I could really use some constructive ideas. I’m training for an ironman and every time i see a 5 hr, 6 hr, or even 6+hr ride on my training schedule, I cringe. I live in a giant suburb and there are some roads I can ride safely, and I’ve done 100 mile rides using these roads, but these rides are really sub-optimal because I’m stopping every few minutes for a light or a turn, etc. and when I look at my power profile for these rides, it’s all over the place due to the stopping/waiting. It’s really hard to get some solid even-power riding done. So because of this, sometimes I go for Option B which is to drive 30-60 min out of my congested area to country roads, but then, I have the issue of fueling…where can I stop to get water, snacks, etc? One time I was so dehydrated due to having to go an extra 15 miles till I found a gas station. Not to mention, if I drive out to the rural area and start my long ride and then have a bad mechanical or other problem, it would ruin my day (and one of my friend’s or relative’s day) to have to be picked up in timbuktu. So that leaves me with Option C which is a 5 or 6 hr trainer ride, which I’ve done, but it’s nasty nasty torture, and I am person who uses my trainer a lot otherwise.
HELP!!! What other options am I missing here? I’ve looked for the supported century and grand fondo rides, but sometimes they don’t match up on the right weekends and they don’t have them all the time. I’ve also tried a couple cycling club rides and, as most of us know, you can get some frowns when you roll roll in with aerobars, even if you never use them.
How about doing loops … out out in the boonies where you can ride for a long time. Go 25 miles out, turn around, and go back to your car. That way, you shouldn’t have issues with carrying fuel for 50 miles. Refuel when you can back to your car and repeat the loop. Two loops will get you the 100 miles that you seek. The kind of mechanical issues where you have to call a friend is quite rare. Carry a multi-purpose tool with you, a few extra co2 cartridge, and an extra tube or two and your good to go.
Can you drive out of town, ride a loop and get off the bike at the end or each loop to grab fuel and fluid.
Good suggestion!! I’ve done this also - on a 15 mile loop. It takes some extra time because the place I go to for this is about an hour away. The downside is that it’s a little monotonous and when I’m getting tired or sore, it’s easy to stop after x laps around. Yes, I’ve caved a couple times
How about doing loops … out out in the boonies where you can ride for a long time. Go 25 miles out, turn around, and go back to your car. That way, you shouldn’t have issues with carrying fuel for 50 miles. Refuel when you can back to your car and repeat the loop. Two loops will get you the 100 miles that you seek. The kind of mechanical issues where you have to call a friend is quite rare. Carry a multi-purpose tool with you, a few extra co2 cartridge, and an extra tube or two and your good to go.
Yes, this is another good suggestion…similar to the other one. Luckily, I’ve not had a day-ending mechanical. But every so often, I hear about broken cables or broken chains (i.e. things you really can’t fix there). I guess I should just get over this fear, LOL
Can you drive out of town, ride a loop and get off the bike at the end or each loop to grab fuel and fluid.
Good suggestion!! I’ve done this also - on a 15 mile loop. It takes some extra time because the place I go to for this is about an hour away. The downside is that it’s a little monotonous and when I’m getting tired or sore, it’s easy to stop after x laps around. Yes, I’ve caved a couple times
Doing loops is a good idea, i do that all the time especially if you simply looking for banking uniterrupted mileage
Have you thought about investing in a wahoo kickr as well. That should give you some variety…
-Are big climbs an option? That decreases distance required for training by # of hours.
plan the big weeks around the fondos/centuries instead of trying to find fondos that fit into already planned weeks
combine trainer ride w road (90min trainer, 2hr mtn bike with family, 90min trainer).
-carry more hydration in training - hydration pack?
get a road bike / gravel bike so you have more training options (groups/dirt roads/rails to trails)?
A few ideas, maybe not all feasible, but maybe they’ll provoke some thought. This may sound harsh apologies if it does… but Ironman for many is about finding a way to make it work, and not caving in and not bailing out. If you can’t ride loops because it’s too easy to bail early, you’ve got some mental / focus training to do. A mechanical is just as likely to happen in a race as it is in training.
Look on Strava for ideas. Then find those roads on Google maps. Switch it to cycling mode. Find a good route. Plan the refueling stops ahead of time. And yes you should drive out of the city and then ride. Don’t need a bike rack. You can fit a bike with wheels removed inside most cars.
How about doing loops … out out in the boonies where you can ride for a long time. Go 25 miles out, turn around, and go back to your car. That way, you shouldn’t have issues with carrying fuel for 50 miles. Refuel when you can back to your car and repeat the loop. Two loops will get you the 100 miles that you seek. The kind of mechanical issues where you have to call a friend is quite rare. Carry a multi-purpose tool with you, a few extra co2 cartridge, and an extra tube or two and your good to go.
Yes, this is another good suggestion…similar to the other one. Luckily, I’ve not had a day-ending mechanical. But every so often, I hear about broken cables or broken chains (i.e. things you really can’t fix there). I guess I should just get over this fear, LOL
A broken derailleur cable is not the end of your ride (if you ride mechanical).
You can tie the front end of the cable to the frame/cage, fixing the der. in the middle of the cassette… then you can even shift ‘manually’ on hills.
Other option is to find a small rock and wedge it into the parallelogram of the derailleur to keep it in the middle of the cassette.
Similarly, you can fix a broken chain on the road.
Just carry a mini chain-breaker, take the broken link out and rejoin the chain.
It is highly recommended to invest the time to learn how to work on your drive train, especially if it is mechanical. Saved me from being stuck in Timbuktu many times.
