At this Sunday’s Elephant Rock Cycling Festival in Castle Rock, all that’s needed to finish the 100-mile century ride is a bike, a pair of legs attached to a good respiratory system (hopefully) and a clear head.
Some riders setting off on the century course will have already put a thousand miles on their bikes in advance of this event. Other recreational riders will simply show up and see how far they can go. Whichever type of bike rider you are, you can greatly improve the quality of your day with sound preparation in the days and hours leading up to the ride, followed by a smart strategy over the course of the ride itself.
Preparation
Have your bike checked out by a qualified mechanic. If your rig has any worn or frayed parts that could fail, you’ll want them replaced in the shop rather than find out about it on mile 95 of the ride.
Two to three days before the event, make sure your diet consists of mostly carbohydrates (about 65 percent) and relatively fixed amounts of protein (13 percent) and fats (22 percent). This will ensure that your energy stores are optimized and topped off by Sunday morning.
On Friday, start prehydrating by drinking plenty of fluids – enough so that you have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. In addition to your daily liquid consumption, suck down an additional tall glass of water in the morning, at lunch and right before hitting the sack.
Ride strategy
Maintain a steady pace from mile 1 to mile 100 by rolling along at a moderate- to-comfortable pace that equals to about 60 to 70 percent of your max effort. This allows your body to efficiently tap into its fuel tank and keep energy in reserve. This plan is critical if your ride has any nasty surprises at the end, like the 2.5-mile monster climb up Tomah Road at mile 90 at Elephant Rock.
Use predetermined intervals to rehydrate and grab a bite, say every 15 minutes, to ensure you replace the fluids and fuel lost through the ride’s physical effort and sweat.
Over the course of each hour of pedaling, down a water bottle’s worth of fluids, alternating between slugs of plain water and a sports drink; one composed of a 6-8 percent carbohydrate solution is ideal.
Every 60 minutes, you’ll want to chew through 30-60 grams of carbs. Easy-to-digest products like energy bars usually pack 45g of carbs. A couple of energy gels will average about 25g of carbs per gel.
Allen Yip is an expert coach for Carmichael Training Systems. For more info on the latest in training, fitness, and nutrition go to www.trainright.com/newsletter.
