Although i’ve been riding for about 189 years and still enjoy every ride i do, i’d like to make some changes. As work/family/life commitments become less onerous, i plan to do some multi-day bike/pack/tour type rides. I’d be interested in how others think i will be able to adapt to much longer days in the saddle.

Currently, i ride 2-3 times a week in the summer, for 15-30 mile rides, mostly across the South Downs. Sometimes trips to Wales for trail centres, once a year to the Alps for some backcountry (semi-assisted) rides. In winter i do less, with some gravel/backroad rides thrown in, 1-2 times a week. Similar mileage.

I’d like to do some 4-6 day off road tours, with stuff on the bike. I think this is achievable even now, with little extra thought/prep. But, i also am planning to do a VERY long distance adventure ride in about 2-3 years time, with a duration of 40-50 days and lots of uphill.

Any specific, or indeed general suggestions which would help me toward this goal?
Plainly do some of them would be a start, but strategically, how best to go from weekend to multi-day trips?

That’s about where I am

Fancy the badger or hebridean way next autumn

ride your bike more, distance is not necessarily relevant but it’s good to get some significantly longer rides under your belt to see how both your body and head deal with both the time and distance on the bike

ride your bike day after day, again distance not necessarily relevant but it’s good to get your body used to getting on a bike for day 3/4/5 when it’s tired and might be used to sitting on a sofa

fit riding your bike into every spare moment of your daily life, find excuses to ride to places, and back, friends that lived 200+kms away were very handy for this sort of thing but we can’t do that now

find all the clothes and bike bits that make this comfortable

I would say have one longer ride per week. Gradually build it up until you can manage 5-6 hours. Pacing is key zone1-2 only, some zone 3 when climbing but the longer you spend in that zone the closer you are to being done for the day.
Then throw in some back to back days just to get a feel of what its like. But remember, go slow to go long.

Fitness and time on bike are good (obviously!)
But when I’ve done longish tours in the past it’s more mental adjustment and mindset that make the difference.
You can ride into fitness, as long as your base level is ok, but the fact of just getting ready and going is most if the battle.

Read ‘Journey to the centre of the earth’ by Nicholas and Richard Crane.
This inspired most of the longer bike tours and adventures I did in my 20s.

@JoB
Thanks Jo… as you actually have ridden with me many times, the comedy of me wanting to do long rides that go uphill for miles can’t be lost on you? (chunk / Lee Salvidge)

I’ve done a few multi-day rides in the past (the SDW and 4-5 back to back longer rides when on holidays) but day-in day-out long distance point-to-point riding is new to me.

Good tips about working within certain thresholds too, as most of my rides are short enough to be done a pretty much full tilt and still survive. Pace has never been my strength. Strength is my strength in fact. Sprint, power down, push big gears.

Day-after-day riding is my first plan, without distance (and therefore time) becoming an issue. Them move to more sporadic but long miles multi-day rides after.

@ajantom

Read ‘Journey to the centre of the earth’ by Nicholas and Richard Crane.
This inspired most of the longer bike tours and adventures I did in my 20s.

Thanks i’ll check that out.

In September I did a 450km trip over 4 days, 3 days at 130km and one day at 60km.

The 130km days were about 9 hours total elapsed time, about 7 hours actual saddle time. It was mostly gravel so the average pace was relatively low e.g. 15-17km/h.

The previous December I had had surgery on my lower back, so was building up from a pretty low mileage from January through to September. By August I was average approx 7-9hrs a week either on the road bike or on the gravel bike. No big efforts, all pretty sustainable zone 2 endurance style riding. I started to build up the distance of any single ride from approx 80km up to 125km, using the kit I would use on my tour. This gave me a chance to try out some great local long distance routes as well.

Come the September mini-tour, the legs were absolutely fine and comfort on the bike at the end of each day was fine as well, good saddle choice, good bibshorts and taking care over pacing and nutrition (get a top tube/fuel cell bag and stuff it with wee mini treats/gels/shot bloks etc) meant I never really felt effects of fatigue other than the battering I was getting through my rigid forks by then end, next time I’ll fit a suspension stem.

So yeah, as above basically, aim for 8-10hrs riding a week, get used to the kit you want to use and start experimenting with single long days.

Have a wee look at some of the Tour Divide training blogs,gives you a good idea of what’s required,even if you are not doing race pace.

hi Lee (waves),
you’ve done the hard bit by deciding that you’re going to do this thing, the rest is, um, easy

as it’s you i can recommend the book i wrote on this very subject, there aren’t any training plans in there, i’ve never followed one and there are entire other books on the subject from people that know what they’re talking about if you want to go down this path, but there is just solid practical advice about building up to longer and day on day rides from some of the most experienced riders out there, the pictures are nice too

I find it isn’t the mileage, or even necessarily the time, it’s the cumulative climbing that does it for me. A few years back my day ‘ceiling’ was about 4,000 ft, now it’s probably double that, or more if I’m going well.

Good tips about working within certain thresholds too, as most of my rides are short enough to be done a pretty much full tilt and still survive. Pace has never been my strength. Strength is my strength in fact. Sprint, power down, push big gears.

