Preparing for an Ultra Cycling Event: What Can you Learn from a Practice Event?

Practice makes perfect; what are the main things you can learn from a practice event?

What it feels like to go long

Endurance rides are great but there's nothing quite the same as being in the saddle for 10+ hours day after day. Practice events will help you identify pressure points, how to deal with them and manage them for days at a time.

Riding with Full Kit

Riding with full kit can feel very different from riding with what you need for one day. The extra kit weighs more which may mean that your average speed is reduced, especially on hills and it can affect the way the bike handles.

Using the kit is also key so you find out what you want accessible and what you can stuff down at the bottom of your bag. The more you pack and unpack all your kit the faster and more efficient you will get.

Bike Set Up

Sleep

You will only really know how much sleep you need by testing it in a test event; if you don't fair well from 3 hours sleep on your 48 hour practice event, you are unlikely to survive for 5 days with 3 hours per night so you may need to rethink.

As with your luggage, you will get more efficient at setting up and taking down camp (whatever that is) by doing it. So practising sleeping as you will for your event will save you loads of time.

Food and Drink

Practice events are the perfect time to perfect your food and drink strategies, especially if you practise on the route and get to know some of the shops available.

Getting good at going into a supermarket, finding what you want and getting out will also save you time and getting to know what foods travel well and which do not could save you some messy incidents.

You might also find our blog on nutritional planning for ultra cycling events useful.

Clothing

Finding out how and when to change your clothes to keep yourself safe from infection is also tricky to do unless you practice. Whilst you won't want to carry enough for a change of kit every day, you may want the option of clean kit while some kit is drying etc.

Dealing with Low Points

Over two to three days, especially when sleep deprived, you are likely to reach some pretty low points psychologically. Whilst we can plan for and practise strategies to deal with these, dealing with them in situ is the real test. It can help you decide if your planned strategy actually works or if it needs some tweaking to get right.