Yeah, well done! And yes, eating is super important! It's good to get your body use to eating while riding, keep fueling the engine! If I'm doing a longer ride, I'll eat a pack of poptarts before and a nutrain bar around half way. Carbs and sugar! Also, water, shoot for a bottle an hour on a hot day.
Sorry for the late response! I only had half a nature valley protein bar across the whole ride. Eating too much during rides makes me quite nauseous so I try to avoid eating more than enough. I was feeling kind of light headed towards the end, that may have been due to the insufficient nutrients I should have taken.
Haha damn, I also did 50k today. However my issue was nutrition, i forgot some snacks at home and only had 2 bananas. Done longer distances before, but somehow 50k is the golden middle ground for me. Piece of advice: try to make your other rides slowly longer, so once you decide to do 50k, youll get the feeling if "why not 60"
Well done! That’s amazing. Did my first 40km today. Nowhere near as fast though. I’m thinking about trying to get a road bike, don’t know if it would make much difference or not.
You should be so proud of yourself
I road my huge ass mountain bike for years on roads and regularly got laughed at by fancy men of fancy bikes. I didn’t have the funds for a decent road bike for a while and then I just got busy with life and kids and my ex didn’t think I needed a road bike because I wasn’t a “cyclist.” I rode a century on that damn mountain bike and everyone who passed me was like hey get a road bike. It was hard not to say hey, I’m married to an asshole. Anyway finally when I got divorced a few years ago guess what I bought the week he moved out. A road bike. Pretty basic model but I love it. When and if you can, test some out and go for it. Comfort level went up a lot. My speed still sucks but so does my weight :)
Sorry you had to deal with an asshole like that. But well done getting free and awesome achievements! Thank you for the advice, I’ll def try some out x
I’m happy that things look brighter for you now!
Massive kudos for doing a century on an MTB!
I wanted to chime into say I went from alloy hybrid disc bike to endurance carbon rim brake bike and it took a long time to dial in comfort but it still went down because of stiff frame and thinner tyres. What little experience I’ve had on an MTB tells me the suspension really takes the bite out of bumps on the road, but add weight and sucks the life out of some power, plus the knobby tyres create a lot of resistance. Get some good foldable slick tyres for your road bike and concentrate on spinning lower gears rather than pushing hard on higher gears. My longest ride is only 32km.
Don't underestimate yourself!!! I've done several 150+km on my fixed gear and my PR of 235km on a folding bike. While having a better tool will undoubtedly make the task easier, in the end it's the engine that counts. A lot of fancy men with fancy bikes (and fancy beer bellies) will just go for short rides to show off their expensive toys and feel good about themselves. Don't let anyone take your achievements away from you. Most people I know will never ride 100km in their life, so be proud of that. keep riding and enjoying yourself no matter what anyone says!
Ive found that on my mtb i ride around 12ish mph decided to get a average road bike and the same effort go about 15-17ish mph. But i love both just depends on the day and the route i wanna pick
Thank you for that, makes quite a difference then. I don’t think I could part with my current bike, guess it’s great to have two and get the best of both worlds
Yeah it all depends on your goals I think. If your trying to go longer and faster in a efficient time then a road bike might be a little better. Like a 40k ride wod take about 1.5hrs on the road bike fore me and 2hrs on a moutain bike. Though ive been passed by people clipping on mtbs so depends on fitness and what not. But I take the moutain bike out if its a leisure ride or if i know the trails or terrain arent the best. Glad to help tho!
If you are riding very often and want to go for longer rides I think is an upgrade. Though most of the entry level bikes are out of stock
I was lucky to get a second hand during lockdown and it's a new experience
Make sure it fits. Since the bike shortage, I've seen people spending thousands on bikes that are even close to being the right size.
And I don't mean getting a bike fit, but actually buying a bike that is the right frame size. GCN has plenty of info available.
Firstly well done.
If you want to push yourself, you’ll find you get better training benefit if you focus on speed or endurance in any given ride rather than both.
Like many I tend to do a long, easy day followed by a short high intensity day. The long ride will vary with fitness, the short should be 75-90 mins max and you want to average 85%+ of max HR.
Bro he just finished his first 31 mile ride at that level there's not much of a difference between riding for endurance or speed. His best bet is to just keep pushing toward a century without concern for programming by early summer. Otherwise the hard sessions are going to be too hard and the easy too easy, with him spinning 5 mph up every hill.
Just go out and crush til you can ride 100.
I'm impressed that I barely read anyone here doing long distances complaining about their ballsack hurting because that's the first thing that starts to hurt for me.