Same here. All day effort on a loaded bike, as a rough guide, is 1-2 sprockets up the cassette from my normal pace. Get used to holding a bit back.

Riding often during the winter months was what made the biggest difference, but you’re clearly doing that. If you’re doing SDW singles then multiday distance really shouldn’t be much of a jump up.

I do a tour most years of 12 – 15 days averaging around 40 – 50 miles a day, I don’t do any training I just ride my bike. Even when I have not ridden much in previous months its still no issue. Just be prepared to be slow. Low gears are your friend.

But, i also am planning to do a VERY long distance adventure ride in about 2-3 years time, with a duration of 40-50 days and lots of uphill.

Any specific, or indeed general suggestions which would help me toward this goal?

If you want to tour, just figure out what keeps you comfortable and what’s durable and how to fix it / keep it running. If you want to go a bit faster and keep a pace, or just cope better physically at a lower pace, the tip about TDR or TCR training blogs is good even if some of them may not be training that effectively. Prep isn’t the same as training imo, ie you could go out and do loads of 3-5 day riders and end up no faster but you would have more experience.
Basically to get faster / be able to hold a pace day after day without burying yourself you need to change this

Pace has never been my strength. Strength is my strength in fact. Sprint, power down, push big gears.

..to riding either really slow (Z2) or really hard (proper hard) and polarise it 80:20 to 90:10 easy:hard.

@JoB
Thanks, i’ll take a read. Writing and drawing eh! Is there no end……

@fasthaggis

Have a wee look at some of the Tour Divide training blogs,gives you a good idea of what’s required,even if you are not doing race pace.

The flipping Tour Divide is what’s got me into this unusual state of contemplation. But yes, that’s what i’m currently doing. Ta.

@martinhutch

If you’re doing SDW singles then multiday distance really shouldn’t be much of a jump up.

Ah, well i’m not currently doing a SDW-in a day type distance. 2 day SDW is best so far.

Now which pinion, belt drive, ‘not steel’ short forked hardtail for bikepacking easy off-road trails? It’s the new kit that’s driving me to it really…..

Ah, well i’m not currently doing a SDW-in a day type distance. 2 day SDW is best so far.

That gives you a realistic target for a longer Spring ride. I normally try to get in a couple of longer day outings – 60 miles/6-7000ft of climbing as early as I can in the year.

I was interested to look at the stats for the TD video series someone posted up today. Admittedly, it only covers the stuff to the south of the border, but there wasn’t as much climbing as I expected per mile covered. The bloke in the video was running a belt drive, by the looks of it.

The bloke in the video was running a belt drive, by the looks of it.

He was. An American made frame. As the current owner of a Sonder Signal Ti, i was quite interested in Sonders ‘bespoke’ option for Pinion bikes. Might have a look there first.

I was interested to look at the stats for the TD video series someone posted up today. Admittedly, it only covers the stuff to the south of the border, but there wasn’t as much climbing as I expected per mile covered.

It doesn’t feel that hilly compared to some rides and very little is steep. The climbing in the SDW in a day will feel harder than an average day on the Divide even at race pace. One thing that makes the climbs harder is the altitude – aside from recovery and pace ability, altitude is something that makes training pay off for a tour or race on the GDMTBR. It’s around 2000-3000m for a fair amount of the way.

The climbing in the SDW in a day will feel harder than an average day on the Divide even at race pace.

There’s the small matter of keeping that going for two to three weeks, I suppose.

Don’t forget the bears, pumas etc. Not many of them on the SDW. Possibly cougars at the Eastbourne end….

There’s the small matter of keeping that going for two to three weeks, I suppose.

That’s the bit you’d train for : )

Possibly cougars at the Eastbourne end….

Known for it… but if you travel back as soon as you get there and don’t go out for a celebratory drink, you’ll most likely escape their attention.

If you don’t know your zones then so long as you can hold a complete conversation you are going at the right pace.

After that it’s three things:

1. Looking after yourself
2. Looking after your bike
3. Looking after yourself

Bike setup is a bit different to what you’d have for “winch and drop” riding, much more upright so no slammed stems! I took eighteen months to sort my position so that I didn’t get either nerve damage in my little and ring fingers or a sore arse. I’d be fine for eight to ten hour days but twelve and up would be a problem. It would then take a month or so for the nerves to recover and I’d try a new setup. I ended up with bars level with saddle and saddle nose down by about five degrees. I did the BB200 last month for example, on the go for 21hrs and no issues with any contact point.

Eating: you’ll eat way more than you think you’ll need to. When my wife did LeJoG it was breakfast, ride a couple of hours, café stop, ride a couple of hours, lunch, ride a couple of hours, café stop, ride to accommodation, have evening meal. She still lost several Kg.

Mike Hall noted that once you know you are capable of doing multiple long days then there’s no benefit to doing them regularly as you need time to recover. Save yourself for the event/challenge. Keep riding, ideally each day, but dial back the distance.

Do weekend/three day rides to get your gear carrying and bivvying sorted. It’s another skill in itself. Lots of info and discussion over on Bearbones.

Thanks everyone for the pointers.
Now just to get more riding done. At least I’ve given myself years to train.