Valuable lessons learned from the 5th Baguio bike ride

Biking and health

Angono, Rizal | January 29, 2013

Our goal is ride better.  Same mistakes can not be repeated.  The two days ride were tough:  the first day was bike marathon 200 km.  and many rode it fast.  Worse, the middle part was windy (Angeles city to Urdaneta) and it was during the hottest part of the day.  The second day was tough too:  it is nearly a l00 km, and the roads at Sison was tough.  Unlike the first day were there not too many vehicles, the speeding buses were whizzing by at that time of the day.  Worse, the concreting of Kennon seemed to have made some climbs stiff and steeper.

Here are some lessons and advice:

l.  Maintain a foundation mile of at least 60 km per week;

2.  Those who seem to be huge must reduce to say their ideal body weight:    l00 lbs for the first 5 ft of ht + 5-7 lbs for every inch.  You can do this by:   eating fruits and vegetables, planking and crunch exercise to remove the flabs.  I have made a number of posts on weight reduction.  You can search the web for the tips and there are many.

3.  For this ride, if you bring a heavy bike, you are handicapped.  Even if you bring an MtB, be sure it is light.  You cant ride the peloton with the road bikers otherwise you will cramp or bonk out.  Those who were at the peloton wore light bikes.

4. Practice riding at the hottest time of the day:  11 am to 3 pm.

5.  Save the best for the last.  For the Baguio climb, the Urdaneta to Rosario should have been ran at moderate speed;  same for Rosario to Black Mountain.  The best effort should be made from Black Mountain to Kennon view deck.  If you did not, then you will be distressed.

Ride your usual pace as you have practiced.  Do not race with the leaders who trained differently from you

6.  Get plenty of sleep before the ride.

7.  Hydrate and get energy food periodically say every hour or 50 km.  Otherwise, you run into calorie deficit or dehydrate - you hit the wall, you bonk.

8.  In your ride, practice interval high intensity training:    shorten rest periods between intervals, and put the hardest effort in the second part when you are running out of speed and strength.  The interval should not be more than l minute.  Try it and you will be stronger (take it from Joel Javier)

Try to consider these tips