I am considering an attempt at an imperial century ride at some stage after the Australian Uninats. I think that i will try to ride from my home here in canberra, to my girlfriends parents house in cootamundra 114miles away.
Right now my fitness is not bad but not fantastic either. Mid way through last year on my unicycle tour to adelaide i did 2 consecutive metric century rides preceded and followed by 90km days- and that was with a hiking pack with all my stuff in it. I think i will have a while to go before i get back to that level of riding but with some serious training it should not be too hard.
My setup is unchanged from my tour- nimbus/t7/airfoil/TA/125mm/29er tube and i think i will stick with it for my attempt.
I was just wondering what you might recommend for food and medical stuff on the trip? I will be taking my camel pack with 3l water bladder, some museli bars, a few bananas, some ibuprofen (to help with inflamation after a few hours) and this great stuff i have called rapigel (actually says not for human use on the side of the container but is a gel to cool and numb muscles for horses and greyhounds before and after races). I know some people swear by those energy gels and stuff but i have no experience with them at all.
What are the things that you wouldn’t start an imperial century ride without?
mark
I’ve done 100 milers on cake (malt loaf), and some energy drink powder in the camelbak, plus buying some crisps (chips?) and a sandwich on the way, and finishing somewhere with a fish and chip shop or a pub for dinner.
I dunno about medical stuff, I think I might have had some savlon, but I didn’t use anything during the ride at all.
If you’re up to 100km for 2 days in a row, 100 miles is just mental strength, you could probably go out and do it tomorrow if you wanted to.
If it is going to warm while you ride, don’t forget your electrolytes! I’m an ultramarathoner first and foremost (over 14 years experience) and I like the camelback (bladder) setup but I put my electrolyte drink (powder or liquid form) in that and use energy gels as my food source. You can be well fed but if you’re drinking nothing but water you’re going to have trouble eventually if you’re salt intake isn’t enough and crisps isn’t always enough. I have no FI so I’ll just say that I like NUUN for my electrolytes; really stimple tablets much like alkaseltzer that you just pop into your camel back bladder with water; no mess. As for energy gels I like Clif Bloks. I never do any long run or ride w/o this combination of electrolytes and energy products. However in a long ride or run I never pass up the opportunity to ingest “real food” if possible. This is a combo that has worked for me for runs up to 100 miles; and numerous shorter events. I did largely the same technique when I did my first 100km (ungeared) ride last summer with huge success. Remember electrolyte balance is crucial. Most of the time when you feel really bad in a run or ride it’s not because your hungry but dehydrated; at least that has been my experience. If anything I’m eating too much and my stomach can’t process fast enough! Salt, Salt Salt! If you want to go on the cheaper side then just take along a container of Sea Salt to supplement with whatever you’re drinking. You can probably do w/o the energy gels but I like them because it’s easy to get down and they have a lot of the right kind of calories. Again to each their own. One last thing is to pack along something like an Ensure or Boost they are packed full of nutrition and calories, in an easy liquid form. In 100 milers (on foot) i’ll down one of these every 20-25 miles (or sometimes more frequently). So really there are a lot of things you can do and most of them don’t cost all that much and should be found at your local grocery store. The NUUN and Gels you might have to order or hunt around for but they’re awesome!