How To Ride Ultra Distance – Beginner Ultra Endurance Cycling Tips For Your First Ultra Ride!

Hello all and welcome back to the channel! In this video I want to lower the veil on ultra endurance cycling. This is something you can learn, I learned the hard way through many training hours. These are the tips I believe will help you nail your first ultra endurance training ride. This is Part 1 with tips 1 to 5, 6 to 10 will be in the next video. YOU CAN DO IT!

This ride – https://www.strava.com/activities/11333002243

0:00 Intro
5:14 What Even Is Ultra?
9:20 Tip 1
12:15 Tip 2
16:50 Tip 3
20:10 Cheddar Gorge Climb
23:46 Tip 4
26:28 Tip 5

all right I see the appeal CU this place Bonkers should be fun this tip is probably the most important yet least spoken about the icy anyway if you interested in Ultra cycling then you’re in the right place the videos I make are about Ultra cycling training kit and Adventures as well as this particular video I’ll be racing 1,000 km in about 3 weeks and then the Transcontinental race about 4,000 km in a couple of months so subscribe and follow along but in this particular video I want to show people that riding a bike all day long is not a skill that you’re born with and something that people should be afraid of if you follow a few simple steps can be a really good day out on your bike you can have a really good adventure and to prove the point I’m going to do a long ride whilst I give the advice I’m going to ride 200 miles out to chedd a Gorge and back pretty Savage climb and along the way I’m going to give the top 10 things that I think will help you and others to have a really good day on your bike a good long day so enough waffle from me let’s go for a ride [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] sh m [Music] [Music] [Music] hello and welcome back to ultra Saturday well not so much but it is Saturday and I’ve got a really long training ride planned for today so I’m currently about 50 mi in the route’s been really busy so filming has been really tough sometimes the realities of filming this stuff while doing it it’s pretty difficult it’s probably why there aren’t many people that do has been gorgeous so far I’ve just ridden through the city all the boring stuff then through the New Forest ponies seem to be very active today gorgeous there and the weather it’s perfect very little wind I think I got a slight headwind but it’s minimal but the sun and the temperature is ideal I don’t think I’ve ever ridden this way I got my bearings right when I ride through Solsbury out to Bristol I’m pretty sure I’m on the other side of cranor Chase cranbourn Chase is pretty hilly so see what we get but the plan is today to do this ride 200 m training ride and while I’m doing this ride I want to cover off a question I’ve been asked probably more than any others maybe how to ride Ultra and that’s a bit of a difficult question in itself what even is ultra there’s no set figures distances it’s kind of subjective but in my mind I have a rough idea of what I think Ultra is this is really just my opinion but for me the levels of riding I see Club riding so 50 60 Mi some elevation Cafe stop Club riding endurance going for a longer day probably about 100 miles with a mixed terrain or some elevation in there but that’s what most people I think consider endurance then we have ultra distance and I think it’s pretty difficult to put a number on that you could try to maybe say something like 150 Mi 200 M Plus in one long effort something like that maybe once you get Beyond multiple days you’re into bike packing really still Ultra but I’d say that’s more bike packing the reason I think it’s really not as simple as distance I’ve been on Plenty of century rides 100 miles or so with such challenges in conditions that it definitely pushes it into Ultra endurance look at the Fred Wht route I’ve ridden that route distance-wise it’s not much more than 100 miles but it is brutal basically every notable mountain pass in one of the most mountainous National Park in England it’s pretty brutal so I class that as Ultra endurance for sure I’ve been on rides where it’s rain so much so much wind so much more energy putting up with so much discomfort those rides they might not be much more than 100 miles at times I’d class them as Ultra endurance quite often because they’re hard work and you’re out for a long time but anyway this is just my view on Ultra it is a bit subjective if you clicked on this video then you you’re probably riding endurance already and looking to up your distances this year or maybe it’s just in your future and you’re interested in in learning how Ultra works I’m leaving no doubt on this one really 200 Mi a fair bit of elevation long day out to one of the hardest climbs in England and back so this is ultra for me there probably people who disagree with that I’m climbing now too so bit out of breath but I can’t afford to stop to film this so oh well but the purpose of this video is basically a follow one from a previous one I made by far the most popular one I’ve put up that was how to ride your first century in that video I basically went over all of my mistakes things I’ve learned over the years in insurance so I’d say if you’re at that point and you want to ride your first century watch that one should be really helpful load of spit Fires for some reason I’ve seen three now oh that’s not a Spitfire but if you ridden ridden a few centuries you want to take things to the next level