I recommend Option B (that’s what I do).
And if you can’t take all of your water with you, you can indeed take a rucksack, put it somewhere, and ride loops. But You can also mount more cages on your bike, for example two behind the saddle. Food can’t be a problem: you shouldn’t eat too much on a long ride anyway, to train fatburning. 2 or 3 powerbars should be enough. Or nothing at all.
-Are big climbs an option? That decreases distance required for training by # of hours.
I’m in the same boat (not easy to find longer flatter roads where I live). My Ironman bike will be 1225m and I’ve done this and more over 3 hour rides. To get the hours in, I’m now looking at a 2.5km loop 50 times with a few big hills thrown in. It’s not much fun!
I do loops all the time. I have a 20 and 25 mile loop. Part of my loop has a side road that is almost exactly a mile and has 1 house on it. Perfect for intervals.
I do the loops mostly because the roads are not heavily travelled and lots of cyclists around me use them so the people in the area are used to seeing bikes. I also can rig my bike to carry 4 bottle which can get me thru 100 miles if not too warm. 1 BTA, 1 on the frame and two behind the seat. All nutrition is carried on board, just like I would in a race. I don’t like to stop at all during races so I try to carry what I need with me in training to get used to it.
Post an address within a mile of your house and I’ll see if I can create a route for you… will create it in ridewithgps so you use audible turn by turn, or if you have a head unit with navigation, download to that. no suburb or city is inescapable on a 5-6 hour ride
Are there dirt/gravel options where you live? A lot of people say “you have to train on the tri bike”, but that is not true. You need with a similarly closed hip angle. I train mainly on a road or gravel bike both for safety and because it gets me immediately into an uninterrupted ride, versus navigating city streets.
If you are a member of AAA, your membership may include roadside bicycle service and emergency transport in the event of a mechanical problem during a ride. This is a new offering by AAA and maybe worth looking into.
You ought to be able to carry 4 bottles and all the nutrition you’ll need w/out problems…meaning you’ll only need 1 stop to re-liquid.
If you ever get an unrepairable mechanical, you could call an uber.
I find point to point long rides more enjoyable, so find something interesting (relative, friend, beach, etc) ~100 miles away and convince someone to meet you there. For example, my family took a weekend vacation up in Maine, 117 mile trip. They drove, I rode. I leave ~3 hours before they do. I don’t have to sit in the car for 2 hours, they could grab me along the way if I had issues, etc. I let strava plot my route which I am then able to download to my GPS. It looks at which roads are most frequently used by cyclists in a given area and mostly routes you on those roads.
Lastly, as someone who loves being outside, I can’t imagine living somewhere that would require an hour car ride to roads suitable for riding.
I could really use some constructive ideas. I’m training for an ironman and every time i see a 5 hr, 6 hr, or even 6+hr ride on my training schedule, I cringe. I live in a giant suburb and there are some roads I can ride safely, and I’ve done 100 mile rides using these roads, but these rides are really sub-optimal because I’m stopping every few minutes for a light or a turn, etc. and when I look at my power profile for these rides, it’s all over the place due to the stopping/waiting. It’s really hard to get some solid even-power riding done. So because of this, sometimes I go for Option B which is to drive 30-60 min out of my congested area to country roads, but then, I have the issue of fueling…where can I stop to get water, snacks, etc? One time I was so dehydrated due to having to go an extra 15 miles till I found a gas station. Not to mention, if I drive out to the rural area and start my long ride and then have a bad mechanical or other problem, it would ruin my day (and one of my friend’s or relative’s day) to have to be picked up in timbuktu. So that leaves me with Option C which is a 5 or 6 hr trainer ride, which I’ve done, but it’s nasty nasty torture, and I am person who uses my trainer a lot otherwise.
HELP!!! What other options am I missing here? I’ve looked for the supported century and grand fondo rides, but sometimes they don’t match up on the right weekends and they don’t have them all the time. I’ve also tried a couple cycling club rides and, as most of us know, you can get some frowns when you roll roll in with aerobars, even if you never use them.
I could really use some constructive ideas. I’m training for an ironman and every time i see a 5 hr, 6 hr, or even 6+hr ride on my training schedule, I cringe. I live in a giant suburb and there are some roads I can ride safely, and I’ve done 100 mile rides using these roads, but these rides are really sub-optimal because I’m stopping every few minutes for a light or a turn, etc. and when I look at my power profile for these rides, it’s all over the place due to the stopping/waiting. It’s really hard to get some solid even-power riding done. So because of this, sometimes I go for Option B which is to drive 30-60 min out of my congested area to country roads, but then, I have the issue of fueling…where can I stop to get water, snacks, etc? One time I was so dehydrated due to having to go an extra 15 miles till I found a gas station. Not to mention, if I drive out to the rural area and start my long ride and then have a bad mechanical or other problem, it would ruin my day (and one of my friend’s or relative’s day) to have to be picked up in timbuktu. So that leaves me with Option C which is a 5 or 6 hr trainer ride, which I’ve done, but it’s nasty nasty torture, and I am person who uses my trainer a lot otherwise.
HELP!!! What other options am I missing here? I’ve looked for the supported century and grand fondo rides, but sometimes they don’t match up on the right weekends and they don’t have them all the time. I’ve also tried a couple cycling club rides and, as most of us know, you can get some frowns when you roll roll in with aerobars, even if you never use them.
Where are you specifically located?
What Thomas said. If we know where you live people on here may be familiar with area and be able to help suggest routes.
