[Closed] Talk to me about 24 hour rides

OK, I've done quite a few ITTs (from the YD200 to the Highland Trail) so this is my take.

Training: just as many long rides as you can fit in to your other commitments. Do a long ride at night, maybe overnight, to let you see how you handle riding in long periods of darkness - though in June there isn't going to be much dark.

I did the HT550 on a Solaris with standard MTB tyres but plus tyres will be a bit comfier but a little slower (possibly). Basically use whatever you are most comfortable with.

Nutrition: don't do anything unusual like changing diet before the ride. I've never bothered with the "correct" intake preferring to carry a mixture of sweet and savoury foodstuffs (in Stem cells) that I can dip in to as and when I need. Basically a whole mixture of stuff that I can choose from as my tastes dictate.

Water might be a problem. I don't know the SDW so don't know the distances between publicly available water sources. If they are fairly close together then you might get away with a single water bottle but you might need a Camelbak if they are further apart and it's hot. Could be worth getting a water filter like the MSR Trailshot which would let you use less salubrious sources.

Work out where any refuelling points like shops and cafes are along with their opening times and write these down along with distances between them. This not so much to pace you but to give you an idea when you are tired if you'll get there in time so if it's 1600 and the shop shuts at 1800 but you are 30km away there's no point in rushing as you are unlikely to make it. Similarly if you were 20km away then putting an effort in would be worth it to get restocked.

If you are riding as a pair or team then split tools and generic spares between you. Should be obvious to service your bike beforehand.

Before food and water when being self-contained I wouldn't expect to be carrying more than 1.5kg of bags and kit for a ride like that.

Here's last year's HT550 setup for up to 5 days:

And here's my YD200 setup.

For something where it's likely that I want to get my head down for quick "power nap" then I might add the seat bag to the above setup with a light down jacket, thermal leggings and perhaps a spare pair of socks. If you get too comfy you don't want to get moving again.

Taps are circa 10 miles apart.

There are relatively few points where shops/pubs/cafes aren’t a diversion off the route.

I’m thinking of the double this year but later on, late Aug/early September.

I plan to do a Winch to East ‘single’  run in May aiming for sub 10 hours and a few night rides along the Winch/QE/Harting area as it’s closest to where I live.

With taps ten miles apart I'd just take one 750ml water bottle and a water filter (the MSR fits in to your hand) in case you need to use a cattle trough or similar. When you get to a tap: "camel up", i.e. drink as much as you can whilst there then fill your bottle ready to move on.

Edit: I should say that the setups shown are the result of taking too much on long rides and slowly reducing the amount of kit to the point where I've just enough to deal with expected conditions plus a little for safety. In the UK this basically means being able to get off the hill and to shelter.

Here's Jenny Graham's (the Stooge) and my setups on the 2017 HT550

Training: just as many long rides as you can fit in to your other commitments

.. and I'd add one really hard ride a week of ~90 mins outdoors, or 45 mins on the turbo. A ratio of long and steady to hard threshold work is ideal for endurance riding. 4 months is good - 3 months of weekly fast+hard rides from now with a couple of easier weeks before the ride.

You can get into more detail with ratios of HR or power zones but the basics of either long and really steady (Z2 HRM) or short and tough (Z4-5 HRM) in a 90:10 or 80:20 ratio simply works. The other option is 'time-crunched' methods, tempo work, if you have say <5hrs a week to ride - not methods I've used though.

remember thinking on Eastbourne beach that the last thing I would want to do at that point in time would be to turn around and head back to Winchester.

I like out-n-backs - I've not done the SDWD but have done the easier Ridgeway Double a few times. Psychologically it's interesting, the turning point is hard but the return leg (to me) always seems to go easier, not physically but it seems that the markers come sooner. It's odd.

I rode a 1000km Audax last year, having not really trained seriously or done any long distance stuff for quite a few years.
I didn't have the free time to do really long training rides, so a lot of my base work was getting out at night after the kids were in bed and doing 2-3 hour rides. Occasionally I'd do a weekend ride of 4-5 hours, and I think I did one hundred miler a few weeks before the event. The longest stage on the Audax was the first day, which was 470km in about 20.5 hours. I got round the whole thing OK, so I learned that doing long hours wasn't necessary to get the required endurance fitness. For me. the key was doing regular rides over 2 hours in length at a decent pace. I think once you are past the two hour mark you are training different physiological mechanisms that are important for endurance riding. A bit of high intensity work as well won't do you any harm, but for the sort of event you are describing, it's all about being able to cruise within your limits for a very long time.
Getting out late at night to do your training also gets you used to riding in the dark at a time when you would rather have your feet up with a cup of tea!

This is all really helpful. Thanks guys.

One thing that occurred to me as I was riding this morning. If your GPS can display either moving time and overall time or moving average speed and overall average speed it's worth having both displayed. The names should indicate what they measure, the idea is to keep the two figures as close as possible which basically means as little stopping as possible.

When you stop, make every second count: get your GPS/lights/phone on charge whilst you are in the cafe queue; listen to the orders of those in front so if there's a "We've run out of X ..." and you were going to order X then you've got time to select an alternative; choose something that's quick for the staff to make; get your water bottle filled when you make your order and again just before you leave (see "camel up" in a previous post).

The difference between someone who's efficient at stops and someone who isn't can be several minutes. That's several minutes you aren't making progress.

I've ridden the SDW countless times over the years, plus a couple of 24 hour double attempts. You need to be able to ride it one direction comfortably in sub-10 hour riding time to be in with a chance of a 24hr double IMO - keep an eye on your moving average as it needs to be 17-18kph on the way out as it'll easily drop to 15-16kph on the return - you'll also accumulate about 45 minutes of stoppage time each way over the route due to gates, water stops etc and you'll fatigue/slow-down on the way back. Plenty of water on the route but don't count on every tap working so best to have a bottle in reserve as there are some stretches where you'll struggle with one bottle in warmer conditions. There are about 6 places where you can pick-up some food on route - QECP, Cocking, Truleigh, Southease, Alfriston and Eastbourne as any deviations off-route loses more time. In terms of nutrition, you should have worked this out in training - the ride itself is not really the time to find out. I would aim to go as light as possible for the conditions and make sure your bike is serviced. I know the route well-enough to not need to navigate by GPS but there are a couple of points where it turns off what would appear to be the natural route - also knowing where the taps are - not stopping / checking GPS saves a fair amount of time.

makes sense. Thanks.

when we did it from Winchester to Eastbourne we managed a smidge under 10 hours moving time. But more like 12-13 with very leisurely stops.

I'm very familiar with the Steyning to Eastbourne section. But not so familiar further west. one of our crew is though...so may be relying on him through the night!