This Bike MS ride has gotten me to thinking about riding and how I approach riding a hundred mile day.
The stuff I occupy myself with, out in the heat on a long uphill and into the wind.
Anyway, first was to get my brain around the number. A hundred miles is 162km or so. This exercise is why I play with kilometers primarily rather than miles to make my brain work on the conversions. Still a long day. For a hundred miles my average speed is down around 12 to 15mph. Or 20 to 25kph. That’s a ten hour saddle day, plus time off the saddle. That starts the calculus for fuel load. All those packets of LMNT+. Sunscreen, cables to charge stuff and that power pack.
Prep for my bicycle is down to just a few little things. I’ll likely ride with the Revelate Tangle bag and two small bottles and my seat bag. Since the photo below, I’ve swapped the cages for side load cages that I have oriented to load from the right.
There are plenty of rest stops along the Bike MS route, so I may skip the Tangle bag. Mostly depends on weather.
Anyway as far as training for that Bike MS ride, I’ll just continue as I am. I can ride 100 miles on my own right now. How, I got to that is pretty simple. I began riding. Did some thinking and rode a bit more. Experimented a bit and finally figured it out.
Two places to begin, both concern comfort. I am going to be on this bike for around eight hours. Remembering those bad old cubical days and how that terrible ergo chair got to be a pain a few hours in. Taking that long walk to the restroom and break room for relief and a fresh cup.
First is how the bike fits. Second is kit, both shorts/bibs padding and fit and jersey fit, function and breathability.
Bike fit? Get it done. Even just the simple rule of thumb stuff is good. The tech as well as the preferred positions have evolved since back in the days of friction shifting.
Reach, saddle, bar drop, gears, cleat placement. The whole deal. Worth the thought and money. Pay attention to body pains. Stiff neck, sore shoulders, tingling hands hotspots at the sit bones or worse in the nether regions and of course numb feet/toes, hot spots on footpad or blisters on short rides. Socks and shoes and attention to sizing. Bib/shorts seat padding is worth the cost. Also spending big money doesn’t guarantee quality. Experimentation costs money. Good advice and references then trials. I’ve gotten lucky with shorts. I began with real chamois back in the day when the butter was to soften the chamois, rather than applied to body creases and points. Padding back then was minimal. Now it is carefully computer designed. For me, the Voler Black Label are excellent. Careful washing with gentle detergent and cycles and always hanging drying out of the sun, have made for long service life. There may be other brands and styles, but I’m not inspired to experiment once I’ve found a solution.
My latest find for hot riding are the aero style jersey option also from Voler. I’m trending toward smaller sizing and my first jersey of this style in medium proved very good. A small would likely be a shorter jersey for me which would be welcome, and maybe only slightly tighter fit which likely won’t be a problem.
I find the whole sizing thing pretty odd. Back in my racing days more than 40 years ago, I wore size medium in everything. The first thing to change sizes were gloves, but that began a decade prior when my medium ski gloves needed to become large. Then occasionally extra large. When buying gloves in actual sizes that size never changed. Always 9.5. Weird.
Once the comfort side of the ride is addressed, all that is left is riding and spares and the all important hydration and fueling. I find training for long rides required me to get rigorous about fueling. This is particularly important in the heat. I notice it less in the cool, or cold for us. I began using Nuun tablets several years ago after getting back into riding with some other brands. I did use some gummy blocks and gels, but found them expensive and not providing the electrolytes for cramp relief I began needing. One I got to where I was riding farther and harder in hotter conditions, electrolyte became more important and indeed necessary. First were those Nuun Tablets. Very easy to carry in an old 35mm film can instead of the larger packaging tube they come in. They were mild on my stomach which was sensitive to too sweet of solutions. About a year ago, I started getting foot and leg cramps and even back cramps while riding in the heat here. A friend suggested LMNT+, so I gave it a try. LMNT+ is very salty and presented as such. I found I got used to the saltiness very quickly and it was mild on my stomach and any cramping was magically gone. I now buy lots of four boxes at a time to always have enough in the cupboard. On a normal ride, where I might go for four hours or more, I make sure to carry at least four packets, plus the one mixed in a bottle.
When I first began taking electrolytes seriously, I set a notification timer on my Wahoo Elemnt Bolt to notify me to drink every ten minutes. I find in the heat, if I’m working very hard, I need to drop that to every five minutes. Likewise in winter I lengthen the interval out to ten minutes and even fifteen. It is quite dependent for me on effort level and weather. I know from my data I only burn an average of 500 calories per hour at my usual effort level. On a long social ride, I know this is less if I don’t do any hard efforts.
Then there is food. Back in the day, we carried all sorts of things, Bananas being the most common. Small bananas were best for easily fitting in a jersey pocket. We carried baked potatoes, with a light bit of olive oil and salt and pepper, in a sandwich bag or fig newtons. Granola bars of various types, avoiding chocolate after one was tried on a hot ride and the experience of the resulting mess. I have experimented making my own, flapjacks or granola bars. I tried a recipe from, “The Plant Based Cyclist” and messed it up a little, but also we have a wonky oven to play into the mix. But, those homemade were good. I just need to work out how to make then dry out a bit more and stick together better.
To illustrate how easy a group ride of a hundred miles can be at social speeds I rode a total of 95 miles the other day with a small group. We set off in the morning from a train station about 8 miles from my house so I got in that mileage to the meet up, and repeated it in reverse to get back home. With the group, there was some slightly spirited riding, but nothing aerobic. We weren’t racing we were riding to enjoy. That ride took in total around twelve hours with the train ride back and a long late lunch. My usual routine on a long ride is to stop every hour, refill bottles, apply sunscreen to my nose and face, use a restroom and eat a few dried apricots or have part of a granola bar or a fig cookie or two. When stopped I stretch my back side to side, twist, twist and roll my neck and arch and hump my back, (Cat/Cow).
I want to get a couple of hundred mile days in on my own so I’m fully ready. With the heat we’ve been experiencing that will mean waking then getting going early. I have been riding with the groups during the week on early rides so I’m used to waking at around 5:30. I should be able to get on the road by 7:30 at the latest. In April of 2025 I rode a hundred on my own and my total time was around eight and a half hours. Riding time was two hours less. I figure halfway is around The park at Peter’s Canyon and San Diego Creek. That’s sound the four hour mark and a good stop for lunch as there is plenty of shade and water. All the climbing is on the front end of the ride. I can load a little more using my now more usual route out to the Cow Camp development and include the little climb south of the river and the east end of the river road loop. Right now part of that route is torn up for paving. It was really rough on Sunday. I’ll skip that area until they get the new pavement and lines down. Below is a QR code to link to either donate to MS via our team or join our team. Any amount is a help as far as donation. That QR code also links to plenty of information about the ride and MS.
Thank you, and I’ll have more updates in the next issue.
Along The Way 