy long steady rides and audax in the past, but I reckon a ride to the mother in law's (Derby to Eastbourne) would be great - I'd get there just in time to have to leave 😄

I eat something every 30 minutes. Rotate gel, nak’d bar, malt loaf. I also eat bloks as libitem. It’s not hot at the moment so I don’t need to drink a lot. Stop for something solid to eat at a cafe. At about 80 miles. It will see you good. And eat some porridge before you leave.

Without seeing you, my guess is that your bars are too far away. If you say they are high and you can ride on them then you are leaning too far forwards. The other option is your saddle is too far back. Try moving it forward by half a cm. this will put more weight through your legs.

I regularly ride this sort of distance and never have hand pain.

Full fat Coca Cola is a great boost when you hit a low spot towards the end, you don't need to neck it all, 330ml screw top bottles allow little & often as you ride.

Are your Cosjne wheels tubeless ready? Suggest running the tires a bit softer will make things much more comfortable. 70psi is way nicer than 90psi.

I’ll repeat what others have said, 137 is a bloody good ride.

Jelly sweets, like babies, or cola bottles etc, will reach your blood a little quicker than chocolate does.
Dextrose tabs for the quickest hit of all.
Did i mention, 137 is a bloody good effort, being tired/sore after that isn’t unusual ime.

I ride approx 200mi a week in the winter & would even find your ride quite a challenge - particularly as you are going south into a typically prevailing wind. The wind has been a real issue this year. I ride MTB shoes / cleats in the winter & road shoes / cleats in the summer & see little difference in them except MTBs are easier to walk in. I would use the 38 tyres at lower pressures & fit raceblade mudguards that don’t go through the brake callipers & can sit off the tyre. I would also probably break the ride down with 2-3 brief stops with coffee / light meals.

Want to ride long distances in comfort? Take a tip from the way it used to be done.

This is my long distance set up for 200km (125 miles) day rides.

Upright riding position, triple sprung saddle, and 38mm tyres. 3 speed hub optional.

Steady pace, don't miss a coffee and cake opportunity, don't try to be 'fast', and it's amazing how the miles will roll by - in comfort.

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You don't need drops.

Thanks for the replies and compliments!

Not the best photo, but its the only one I took of it set up.

Food/ Drink

I had a load of torq gels. They taste awesome and don't give me any stomach ache. They were mixed in with a couple of bananas, a couple of savoury sandwiches and cake stop at 50.

For bike packing I've gone for a mixed bag of nuts, dried fruit and chocolate in the past but thought I'd try the roadie way this time.

Last time I did the ride I assumed there would be shops garages on the last 30 miles and there weren't. Hence the fully packed ride this time. I planned the route to be as quiet as possible, hence the lack of cafes.

I was definely fully hydrated according to the number of stops!

I was fully fuelled in the morning. I'd rather be up 10 min earlier to get a full belly.

Position
I've never ridden on the drops 2/3 of a ride before. I don't have the time to do super long rides at the moment. I ride to work most days as spend 1/2 the time on the drops, however that's only 8 miles per day.

I moved the saddle as far forward as it can go at 50 miles which helped the knee.

In Laws

They are lovely! The wind would have been much better on the return journey this time 🙂 I've had significant tail winds on previous rides. The prevailing winds are not in my favour

Wheels/ tyres

The wheels are tubeless ready, the tyres are not. The 25c were at 90. Still managed a slow puncture. There were a lot of neat hawthorn hedges...

I had to rebuild the front, when I put it in the frame it was true side to side but not vertically and I had run out of time to faff so bunged a shimano one on.

The 28's I have are about the limit of the frame. It was second hand to me, a 2010 ( i think) cannondale synapse

@epicyclo

I'm only single sprung and my bum was fine 🙂

My advice is: DON'T

You've already said you were miserable doing it before, and you are going to your in laws!!!!

Stop being a clichéd masochistic hate yourself cyclist!

I recommend driving some of the way, doing a couple of hours on your mountain bike somewhere with good tracks, having a nice pub lunch and then showing up at the in laws just in time to drive the family home.

If that is not feasible, spend the day in bed making love to your wife and then drive there in a fog of post coital bliss.

That looks like a pretty good setup to be fair.
I think I could be tempted by changing to clipon guards to accommodate a larger tyre, but that would be my personal choice, not necessarily what’s best for others.

