Advice needed before long ride next Sat.

[Zen]

Rest and eat right.
Your training is over. Your performance depends on how you ride the ride.
Stop at all the rest stops, eat smart and drink lots.

[rij73]

I'm not an expert, but I would probably ride as long a ride as you can tomorrow, and then take two days off (lots of rest and food).

[alpinerabbit]

Carboloading -
Tomorrow, ride about 1,5-2 hours, rather hard. This will empty your glycogen stores. Then refuel on pasta to fill them up nice and good. Rest until the big day. Eat foods low in fiber until then.

[Smilie]

Alpinerabbit why do you eat low fiber foods till then? Is there another reason besides the obvious?

[Sindyeli]

thanks for the posts. I'm surprised to see so much rest recommended. I also talked to a biker today, he said ride the next 3 days, easy for the next 2 and on day 3 make sure to incorporate an easy hill or 2. His explanation for this was that it would rev up my cardiovascular system and have me ready for the big day.
Hmm, not sure what to do, but I'll take a bit of every advice and make up my own cocktail!

[kfergos]

I can't tell you what to do, but I can tell you what I've done before long rides:

1. Take the day before off, or ride only very lightly. I like to be completely well rested before a long ride. Plus it gives your buns a chance to get off the saddle, and you can wash your favorite bike clothes to wear for your long ride.
2. Eat lots of carbs the day before, but also make sure to drink a lot, even if it's just water. If your ride is in the morning, eat the previous lunch and dinner carbo-loading; if it's in the afternoon, you'd eat dinner and breakfast carbo-loading, etc. I don't know if eating lots of carbs several days in advance does any real good.
2.a. Eat foods that are familiar to you and that you know won't bother your stomach. Don't experiment the day before your long ride!
3. Eat a BIG bowl of oatmeal (I like it with yogurt, raisins, cinnamon, and brown sugar) on the morning before your ride. Feel full but not agonizingly stuffed. I usually need an hour or so after eating to ride comfortably. A bowl of oatmeal like that will sustain me for 20 miles or more.
4. Bring food with you on your ride that you've eaten before. I always carry 3 or 4 Luna bars for a long ride like that -- I eat at 20 miles, 40 miles, and 60 miles, or whenever I'm hungry. I also carry a banana and lots of water. Eat and drink before you get hungry and thirsty.

On number 4: I can't stress enough the value of eating consistently on a very long ride. I did a 100-mile ride earlier in the summer where I ate sparingly, and it was miserable. I followed that with two 75-mile rides in a row, ate consistently, and felt fabulous. For me a 50-mile ride requires only a few stops along the way, whereas a 70-mile ride is a whole different ballgame. I take a lot more care to be well fed and hydrated on those longer rides (the line for me between long and short is right around 50 miles. 50 isn't too long; 60 is getting there; 70 is definitely long).

[mayanorange]

I haven't done a ride that long yet, but if I may comment as an exercise physiologist/biomechanist, what you don't want to do is a really hard (for you- whether that mean fast/long) bout for about 3-4 days before. Every time you exercise at moderate to hard intensities, you tear muscle fibers. Don't freak, it's natural. Most muscle will repair itself within 3 days, so I'd want to stack the deck to having my muscles fully healed before a high intensity bout. Stretching and low level workouts are good to keep the muscles more adaptable, but you don't want to go into the race with damaged muscles. Some of this damage you won't feel, but I'm sure we all have felt what happens when you decide to overexert yourself with no training specific to whatever it was- the dreaded DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness, aka weekend warrior syndrome). The most likely culprit for causing DOMS is micro-tears in the muscle and the immune response to the tears. But there also maybe be an electrolyte component- so stay hydrated! Good luck!

[alpinerabbit]

Alpinerabbit why do you eat low fiber foods till then? Is there another reason besides the obvious?

Don't know what obvious means to you but it has to do with portaloos and less usage of same.

[Smilie]

Yup, that would be the obvious!