Training

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CMJ from Ann Arbor Michigan on 1/26/2011 10:22:53 PM:

Would like to ask any experienced riders how much training they did
before they completed the length of the trail. I am a frequent rider
but the max distance I ever covered in one day was 50 miles which nearly
killed me. I plan on riding the length of the trail later this year and
would appreciate any comments from experienced cyclists. Note I am a 50
something man in fairly good condition.

Skyguy9999 on 1/27/2011 2:22:37 AM:

Much of what you will need for a training plan will revolve around how many days you want to take to get the whole trail done. Most go 30-50 miles per day for about 5-6 days, if that helps you on that question.

Other than that, all I can say is that training amount and so on revolves around what your goals are and how disciplined you are. You state that your "max distance was 50 miles and it nearly killed me". That might be a good start to determine what you need to work on. How long did it take you? How long did it take before you had problems? What kind of problems? What kind of nutritional concerns did you address during the ride (water, how often, how much? food, how often, what was it)? Speaking of the latter, nothing will kill your effort on a long ride faster than not fulfilling your nutritional needs.

See this thread, a lot was said on the topic of preparing to tour the Katy (or any other similar situation):

http://www.bikekatytrail.com/talk.aspx?thid=3647&fmt=1&sortby=0&pg=1

Darrell from Jeff City, Mo. on 1/27/2011 7:28:50 AM:

It just takes saddle time. When fifty miles doesn't nearly kill ya, you're ready. The trail is mostly flat, not very taxing really but it is a steady pedal for as far as you want to go. If you are in fairly good shape forty or fifty miles a day shouldn't be a problem. Saddle time is the key for multi days on the Katy, get comfortable on your bike, get used to riding 30, 40 miles at a time with rest stops and you'll do fine. Hopefully you'll be able to build in enough time to enjoy the scenery and the people along the way. Good luck.

Darrell from Jeff City, Mo. on 1/27/2011 7:54:35 AM:

As a reference point, in a few months it will be forty years since I was a teenager. Ah, I've always been forgetful.

MidSouth from Rogersville, MO on 1/27/2011 12:54:03 PM:

My wife and I had not cycled for 30 years or so and started back about 6 months before our June 2010 trip of the KATY. When we started 5 or 6 miles was a work out. We are only able to ride about one day a week, but trained on the Frisco Trail for about 3 months until we could do the entire trail (36 miles) in one day. We scheduled our itinerary to be about 35-40 miles per day on the KATY and it worked out great. The riding was not hard, but the heat and humidity were a big factor. We did all of our pedaling early in the day. We are both in our late 50's. I can now do 70 miles fairly easy and plan to ride the whole KATY out and back (550 miles) in four days late this spring. Mostly just takes getting comfortable on your bike. We went through about 5 different saddles on my wifes bike before she found one that would allow her to ride more than about 20 miles.

Trek on 1/27/2011 1:44:37 PM:

I'm curious to know what saddle your wife found that works well for her. Or which ones were tried. It seems to be a dilemma here at times.

MidSouth from Rogersville, MO on 1/27/2011 4:39:02 PM:

Make that 450 in 4 days, not 550! Trek, I will look when I get home tonight, is is a Selle, but not sure which on. We started with the stock seat that came on her Scott P4 hybrid, then she tried a Bontragger off of her TREK Navigator comfort bike, then she tried the Selle Anatomica all leather, like the one on my bike. She ended up with the Selle something or other, which has some gel padding.

Mark from Columbia, MO on 1/27/2011 5:19:03 PM:

I think any kind of regular riding will put you in good enough shape for the Katy. I'm a middle aged guy who bikes to work 4 miles each way. This was all the physical preparation I did. And other than the first couple of days on the Katy, my backside did just fine.

Anonymous on 1/27/2011 10:00:46 PM:

Trek, the saddle the wife is currently using and happy with is a Selle Royal Ellipse Women's Moderate.

Skyguy9999 on 1/29/2011 4:35:55 AM:

I posted to this thread about 2 or 3 days ago and it got set aside for review because I hyper-linked to another thread on here. That might show up, but anyway, I wanted to make sure I at least got this through in a timely way.

CMJ, what went on with your 50 mile ride that "nearly killed" you? How long did you get to go before you felt this way? How did it do this? What kind of things did you eat and drink and when did you do it? Hopefully some help can be found.

BTW, the hyperlink related to a bigger text I posted on the issue of long distance training.

Ray (webmaster) on 1/31/2011 10:00:00 AM:

Skyguy, sorry for the delay on reviewing your post - was out of town since the middle of last week and did not keep up with things.

Skyguy's original post is now included in this thread (second from top).

Skyguy9999 on 1/31/2011 3:18:10 PM:

Thank you.

Tony from Kansas City on 1/31/2011 3:19:30 PM:

I did the entire trail about a year ago. I am in my mid 20's. We did
76.6 the first day, then 56.8, 64.8, and 26.9. To train, I would ride
15-20 mile rides 4-5 days a week. The key is saddle time. That first
day, we were on our bikes for 7 plus hours. That is hard to get ready
for without being on a bike for many hours a week. Regardless of how
you break up the ride, you need to make sure you are on a bike quite a
bit. Get your seat used to being on a bike seat.

MidSouth from Rogersville, MO on 1/31/2011 7:42:54 PM:

Here is the itinerary that we used last year. Not very experienced cyclist and our first week long trip. Worked out great.

Day 0 – Overnight in Clinton
Day 1 – Sedalia (35.6mi) – Camp MO State Fairgrounds
Day 2 – Boonville (37.2mi) – Hotel Frederick
Day 3 – Easley (29.3mi) – Camp Cooper’s Landing
Day 4 – Tebbetts (31.3mi) – Turner Katy Trail Shelter
Day 5 – Hermann (30.4mi) – Bed & Breakfast
Day 6 – Rest day in Hermann – Bed & Breakfast
Day 7 – Augusta (34.4mi) – Camp Klondike Park
Day 8 – St. Charles (26.9mi) – End of the ride.

zgeezer on 3/6/2011 2:00:50 AM:

I am 61, rode the trail east to west against headwinds the whole route, in three days, so average about 75 miles a day. I rode some in the spring, the cut back in the heat of summer, did not really start thinking of doing the full trail until September. Then I started riding short 15 mile or so rides a couple evenings a week, and a longer 40 - 50 mile ride on weekend. By mid October I celebrated my 61st birthday by riding 61 miles, then did the full trail the first weekend in November. There are some gentle grades between Sedalia and Boonville, but after that the trail is mostly level. I find just setting a steady pace, eating nutritional snacks and keeping hydrated helps a lot.

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