Definely wasn't miserable for the majority of the ride 🙂

I have had good results using SIS Go energy in my drink bottles, not as much as they recomend though
Its keeping the solid food going in steadily helps as well , malt loaf, Oat bars , banana's
I would stop every 35 miles ish so 35, 70, 105 - finish . Not for long , 20 mins tops
Good effort on the milage , done alot of 100's, never over 120 yet though.
Try sppecialized Bg gloves if you have tingly hands, they have nice ulnar pad which helps

Sounds like you've got it pretty much sorted, the only thing I seem to do differently on my little sojourns is stop at the occasional pub for a pint, 3 packets of crisps, a pork pie and maybe some chips. Obviously great opportunity to refill water bottles etc. Cramp is my enemy on these trips, I don't think I could give up my mudguards though, that's just crazy talk.

Shotblox work well for me, much less plastic rubbish to worry about and it's much easier for me to grab from a jersey pocket while i'm going along.

My normal trips are Manchester to Northamptonshire or Lincolnshire. I've always enjoyed 80+% of the journey, 15 of my last 20 miles into the fen blow wasn't much fun, I was about ready to throw my bike in the ditch and lie down till someone wanted to rescue me.

Found the answer to your problem, you need a bike this size. 🙂

(Christian X of Denmark with wife Duchess Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, ca. 1900s.)

Fair play to you for having the fitness and being awake enough to do this ride with a 2 month old! Especially into a head wind. Chapeau to you.

I find small and subtle shifts of my hands and arms, usually on hoods, helps with me. Often the bit that is most sore are my hands and arms after a really long ride! Shaking my hands out regularly helps a lot.

I had a load of torq gels.

I hope you had the caffeinated ones. They don't do much at the start of a ride, but keep them (or other caffeine) until you are knackered and they give a tremendous boost. I find gels, redbull or coke much easier on my system than coffee which has adverse effects on me.

This is my best tip for long road rides. That and the right bar position.

Also - I make the minimum concessions to comfort, favouring speed where possible. Because a little bit of extra aero can make a difference over a long distance. I wouldn't lash luggage all over my bike, personally. On road there are always enough garages to stop at and get high energy snacks.

Are you talking doing no mileage/low mileage to jumping on a bike and doing 130 miles that’s going to hurt anyone.

Personally I would avoid so many gels, you are not fuelling properly if you need that many

I'd simply up the amount of carbs earlier and probably have some protein in there for the second half to avoid needing fast-acting gels late in the ride. Also drink more as a lot of the low feeling late in a long day is dehydration and that would probably affect food uptake. Some gels need plenty of water with them.

ignore fat and protein content

I wouldn't ignore fat content unless you're already well-practised in long distance pacing. Food with 10% or less fat will get digested much easier. Higher-fat content just plugs up your stomach as the body slowly tries to digest the fat.

Hand pain from the vibration over the last 50 miles.

Knee pain in my right knee, perhaps my saddle is squint?

Maybe. Brooks saddles can end up set further forward than std designs, as yours is and a forward saddle puts more of your upper body weight on the hands. It may be related to knee pain but it's as likely to be cleat positions or anything else.

My bars are high (for a road bike). Is dropping the stem a good idea given the neck pain above?

If your saddle and body C of G was further back and supported more by the legs/pedals you'd be able to lower the front with less negative effect on your arms and shoulders, it should feel looser and more naturally balanced. The sore neck may be more related to bracing/supporting yourself than the looking up.
Edit

I moved the saddle as far forward as it can go at 50 miles which helped the knee.

Hmm. If that's what your knee needs it may be hard to do what your hands/arms/neck-shoulders may need. One for a good bike fitter perhaps.

Molgrips + 1.

Someone will tell you that weight doesn't matter and that XYZg only adds 30s up a hill. But that's a lot of front light and frame bags. and 137 miles is a lot of 30's up a lot of hills. Ditch some of the accessories and treat it as 4x 35 mile rides as far as luggage goes.

If it were me, and assuming an average speed of ~17mph (which nicely makes it 8 hours)

Set off with 2 hours worth of food, 6 portions, say 3 small bags of sweets (the 3 for £1 ones in supermarkets), a banana and a couple of mini pork pies.

Stop at a garage after 2 hours to replenish that.

4 hours in stop for a proper lunch and pickup supplies for the next couple of hours.

Repeat at 6 hours for the last 2.

The bikepacking/ultra racing mentality of "i'm faster than someone who's stopped to get supplies" works when against the clock, but if you just want to enjoy yourself then a few stops to break it up goes a long way.

