How to prepare for your long cycle rides

How to prepare for your long cycle rides

One of the best sports to get into right now is the sport of cycling. Cycling is a fun sport and along with being fun it is healthy as well as it helps in improving your cardiovascular health, reducing stress levels and helping you in connecting with the nature. As you start cycling more and more you start increasing your distance or avg speed goals. So here are a few quick tips to prepare for those upcoming long cycle rides.

1. Plan your route

Planning your route is one of the most important things you must do before you go on your long cycle rides. There are many apps like Strava, Komoot, etc. that you can use in-order to plan your rides and keep track of your progress. Knowing your route before hand helps you make sure you don’t get lost later and also helps you have an idea of how much you are going to do so that you don’t go too far, burn out all your energy and end up having no energy for coming back.

2. Pack some food

It is always a good idea to pack some light snacks or fruits with you on your long rides so that you have a constant supply of energy during your rides and do not run out of energy. According to science it is good to eat 30-60 grams of carbs every hour, so that your body can absorb the carbs and convert them into energy, but you also have to make sure that you don’t overeat as that will make it hard for you to cycle.

3. Always carry a portable toolkit

Carrying a portable toolkit can help you out of a lot of clutches during your rides as you never know when what problem can happen. A portable toolkit can you help you in fixing a lot of small problems that might occur in your cycle during your ride. Carrying an extra tube is also a good idea as it can help you incase your bike gets punctured.

4. Always carry your mobile phone and some money

Although this might seem obvious, it is a thing a lot of people do not do. Carrying your mobile phone is important as it can help you in calling for help in case of some emergency and money incase you need to buy something or need to fix your bike.

5. Make sure you are well rested before your ride

Making sure you are well rested before your long rides is very important as you need to make sure that you are in perfect form before your long ride so that you don’t end up running out of energy during your ride, also so that you don’t fall asleep while riding your bike as that is very unsafe.

6. Maintaining a pace that you are comfortable with

The key to successfully completing long rides is to maintain a good pace that you are comfortable with as an uneven pace can make you tired. A lot of people try to go all out right from the start of the ride and end up getting tired mid-way and then really struggle to complete the ride. So, it’s important that you maintain a pace that you are comfortable with.

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