[red-beard]

John,

I lead a training group I call "Tour de Taco" which trains for the Houston to Austin MS150.

For the mileage basics, take whatever you're presently doing, and do it twice on the weekends. Stretch it by about 5 miles per ride each weekend to start then 10 miles, to get your mileage up.

The real issue beyond getting your legs and butt ready is energy and water. You need to learn to eat when you're not hungry and drink when you're not thirsty. In "winter" months, I need about 1 bottle of water (20-22 oz) per 20 miles. In Spring weather (60 F start, max 80F) I need about 1 bottle per 15. Anything where my riding is over 80F, I try to go 1 bottle in 10.

Using a bike computer, you can tell how many calories you're expending on the rides. You need to put the calories back. Your muscles store about 2 hours of energy. After that, the muscles start pulling glucose out of your bloodstream. This is the food for your brain. You will start to feel tired and eventually "bonk".

So to start for the calorie portion, you should be using a "gatorade" type fluid. Powdered versions are cheaper than the liquid version. Do not water them down, as you need the calories. Powdered is also good if you want to refill bottles later. I usually carry premeasured "gatorbombs" where each package is for 1 bottle. This means I can beg water and make my extra bottles.

Carry enough bottle to go as far as you are comfortable. If You can only make 20-30 miles before a stop, carrying more than 2 bottles is a waste. I try to get 40-60 miles without stopping, so I have 2 cages behind my seat.

For eating, there are a lot of choices. Lot of people like bananas. They are very good, but carrying them is tough. The "power gels" are very compact energy. The problem is they are expensive. I also like dried fruit, dried cherries, blue berries, etc. Dehydrated bananas mixed with dehydrated strawberries are great! I also make my own power gels, along with my own gatorade, these days.

For the MS150, we have 2 months to go and we are only going to be doing 75 miles each day, but we still have some work ahead, as most still haven't started trainng yet. We'll get them there, by starting around 30-40 miles per ride (70-80 miles per weekend) now, and adding 5-10 miles per ride each weekend from here to late April.