# Biking from my apartment to summerhaven and back



## Alkan (Jun 30, 2011)

This will be an 86 mile ride with a climb up Mt. Lemmon, so probably a lot harder than over a hundred miles on a flat.

I need to train, I'm in college. How can I manage training for this effectively such that I can do it with less time on my hands?

I'd like to be ready for it in about 4 months or so and I will also be commuting to campus by bike (about 5 miles there, 5 back).


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## Peter P. (Dec 30, 2006)

Just fit your training into your schedule so it doesn't impact your studies. If you can only manage 1 hour 3x a week, then that's all you've got. The supposed rule is, your longest "event" ride can be roughly 3x your longest training ride. So if your longest training ride is about 30 miles, you should survive. You won't be the most comfortable at the end but you shouldn't be in lots of pain, either. The important thing is consistency, so 3-5x/week EVERY week is more important than how fast you ride..

I suggest you take a wall calendar and mark out your training days not so it becomes a gospel to adhere to but to see how it may interfere with your studies. You don't want riding time to make you too tired to study or take away valuable school time. Charting your planned and actual rides will give you a visual assessment of whether you're putting in enough time or you're underprepared.

Try taking a longer route to/from school to get in "free" miles vs. riding as a separate activity. I'd probably just do this AFTER school because in the morning you just want to get there. 10-15 miles, plus the ride to school in the morning should be plenty. Carrying your school gear with you for the after-school rides is a bonus because the extra weight will add to your workout, unless the gear is uncomfortable, heavy, or clumsy to carry for long distances.

Squeeze in your longer rides on off-days from school, presumably the weekends. 30 miles should be plenty but 50 milers will no doubt give you more confidence and experience in eating and drinking while riding. You'll need to eat enough, and learn what foods agree with your digestion. Knowledge like that is almost as important as the fitness to finish the ride.

Hills,flats; don't fret if your training rides don't match the terrain of the event ride. Sure; it'd be nice if the 2 compared but do what you can with the tools you've got. The sign of a successful cyclist is the ability to make the most of the tools at hand.


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## M Ice (Dec 8, 2011)

This particular ride doesn't fit the "doesn't matter hills, flat, etc" category in my opinion. Mt Lemmon is a 20 plus mile climb with an average grade of about 5 percent. Riding 30 miles of flat 3 to 5 times a week isn't going to get you there (again...my opinion) You're going to need to train for a long uphill. Equally as important, you're going to have a 20 plus mile 5 percent descent to deal with. I'd suggest you ride either Lemmon or Sabino Canyon to get some sustained climbs under your belt in addition to your flat longer base miles. Will also get you necessary experience to prepare for the long descent ....


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## Alkan (Jun 30, 2011)

Funny, because the idea was that I'd progressively add onto the route. Every time I do it, I get more base miles, and the climb will always be in the exact middle of my ride doing it that way, so I can climb for as short or as long as I'd like, since the descent is basically free recovery after you're up.

Anyways, it won't be for a few months. I need to lose some weight before trying it again. I've gone up the thing before, but too slowly. I don't think I actually got much out of that climb because of the very slow pace I had to go, so I'm not going to try it again until I'm able to climb seated for a long way.

Personally, if I was doing a flat 85-mile route, I wouldn't think much of it: just fuel up beforehand, take a couple bars along the way to refuel and go at a relatively easy pace. I could probably go do 85 miles right now and it would just be a painful ride after about 50 miles.


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## Alkan (Jun 30, 2011)

Update:

I did it! It was horrible until I got some Gatorade and a break in Summerhaven. After that I had lots of energy for the rest of the ride home and even biked another 14 miles later that day in going to watch the Walking Dead at a friend's apartment.

All on my old down tube shifter road bike. Descending isn't tough on that particular mountain. There's one slightly hairy spot after you pass windy point on the way back where there was a tail wind at the steepest spot and I hit 43 mph, but that was still pretty manageable. Someone died there last weekend on a motorcycle, however, my reservations on going back are going to involve me having a saddle bag instead of using the jersey back pockets for my phone and wallet so that I don't feel like I'm going to loose them by leaning too far forward. This will give me far _far_ better control.

I brought 3 bananas in plastic wrap and 3 water bottles total. I barely finished the last water bottle as I got to Summerhaven.

I've still got weight to lose. I actually did the ride the weekend after last, and still weighed around 170 pounds at that point. My bike weighs 22, and I had 3 water bottles.

I'm down to like 166 now. I was 197 on Jan. 6. I'm thinking the lower 150s or upper 140s will be where I reach an athletic body fat percentage.

Now it's time to really focus on my watts/kg, get me a damn part time job and a new road bike.


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## Gudmann (Jun 6, 2012)

Congrats - sounds like you had a great time.


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## Alkan (Jun 30, 2011)

I did! Except for the last 6 miles of the climb when I started to bonk due to not having enough food and water, which caused me to need to take a break in summerhaven.


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## Kalel (Mar 17, 2013)

Breaks are good. Most important thing is you had fun. Thats what its all about in the end.


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