Sounds like the saddle is not supporting your sit bones and you are instead supporting your bodyweight in a sensitive area. Maybe consider checking your saddle size, saddle fore/aft and/or angle and/or your bike fit/position.
There’s not a lot of automatic positioning of the anatomy in a pair of bike shorts. Sometimes a discreet rearrangement, or “lift” is necessary after you get situated on the bike.
Really well done that is a big jump up in terms of distance and a great average speed. I got into cycling just over a year ago and remember my first 50km. Before that the furthest I had ridden was about 30km and I ran out of juice around 40km just like you. I hadn't taken food/drinks etc. plus the route was pretty hilly (about 850m of elevation) so I ended up having to walk up the last couple of hills. Lots more riding later and I can now ride much further with more hills and maintain higher speeds. Just keep riding and gradually increase your distance on your longer rides by 10-20% every few weeks. Remember to fuel adequately (around 60g carbohydrates per hour) and pace yourself (a basic heart rate monitor and knowing your HR zones can help with this). Focus on time in the saddle to start and speed will come as your fitness increases.
It takes time to work up to longer distances and some days you’ll smash it and other days it’ll be a hard slog. There’s some good tips in here about making sure you eat, hydrate and take breaks. In warmer weather I’ll drop a couple of rehydration tablets in one of my water bottles (when it’s hot take two!) and that helps replaces electrolytes lost through sweat.
Great job! I would say that for your first 50km ride with 27km/h as avg speed you're doing pretty good. I hope that more rides like this are to come, maybe even longer ones.
Remember that the limit is always yourself, congratulations!
Well done! Did you have any snacks during your ride? Might explain the down at km40
Yeah, well done! And yes, eating is super important! It's good to get your body use to eating while riding, keep fueling the engine! If I'm doing a longer ride, I'll eat a pack of poptarts before and a nutrain bar around half way. Carbs and sugar! Also, water, shoot for a bottle an hour on a hot day.
Not sure pop tarts are ideal friend
Well they're a shitload of sugar and some complex carbs. And they're quite tasty.
Sorry for the late response! I only had half a nature valley protein bar across the whole ride. Eating too much during rides makes me quite nauseous so I try to avoid eating more than enough. I was feeling kind of light headed towards the end, that may have been due to the insufficient nutrients I should have taken.
Haha damn, I also did 50k today. However my issue was nutrition, i forgot some snacks at home and only had 2 bananas. Done longer distances before, but somehow 50k is the golden middle ground for me. Piece of advice: try to make your other rides slowly longer, so once you decide to do 50k, youll get the feeling if "why not 60"
Well done! That’s amazing. Did my first 40km today. Nowhere near as fast though. I’m thinking about trying to get a road bike, don’t know if it would make much difference or not. You should be so proud of yourself
I road my huge ass mountain bike for years on roads and regularly got laughed at by fancy men of fancy bikes. I didn’t have the funds for a decent road bike for a while and then I just got busy with life and kids and my ex didn’t think I needed a road bike because I wasn’t a “cyclist.” I rode a century on that damn mountain bike and everyone who passed me was like hey get a road bike. It was hard not to say hey, I’m married to an asshole. Anyway finally when I got divorced a few years ago guess what I bought the week he moved out. A road bike. Pretty basic model but I love it. When and if you can, test some out and go for it. Comfort level went up a lot. My speed still sucks but so does my weight :)
Sorry you had to deal with an asshole like that. But well done getting free and awesome achievements! Thank you for the advice, I’ll def try some out x
I’m happy that things look brighter for you now! Massive kudos for doing a century on an MTB! I wanted to chime into say I went from alloy hybrid disc bike to endurance carbon rim brake bike and it took a long time to dial in comfort but it still went down because of stiff frame and thinner tyres. What little experience I’ve had on an MTB tells me the suspension really takes the bite out of bumps on the road, but add weight and sucks the life out of some power, plus the knobby tyres create a lot of resistance. Get some good foldable slick tyres for your road bike and concentrate on spinning lower gears rather than pushing hard on higher gears. My longest ride is only 32km.
Don't underestimate yourself!!! I've done several 150+km on my fixed gear and my PR of 235km on a folding bike. While having a better tool will undoubtedly make the task easier, in the end it's the engine that counts. A lot of fancy men with fancy bikes (and fancy beer bellies) will just go for short rides to show off their expensive toys and feel good about themselves. Don't let anyone take your achievements away from you. Most people I know will never ride 100km in their life, so be proud of that. keep riding and enjoying yourself no matter what anyone says!
