First 100mile Charity Ride this Sunday May 7th!

[Wizzer]

I have signed up for the Tour De Cure 100mile charity ride this coming Sunday, I have been a cycling instructor for 3 years now but know that riding outside is very different. I have only been out on the road once and gone 23 miles or so.

I could use some advice as how to tackle this event with snacks and hydration etc. Anyone out there able to help????

Wizzer

[Veronica]

Eat before you're hungry, drink before you're thirsty. If you use a HRM be sure to keep your heart rate well below your lactate threshhold - even on the climbs if you can.

I make sure I drink every 15 minutes and eat a little something every 30.

Good luck!

V.

[Trekhawk]

Good Luck and dont forget to let us know how you get on.

[Trek420]

Veronica sez "Eat before you're hungry, drink before you're thirsty." and pee before you gotta go.

Have a great ride! and we want the ride report

[Starfish]

pee before you gotta go.

This is a little off-topic, but this cracked me up. Pee before you gotta go...uh, when is that? I seem to drink a lot, even more than a lot of other riders I know, and one of the biggest challenges I face on long rides is where to pee? I swear I've peed behind every tree and down every gravel road in my county, furtively hoping a pickup or logging truck doesn't come around the corner.

Anyhow, for the Century, for me it helps me to be disciplined in eating soon/often enough, and in easily digestible quantities, if I make it easy to eat...put a few bites of something in my Bento Box on the top tube, tear the wrapper ends on my food so I can easily bite off a chunk on the go, etc.

Good luck!

[Trek420]

Starfish and all,

You may find that nothing's too OT here

I recall on this years "epic brutal Cinderella ride" as I was leaving the first rest stop I overheard on gal comment to another "these riders seem to have a routine?".

You betcher buttbalm I have a routine.

Goes a little something like this:
ride in to rest stop
park the bike (try to remember where I parked)
leave the helmet and gloves strapped on the bike ~ less for me to carry, more important it's not hygenic for you to be picking up food and eating from your less than sanitary bike gloves.
take empty water bottle off front cage with me and switch with rear bottle (if you're been drinking enough it should be empty).
head for food/hydration bev area pretty much eating and drinking as I go
refill water bottle, peruse food for favorites; ooh, look animal cookies, bananas...
head for portapotty and get in line, continue eating, drinking, stretching, saying hi etc.
get to front of line-stop eating and put the water bottle to the side or on table
if it's hot and I'm going to be taking in a lot of water I may get back in line.

On ALC4 most days I made it a routine to hit the portapotties twice at each stop, once again before I left. I seem to have a bladder the size of a walnut. Yeah, that's why I'm slow. But I was able to take in a lot of water, only had to "make my own rest stop" once in a week and that was at a point where I knew I had about 15 miles with no "civilization" or services ahead.