and this will be for you feel like I’m climb in for ages now so basically along this route I’m going to give my own top 10 things that I’d consider someone sat down and asked me the things I’d consider this is by top 10 well it’s taking me so long to film this I’ll start with my number one tip number one is to be really clear on why you’re out doing what you’re doing yes this was in the previous video but it’s even more important now if you haven’t considered why you’re about to put yourself through this when you hit those really tough times and you ask yourself what am I doing you won’t have an answer and that’s quite tough I’ve been there you roll past the train station with a few hours to go busy train station you could jump straight on that train you need to know why you’re doing it and if it’s if it’s just for the cuds on strawber well that Kudos probably it’s not going to help you so that’s my tip number one my my my my my that was worth the climbing that was a fun descent pretty tight kind of like fitting an Alpine climb into one mile a lot of fun zigzag Hill Dorset must remember that name okay for about 70 m in now all that climbing back there that was cranborne Chase so that makes sense so tip number two now this is probably an obvious one but maybe not so much route planning up your route planning game if you’re traveling 100 miles chances are you’re not going that far from home maybe routes you know already maybe you are going a bit further a field as soon as you up the distance it’s 150 200 mil you end up a lot further from home where I’m heading today I’ve never been never been out to the mendip hills so I would spend a bit more time on your route try to maybe follow a train route in case you get in real trouble think about shops resupply maybe look at root planning software that has a heat map feature you can see where everybody rides think about where you’re going to be and at what time if you’re going to be riding through an area 900 p.m. 10: p.m. you can roughly estimate that and if you’re going to be riding through lots of small villages Little Village Shops going to be closed so think about that on top of that try to make it fun go somewhere interesting ride an event that’s interesting I’m heading today to Cheddar Gorge I’ve heard of it seen it never been there it’s a long climb one of the hardest in England apparently so I want to go check that out it’s doing something like that can make it far more fun and interesting having a goal or a Target to hit that’s my tip number two as a side note I’m starting to get sore now so there you go 70 mi in starting to hurt that tends to pass me so I’ll come on to that in a little bit but yeah it’s not easy yeah if it was easy everyone would be doing it mind [Music] it’s pretty brutal climb but the whole road is lined with wild garlic smells amazing [Music] mind climb complete oh that was quite tough that’s climb one of six apparently I think maybe like 85 miles in think not too far from cheddar now the Turning round Point hopefully we get a nice descent now [Music] so TI number three kind of doing this in a order that makes some sense when you have an idea of what your events going to be or what the roots going to be build up to it you might be in a position where you’re riding endurance fairly often to jump to 200 Mi or further still do you a bit of mischief and once again this is something I learned the hard way so feel free to learn from my mistakes I was riding endurance fairly often pushed a bit too much and injured my knee and it means weeks off the bike potentially a huge Interruption to your training you don’t really want that so if you know well in advance what you’ve got planned when it falls roughly what it entails then build up I had to go for physio in the end get my knee sorted and it worked out in the long term it was in massive pain and after that I found a plan online I tried to put a picture up of it can’t remember how many weeks but I basically build up gradually up a couple of weeks back a week up a couple of weeks back a week until I could could ride 200 mil for my event painf free and it worked so feel free to learn from my mistakes don’t do what Annie does don’t do what Annie did good up gently please don’t injure yourselves and on that subject almost 90 mi in now starting to feel a little bit chafe little bit but not too bad my backs out in my hands it’s mostly the heat temperature building up mid 20s roughly and when that happens the inflamation just gets worse just have to put up with it it’s just a bit annoying more than [Music] anything no idea if you can see that on the horizon I can see glassen B Tour a tower it’s a pretty cool place [Music] actually that’s lot of fun the glass bre is obviously where the festival happens that’s a long way from my house onwards to Cheddar can you guess what cheddar is famous for [Music] oh [Music] dous move [Music] all right I see the appeal look at this place Bonkers should be fun try to burst my air drum jokes on him I like cars hey he should have my jersey nice [Music] [Music] the green profile St is leading it’s not 15% but blood h a come on come on come on done 100 Mil in the legs no stop in really once for twice traffic lights and all that kind of stuff and got some water that’s Halfway Around falling through cheddar that was 100 mile Mark now 103 miles so I got 99 if that wasn’t perfect timing that was my camera dying I knew it needed charging soon but but died on me just after