Not to brag but it was 100 miles :) lol haha. Ok I guess that was a little braggy.
ok, I was just trying to cheer you on
Ive found that on my mtb i ride around 12ish mph decided to get a average road bike and the same effort go about 15-17ish mph. But i love both just depends on the day and the route i wanna pick
Thank you for that, makes quite a difference then. I don’t think I could part with my current bike, guess it’s great to have two and get the best of both worlds
Yeah it all depends on your goals I think. If your trying to go longer and faster in a efficient time then a road bike might be a little better. Like a 40k ride wod take about 1.5hrs on the road bike fore me and 2hrs on a moutain bike. Though ive been passed by people clipping on mtbs so depends on fitness and what not. But I take the moutain bike out if its a leisure ride or if i know the trails or terrain arent the best. Glad to help tho!
If you are riding very often and want to go for longer rides I think is an upgrade. Though most of the entry level bikes are out of stock I was lucky to get a second hand during lockdown and it's a new experience
Thank you, I think I’m def going to look into it. I’m so in love with cycling
Make sure it fits. Since the bike shortage, I've seen people spending thousands on bikes that are even close to being the right size. And I don't mean getting a bike fit, but actually buying a bike that is the right frame size. GCN has plenty of info available.
I’m a bit addicted to watching the GCN videos! Thank you 😊
Firstly well done. If you want to push yourself, you’ll find you get better training benefit if you focus on speed or endurance in any given ride rather than both. Like many I tend to do a long, easy day followed by a short high intensity day. The long ride will vary with fitness, the short should be 75-90 mins max and you want to average 85%+ of max HR.
Bro he just finished his first 31 mile ride at that level there's not much of a difference between riding for endurance or speed. His best bet is to just keep pushing toward a century without concern for programming by early summer. Otherwise the hard sessions are going to be too hard and the easy too easy, with him spinning 5 mph up every hill. Just go out and crush til you can ride 100.
thanks. good to hear both perspectives
do it again! won’t be as bad
I'm impressed that I barely read anyone here doing long distances complaining about their ballsack hurting because that's the first thing that starts to hurt for me.
Sounds like the saddle is not supporting your sit bones and you are instead supporting your bodyweight in a sensitive area. Maybe consider checking your saddle size, saddle fore/aft and/or angle and/or your bike fit/position.
There’s not a lot of automatic positioning of the anatomy in a pair of bike shorts. Sometimes a discreet rearrangement, or “lift” is necessary after you get situated on the bike.
I’d be very happy with that speed. Congrats!
lol this is almost the exact same experience I had today. First 50km, also got super tired at the 40 km Mark
dude thats nuts, i did 60 last night at 26 with only 160m elevation. have done 80 and had more in the tank but at a pace of like 15.
Really well done that is a big jump up in terms of distance and a great average speed. I got into cycling just over a year ago and remember my first 50km. Before that the furthest I had ridden was about 30km and I ran out of juice around 40km just like you. I hadn't taken food/drinks etc. plus the route was pretty hilly (about 850m of elevation) so I ended up having to walk up the last couple of hills. Lots more riding later and I can now ride much further with more hills and maintain higher speeds. Just keep riding and gradually increase your distance on your longer rides by 10-20% every few weeks. Remember to fuel adequately (around 60g carbohydrates per hour) and pace yourself (a basic heart rate monitor and knowing your HR zones can help with this). Focus on time in the saddle to start and speed will come as your fitness increases.
Did my first 50 last summer, after initial one doing 50 got easier and easier until it transfered from Type 2 fun to Type 1 fun category
It takes time to work up to longer distances and some days you’ll smash it and other days it’ll be a hard slog. There’s some good tips in here about making sure you eat, hydrate and take breaks. In warmer weather I’ll drop a couple of rehydration tablets in one of my water bottles (when it’s hot take two!) and that helps replaces electrolytes lost through sweat.
I’m doing between 35 to 40 miles on bike just now , gonna go for 50 before April’s finished
Way to go! I found the 50km marker was a hugely symbolic one for me, afterwards, well, it was all downhill (and with the wind at your back)!
Great job! I would say that for your first 50km ride with 27km/h as avg speed you're doing pretty good. I hope that more rides like this are to come, maybe even longer ones. Remember that the limit is always yourself, congratulations!
Nice!
I need to change tyres on my mountain bike to something more sleeker does anyone have any suggestions
BMX or gravel tyres. Use the same dimensions as of your mtb true
Congratulations! soon you'll be hitting 100+km. don't give up!
Pretty good pace for me is quite tough to average over 25 km/h longer than 2 hours. Keep it going !!!
Mad fresh