10 Key Questions to Ask Yourself When Preparing for an Ultra-Distance Cycling Event Like London-Edinburgh-London, PBP or a Bikepacking Race

Whether you are an ultra cycling veteran or this is your first ultra distance event being adequately prepared is key. Here are 10 questions which will help you structure and prepare for your big event.

1) Why have I chosen this event?

You may well ask yourself this question 500km in to a 1000km event when everything hurts, you are tired and hungry and every part of your body is telling you to stop. Being clear about why you want to do the event and having that answer ready will both help see you through the tough patches and it will help motivate your training.

Ideally your reasons for completing it have an internal grounding which is deeply meaningful to you.

2)What is a successful outcome for me?

You can create more meaning and motivation to your event if you have some specific goals associated with it. This can be anything you wish from a finishing time (or finishing at all), a ranking (scratch, gender or age based). It's usually better to have goals that you can control. You can't always control a ranking as it depends who turns up, but you can have more control over a time goal.

It can also be useful to have some more personal goals along the way that are not necessarily performance related, 'I want to have fun exploring a new country' 'I want to meet other like minded cyclists' 'I want to see how my body copes with 5 days of back to back riding' 'I want to be part of an amazing historic event.' These types of goals can be gained regardless of whether you meet your performance goals and can offset the stress you can put yourself under.

3)What strategies work best for me?

Having an idea of the strategies that work best for you when you provides you with the grounds for an event plan. Some people know that riding with a group works well and motivates them; others know that they risk going too fast and ruin their chances of finishing.

Good strategies to consider are:

Riding alone or in a group
Ride to power, speed or elapsed time
Small more frequent stops versus fewer but longer stops
Getting competitive or sticking to your own pace plan and seeing what happens
Chatting with other riders or staying in your own head space

4) Am I prepared for the weather?

The weather you face, especially if you have travelled from one hemisphere to another for your event could be very different from the weather you have been training in. Having an idea of the weather for your event so that you can acclimate before you start will help. You can check out our blog on heat acclimation here.

Equally, cold weather comes with its own challenges, especially if you will be sleeping outside so its useful to think about what extra gear you might need and what strategies you might prefer if the weather is going to be very cold.

5) Why do people scratch this and similar events?

Knowing what stops people completing your event can help you prepare for eventualities which may stop you having a successful event. Some events have specific challenges (e.g. heat) which cause problems.

Checking out blogs and forums you may find common themes. For many ultra distance events poor nutrition can be a common problem.

6)What is my nutrition plan?

For long multi-day events you cannot afford to go into massive calorific deficit or get dehydrated. You need to aim to get close to covering the calories you burned while riding and eat frequently. Over several days this can be very challenging to your gut so you need to train your gut to manage this. You can check out our blog on EAT to find out more about how to train yourself to eat the required amount of food.

7) How am I going to organise myself on a typical riding day?

Having a daily plan and routine will help you keep going and make sure that other things (like meals and sleep) happen as planned. Things to think about would be

Daily ride start time
Daily ride finish time
Lunch stop
Dinner stop (maybe same as ride finish time)
Shop stop (maybe part of lunch/dinner stop)

8) What things could go wrong and what is my plan for dealing with them?

What ifs are a really important part of planning for any big event. I usually like to make a list of 'what ifs' with athletes and have a plan for dealing with them. This can also offset some fears that you might have about your event.

It's also a good idea to have a what if for the 'unknown' so if something comes up that you haven't thought of you have a fall back plan (e.g. call my support team, named support person and make a plan).

9) How will I make sure my bike is ready?

You want your bike to be working perfectly for you for your big event so having a plan to make sure this is the case is a must. Whether you choose to be your own bike mechanic or enlist the help of others you will need to know how to fix roadside mechanicals during your event.

Practice events can be a great way to test your bike set up, especially if you do them with full kit, so you can be confident that it will work.

Having some emergency tools will also help including:

cable ties
chain links
puncture repair kit

10) What is my mental approach?

You are going to be asking your body to do something really tough and at times you are likely to want to stop; having a solid mental approach with good psychological strategies will help you complete your event successfully. You need to start training these now; they will not just magically appear during event. Using your long rides to practise will help you mentally prepare. Here are some strategies I use with my athletes: