Preparing For Charity Ride
 

In about 5 weeks I will be participating in a two day 160 mile charity ride on generally flat terrain. I have been riding around 125 miles or so per week throughout 2021, but have not been able to do more than a handful of 50+ mile efforts.

Should I be concerned about the lack of longer rides? It has been hard to find the time for those. What would you recommend for the next month or so?

That's going to be a rough 12 hours for you if you have not been able to do at least 3/4 of those miles up to this point. I'd plan for a SAG after 1/4 the way in.
Unless you can click off 160 miles this week, followed by a few 80's, I'd just wing it.

If the two day 160 mile ride means roughly two 80 days and you have been doing some 50+ mile rides, you should be fine. Think of an 80 mile ride as a 25 mile ride after a rest stop at 55 miles!

Since you have time, try to do two long days in a row, just to see how you feel the second day. You might want to use some chamois butter or change how much you eat/drink, etc.

But, take advantage of the rest stops and you should be fine.

Can you expand on this statement? What causes you to ride less miles than you started out to ride? Time constraints? Sore butt? Fatigue? Apathy? Making small fit adjustments or a new saddle or maybe just a new pair of shorts might help.
I happen to think you will do fine on your charity ride, given decent weather and what not.

City-to-Shore, by any chance? Guess based on your user name. If so, how many riders are they expecting this year?

Primarily time constraints. I find it easy to squeeze in a twenty five mile effort, but much harder to find the time to double that. With Covid, I’ve found myself doing almost all the miles solo, which isn’t particularly motivating. Finally, in bad weather, Zwift is great, but 2 hours of that is mind numbing.

Yes, City-to-Shore. Not sure how many this year, but I would expect a good turnout after last year being cancelled.

You'll be fine.

I did 187 miles in one day earlier this year and had not had a ride longer than 34 miles in my legs.

I too believe you'll be fine, as long as you are comfortable on your bike. Longer rides are really just a matter of pacing yourself and staying hydrated and fueled. Do this and the only thing that can prevent you from doing the two 80 mile days is body aches on the bike.

As a 23 year veteran of the event (I retired several years ago), here is my advice, some of which is offered not knowing whether you have done the ride before or not:

1. Ride within yourself. Don't fall into the trap of trying to keep up with faster people early on. You might burn out in the later miles. Remember that there is little coasting on the ride because of its mostly flat nature. You are going to have to pedal the overwhelming majority of the time. The first year I did the ride (1992) I was rooming with a guy who tried to keep up with much faster people and ended up hurting his knee. His parents drove some 3 hrs. from the Scranton area to pick him up that night. They were pissed.

2. Take advantage of the rest stops. IIRC, there is no more than ~ 22 miles or fewer between them. (The first one comes at around mile 18.) Load up on water, etc., but at the same time, don't linger. You don't want things to start tightening up.

3. Ride defensively. The major reason I retired is that I could no longer stand the dangerous riding when participation soared above 7,000 people. During my last year riding the event I was exactly where I should have been making a left at an intersection. Some hot head who was hell bent on not slowing down couldn't get around people on my left, so he tried to squeeze by me on the right. There was so little room he was in gravel and swiping against foliage. Nearly hit my bars. Here is how the subsequent exchange went: "If you try that again I'll knock your teeth out." "Don't threaten me." It's not a threat. It's a promise." That's when I knew it was time to say goodbye to an event I had grown to love over the years.

4. Arrive at the start as early as humanly possible. My last year I got into one of those cattle pen starting areas and waited 45 minutes before we were set free. Another reason I retired. I am not a cow.

5. Make sure you are wearing your cycling shoes when you had your luggage off. Many more than one person has arrived in street shoes and forgot to change. Once your bag gets buried under others there is almost zero chance you are going to get it back.

It's all about pace. just pace yourself.

If you end up in a 5-6 man group that knows how to rotate. That is a Bonus and 80 mile ride becomes much less.

Not only that, but there's a little bit of mental conditioning, too. Having an attitude of "I want to do this!" helps. On my second century ride, I was somewhere around the 85 mile mark at a rest stop, I had just had a rest, refueled with more water & Gatorade and a snack, got up and walked over to my bike looking at it thinking, "Ugh... I have to get back on my bike and ride some more..." But then I told myself I wasn't far from the end and I could do it. And I finished it out because I wanted to. But if you let your mind tell you that you can't go on, you're not going to finish.

+1 on that... Extremely easy to get caught up with the excitement of the event or faster riders and press yourself too hard.

Ride to Power Level, Heart Rate, or MPH... but use a measurable criteria to pace yourself and not just how you feel on the day.
If you complete your 50 milers at 9mph and think that will allow enough in the tank for the extra 30miles, stick to it.

All the best for your ride

Barry

According to the vent website, there are only 3,184 registered so far. Much more manageable than when I last did it.

Indy has good advice. I've only ever done one, but he first day was 97 miles from Boston, ending with three steep hills and valleys to arrive in Storrs, CT. The second day was a pretty flat 60, and a final day of about 30 or 40 into NYC. They said there were 3,000 people on the ride, but got passed by at least 10,000, including twice by one young woman with only one leg. I rode my tour bike rather than my road bike, and disciplined myself to have a little debate, if I gained on someone, about whether I really needed to pass them.
The first food and portapotty stop was mobbed. If I were to do another, I might stop at a deli for food and go behind the big green curtain to relieve myself.
It was a ride to raise money for HIV research and the turns were manned by gay motorcyclists of both (all?) sexes, often in cow or horse costumes.
Have fun.

You'll be in uncharted territory on this ride. I think the bigger issue will be everything but your legs. You don't want to go out too hard, of course, but if you do hopefully you'll be able to adjust and at worst you just bike slower.

On the other hand, if your feet, knees, back, hands, etc. start to hurt you might need to get off the bike and stop pedaling. My very first 100 miler my back gave out at about mile 80 and it was awful for the final 20 miles. My speed and power dropped but I'm sure a big portion of that was it was just painful to pedal.

Pelotta Boston to NYC ride, by any chance?