I'm not adverse to epicyclo's more relaxed pace, I've done it too. But at some point after 8 hours in the saddle you start to question the rationale as to why you're not 50 miles up the road, off the bike recovering with a nice cup of coffee and a slice of cake.

Also, without the extra hand positions to alternate between my palms went numb and didn't recover for about a month!

thisisnotaspoon
...I’m not adverse to epicyclo’s more relaxed pace, I’ve done it too. But at some point after 8 hours in the saddle you start to question the rationale as to why you’re not 50 miles up the road, off the bike recovering with a nice cup of coffee and a slice of cake...

Ah, but my relaxed pace is an average including stops. When I was a lad I was told by the old hands to aim for an average of 10mph on a tour. That doesn't mean riding at 10 mph, but riding at a higher speed so you can afford the stops to achieve the average. Set your own average - these days I use audax as a guide for a day ride.

A rest is a better restorative than a gel and a damn sight more pleasant.

Basically the faster you go, the longer you can afford to stop. That's very important if you're a coffee and cake rider like me. 🙂

I found that was good advice, and it's an enjoyable way to cover a big distance without getting tired.

Obviously a totally useless system if you fancy being a racer or your version of riding is a form of self-punishment. 🙂

So the faster you go, the longer you can afford to stop. That’s very important if you’re a coffee and cake rider like me. 🙂

Obviously a totally useless system if you fancy being a racer or your version of riding is a form of self-punishment. 🙂

There's a grey area inbetween, you can need to get 137miles, and want to do it in less than 13.7 hours without flogging yourself.

Doing ~17mph on the road bike in a nice jersey and shorts, with stiff shoes, in a moderately aerodynamic position, with fast wheels, etc etc. Is no more effort and no objectionably less comfortable than sitting upright on an MTB in baggy clothes, with luggage and low pressure tyres doing 12mph. You just get there several hours quicker (or drink much more coffee and cake).

The self punishment is the person on the slower bike has to put in the same effort level for several hours longer.

Indeed. I rode my Dew with its drop conversion quite a bit in the Netherlands, and it was a chore to keep it above 20mph. I was quite surprised how much harder work certain speed benchmarks were, especially given it was unladen - it simply had bigger tyres (32c), mudguards, a rack and a more relaxed riding position. It was a lot heavier, but of course NL is flat.

So as TINAS says - the difference between 17 and 15mph average riding speed is over an hour extra on the bike over that distance.

Hand pain from the vibration over the last 50 miles.

Position is always important but I think conditioning is often a factor with such complaints too. Good core strength will help hold your body and keep some of the weight off your hands - in my option (I'm not a physio!)

Drop some tyre pressure too, goo up to 28s.

Sore legs 4 days later. I’m out as much as is reasonable with a 2 month year old

Again. Conditioning. Last time I experienced DOMS from cycling was about 5 years ago after an easy winter. Any soreness is mild at best when well conditioned. If time is an issue, looks at some proper training plans, with intervals, etc.

Feeling absolutely dead inside about 100 miles. I felt much better after 3 gels in an hour. Any suggestions for timing food to avoid this? I already had a written plan that I mostly didn’t stick to

Food is very personal and everyone's experience is different. Some claim they can cycle 100s of miles without foods on keto diets. Most of the rest of us, eating regular, in sufficient amounts, at least every hour is absolutely crucial. Your energy and mood can crash in a very short space of time.

Neck pain from being in the drops due to the wind

Meh. Not sure there's a solution. More relaxed position. Conditioning. Still remains a problem amongst ultra racers.

Would moving from time mtb clips with specialized carbon mtb shoes to road clips and shoes make much difference? My feet felt mostly fine.

Personally, I get more discomfort and hotspots in my stiff soled road shoes. Toured thousands of miles in my floppy shimano touring shoes and they're much more comfortable.

Knee pain in my right knee, perhaps my saddle is squint?

First and foremost, I'd make sure it's not too high, which would both cause you to overstretch, and rock your hips on the saddle.

137 miles is a good effort and no matter what you do it'll hurt a bit.

Looks like a lot of stuff attached to your bike you could do without

But I've only done >200k a couple of times, so take that my opinion rather than advice

I stated in the dark. If it was a bit later in the year I could have ditched a couple of Kg of lights. Riding through the city and then into the unlit lanes at roughly rush hour made full lights a no brainier 🙂

in the end it took just over 11 hours. I was aiming for 10 but a couple of mates joined me for the first leg of the ride and they were slower than expected. The wind and an unexpected diversion added the rest.

As for bike of choice I'd love one of these if my commute was flatter : )