Training for long rides

[jobob]

Just curious, how long is your daylight during mid-summer ?

[Starfish]

I sure can't add anything to the expertise of the long-long-distance women here, but only my own experience (which is limited to 100 miles of climbing rides).

You might check out the online books for sale by Arnie Baker. I bought his ACE (Altitude-Climbing-Endurance) book, and found it VERY helpful training for my first really hilly century. I especially appreciated his training schedules of climbing/miles for the last 8 weeks or so. I couldn't do all the miles and climbing he suggested, but I used the principles, and I feel sure that they helped.

The other thing, for me anyhow, is that the long weekend rides REALLY helped me prepare mentally, and I believe physically, too. I knew at what mile certain parts of me might hurt, and how I'd handle the nutrition, etc, so that when things came up on the day of the ride itself, I could say, oh, this is normal, I can push through it.

Good luck on your ride. That is an amazing goal.

[lph]

Yep, I'm beginning to understand that a successful ride means as much mental preparation as physical. I've done a fair bit of long days hiking and climbing, but I get really down/weepy when I'm tired (sleepy) and I have no tolerance at all for getting hungry. My dh knows enough to just hand me food when I start getting snarky

Daylight - we don't have midnight sun proper in Oslo, but it's light all day round. You could probably read outside almost all night. The sun slides down at a very gentle angle and just barely dips below the horizon, so you just have bright twilight for a few hours rather than any real darkness.

The downside is that I have to commute both ways in the dark for weeks in winter...