How to get ready to ride 125 miles in one day, Audax Style
What follows is sound advice to get riders ready for this ride, but… The following plan is not set in stone. It assumes the rider is starting from a relatively modest level of condition. The biggest factor is actually time in the saddle. Hopefully, what follows will prove helpful.
Let’s begin with some basics…
Everyone enjoys riding on a nice light bike, but…
Plan to pack your bike from the very beginning. These are self supported rides. That means, if you want or need it, you must carry it. Specifically, the predictability of weather in north Georgia being what it is, we strongly suggest you pack a rain jacket and sunscreen. Given the time of year, plan to carry at least two water bottles. Carry your own spare tubes! If your bike has any very individual and cranky parts, carry spares! If you have any specific dietary or medical needs, pack for them.
We strongly suggest that you start your training on a bike that is loaded out for the tour, and then ride a bike with that load, or even a bit heavier, whenever you can. The old maxim, “Train heavy and race light!” applies, even though this is not a race.
Words about pacing. I’m often asked about the pace of these rides. The intent of this question is always, “Will I be able to do this thing?” It’s an honest question, but a simple and straight forward answer is often misleading. We need to maintain about 14.5 mph average between stops. That means something like 10 mph overall average. So first we must discuss averages. (Sorry, but this really is necessary.)
Averages Defined. Most cycle computers have an average speed function. This usually does not record unless the bike is moving! That means that this is a rolling or moving average speed. Unfortunately this is misleading in two ways. First off, rolling average does not get you to the end of the ride. It is your over-all average that gets you to the finish. Very few bicycle computers have an overall average function. Second, being able to maintain a high average for a shorter distance, does not necessarily translate to a sustained lesser over-all average.
Here’s the straight story on the Audax Ride. The over-all average will be close to 11 mph. To do this a rolling average of about 14.5 mph is necessary. This is a bit harder than it may seem. Simple arithmetic tells the tale. To deliver a 14.5 mph average for over eight and a half hours, requires that one must be going faster than that for most of that time. Bear in mind, there are plenty of hills and one mountain on the Audax Ride Route.
Can you do it? The best way to answer that question is to start training, and then do the Tune Ups. By the end of the five Tune Up Rides, you and I will both know what your chances of a successful completion are. Be ready to chat with me about that during and after the Tune Ups. I’m pretty good at judging a rider’s ability, and I will not pull any punches.
A Bit More on Average Speeds
It’s a good idea to use actual overall averages throughout your training for the Audax 200K. Here’s an example that shows both how and why this should be done.
Let us say that a rider named Dave goes out for a training ride.
- Dave leaves his home on the bike at precisely 2:00 PM
- Dave rides well and feels good and returns to his home at precisely 4:00 PM
- Dave has been gone exactly two hours.
- Dave looks at his cycle computer and notes that it says he traveled exactly 22.5 miles at an average of 15 mph. Dave is happy. He will tell everyone he averaged 15 mph on his ride. From an Audax standpoint, Dave is wrong.
- In point of fact, Dave’s overall average was 11.25 mph!
- Why? What happened to the other 3.75 mph?
- Simple. Take Dave’s total distance of 22.5 miles and divide it by his total time of 2 hours.
- What happened? Well, Dave’s computer only records when he is moving, but time progresses even when he is stopped. Every time Dave stopped at a traffic light, or stopped to fill water bottles, or ducked into a store for a “nature break,” he was not moving, but time was passing.
- In this simplified example, Dave was actually moving for an hour and a half, but all the two hours counts.
When we are training for an Audax Ride we need to use overall average speeds. If our cycle computer, or GPS, has an overall average function, we should use that. If not, we need only note the time of the beginning of the ride, and of the end of the ride, then divide the total distance by the total elapsed time. ‘Nuff said.
Why on Earth should I want to do this? Like mountain climbers say, “Because it’s there!” The sense of accomplishment after meeting a challenge is enormous. The camaraderie on these things is great. They are, in a word, fun! And the Monday morning bragging rights are pretty good too.
Start with two each “workout sessions” per week. These should be higher effort activities, hill repeats or intervals. These could be done inside on a trainer.
To the “workout rides” add one low effort “integration ride” of about two to three hours.
That amounts to a total of about five hours per week.
Around the end of April, add another, low effort, outside ride of one to two hours. Bringing your weekly total to between six and seven hours.
To this add another relatively short ride of an hour or so. See, you’re already doing about eight hours.
Gradually increase the times on both of your outside rides, until, by the end of May, you are doing a two hour ride and a four to five hour ride every week. That’s four training sessions a week, totaling eight to nine hours.
In June, add another short ride, of about an hour. This one should include a 15 minute warm up section, about a half hour of hill repeats at moderate intensity, and a 15 minute cool down. Then, near the end of the month, add another hour, either as a separate ride at low intensity, or by extending one of the other four or five rides.
Along about that time, I’ll start doing Audax Tune Up Rides.
The Tune Ups. Look for these rides in June, July, and August. We do three of them. Two are about 45 miles long, and the last one is about 65 miles. We do these for several reasons. The first and most important, is to give us all a chance to practice riding in this group-stays-together-controled-pace style of riding. The second is to act as an assurance that each individual will be able to accomplish the goal. The routes for the Tune Ups are deliberately more hilly and challenging than the overall route of the Audax Ride. If you can do all of the “Tune Ups,” especially the 65 milers, then you are capable of doing the 200K.
One last item: This blog started as a means of communication and information about the Audax Ride. If you care to see more, feel free to go back and "mine" the years of posts. Not everything pertains to these rides, but a lot does, and there's a lot of other stuff in here too.
