Readers Question: I’m a 16 year old teenager and i need to prepare for cycling from Manchester to Blackpool. Could you give me some suggestions to how I could train for this task; I am riding to Blackpool for charity in 2011 March – April.
It looks like the ride is 100Km / 60 miles – so will be challenging, but also with the right training will be quite manageable. Manchester to Blackpool ride
The first thing is if you aren’t used to cycling, make sure you have a decent bike. A good road bike, with road tyres will make the distance a lot more manageable. You don’t need to spend a lot of money, but, you do need to make sure the bike is the correct size – especially saddle height. If you can get advice from a local bike shop, that would be even better. (advice on getting first bike)
The next thing is simply to get out riding your bike. Find roads that are not too busy and that you would enjoy cycling on, then go out for an hour or two. After you have had a few one hour rides, you will gain confidence to go out for longer. After a few weeks, of regular training, you should find 60 miles at a steady pace within your grasp.
The key to training for this kind of ride, is to try and maintain the discipline of at least one good ride every week. If you have a week off due to bad health / bad weather – no harm. But, if you can get that regular routine, you can easily build up endurance. On our weekly club runs, we used to do a good 100 miles (at quite a slow pace), many people were only riding once a week.
If you are busy and find it difficult to do long rides every week, do whatever you can. Even a short daily commute will help build up stamina and fitness.
Speed.
If you aren’t used to cycling, take it steady for the first few rides; just get used to sitting on the bike and cycling. When you feel stronger you can try increasing the speed and going fast up hills e.t.c. One good thing about cycling is that if you take it steady, and freewheel down hill e.t.c it is surprising how far you can cycle, even when not particularly fit. Cycling is better for unfit people than running.
If you want to complete the distance in a quick time, you will need to add more than one ride a week to your schedule. As well as long rides at the weekend, you can do some short quick rides. When have a good base endurance, you can start doing short intense intervals – see: interval training. But, don’t do interval training until you have got a base fitness.
If you build up gradually to the distance, it will be enjoyable. If you just jump into 60 miles with no training, it will be painful and you will be sore the next day. However, hopefully, you will enjoy experience and after completing it maybe start looking for longer rides.
100Km may take around 4 hours at a fairly steady speed with a few stops. A very fit rider would want to do it in three hours (20mph average)
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