the top I don’t know how people can drive to this place and being bad mood on top of that you drive in chedd gorge on a bank holiday weekend you think it’s going to be quiet no anyway I’m feeling pretty good bit tired I’m at the top of the mendip hills so otherwise not too bad the treed gorge climb there was another Garmin climb categorized by gin somehow straight after so I think I’m at the highest point of the mendip Hills about 97 miles to get home roughly done about 6,000 FT elevation and according to Kimu I had about 8 and a half thousand to do overall so if that’s true should be a pretty fun ride home to be honest it seg great straight into Point number four if you heard of a term called range anxiety EV owners Tesla owners they get anxiety they run out of charge can’t get home why I think there’s a cycling equivalent I’ve had the devices you’re using to navigate to be seen have a fin night battery life and my Garmin it’s an 830 it’s good for about 200 Mi so I know when I get home it’s going to be probably going into battery save mode and I’m okay with that because I know my way home and if there’s any issues I can charge it so always bring a little power bank as a backup and be careful with it I dropped one off the back of my bike once and a tractor drive over it so I was a bit screwed it’s just extra stress at the end of a ride when you got a couple hours left you knackered you don’t be worrying about your Garin dying on you the stress of trying to find your way home so if I remember the route correctly now we’re at the top of the mendip hills I’m pretty sure we rolled all the way down so so I’ll put this camera on charge we’ll resume shortly welcome back we charged up at about 125 mil now roughly and just going into another climb great I just spent the last hour or so trying to get a few miles ticked off so I reckon probably about 5 or 6 hours left maybe depends on uh what kind of pace I can keep but the profile looks like it looks like it’s all downhill it ain’t but it’s a lot more downhill than it was on the way out so should be a bit nicer clouds are looking a bit [Music] ominous I’ve been getting hammered by these little bugs a lot I think they’re what we call in the UK Thunder bugs they like little beetles there’s loads of them [Music] all right just passed through FR like Chris this low going for all the cars I might actually get somewhere look so far feeling pretty good this we sway into the next point I won’t take my hands off cuz it’s windy but tip number five is going back to diet hugely important but far more important when you go into long long days feling for a century is one thing fueling for a 12 13 hour ride very different and it will make all the difference to how you feel for me there would be that’s the last climb dealt with according to Garmin so all downhill from here anyway diet for me starts the day before really big dinner lots of carbs and fats all the good stuff yesterday I made a really good pass to bake lovely made some overnight oats I don’t want to be thinking about breakfast at 6:00 a.m. so just have that ready to go yeah have some overnight oats ready to go shovel that down in the morning and just focus on the fueling through out the ride and with a ride as long as this it’s got to be quite regimented you don’t have to you can enjoy yourself far more you can have much better legs much less pain and discomfort it can be quite difficult to be that disciplined look at that if I’m not going too close to that it can be quite tough I set an alarm on my garment every half an hour it goes off and I eat I eat a bar some sort of Cal bar I packed tons for today pack some sausage rolls I have half a sausage roll but as long as I eat every half an hour I’ll feel pretty good if I start slipping on that start to feel pretty terrible at the moment I’ve got Dr Pepper in my bottles but it’s 50/50 with water that really helps [Music] love a climb yeah the constant sugar and caffeine really helps and generally I find when the pain and discomfort Creeps in sugar and caffeine almost always helps it it’s a bit of a cliche saying about really long races that they’re eating competitions with some cycling thrown in for fun and I can believe it if you really try and eat the amount you need it is tough and speaking of hard work filming this at the same time as doing the ride is actually quite a challenge so I’m hoping all of this is actually usable and it comes together at the end but I’ll see if you’re finding this remotely not boring maybe even useful then consider subscribing for more of the same rubbish I’ll probably at the end I’ll do some analysis of this ride too so if you’re into numbers bit of a geek like I am then stick around for that don’t really know where I am looks promising doesn’t it okay I’m going to call it there folks I’m editing this video and up to about half an hour which is long enough I think for the first half there’s a lot of ground to cover both in miles and in the tips that I want to share so I’m going to break it into two so if you subscribe and follow in the next few days I’ll share the second half there’s still half the tips left to get through and probably some of the more important ones plus I’ve got to get home yet on this ride so be able to see for yourself how these tips help to get around a 200 M course so stick around keep your eyes peeled in the next few days I’ll put the second half up so look after yourselves and I’ll see you all soon n [Music] [Music]