Long Distance Cycling is more about the mental ability rather than the physical fitness and stuff. When you madly in love with touring with your bicycle then you must initiate a plan to cycle long distance. When planing for such a big ride or at least for a few hundred kilometers then you need to take many things into consideration.
Many of us might be into some 9-5 jobs and it is not easy to get a week long leaves. Things like this may discourage your attempt but you have do the sacrifice by going hard on your employer in order to dedicate yourself for you passion. The major doubt that plays in many of the first time long distance cyclists is about the speed they should pedal forward on an average.
Speed Thrills, Of course
Speed is one word most loved by cyclists as they wanna push themselves and conquer those Randonneuring challenges. It all comes down to what you love, so if want to speed up things given the fact that you take all safety into considerations then you may go for about 120-150 KMs per day.
What's The Purpose?
This should sound the alarm as some of us tend to forget the purpose why we were on the road. In my case I was pedaling to reach the city of India's capital Delhi from the capital city of Chennai in South India. The distance between the two is a whooping 2200 KMs. After pedaling for a couple of days I was typically lost and struggled big time to move forward with the fear of the unknown in the upcoming kilometers.
One of my best friend Mr. Karthikeyan helped me at the right time by iterating that I am on the road in order to enjoy meeting strangers, interacting with them and getting to know their life and stuff. This is what I need at that time and it made a lot of sense as I was partly afraid of how North India will be for me. After listening to his words, I moved forward with realizing that I am here to get along with others rather just focused about the target destination alone.
Ideal Speed for Long Distance Cycling?
I do not have an immense experience in long distance cycling as I have just cycled once for 2200+ KMs. Still I want to share my learning and experience to people who are passionate to go on a long distance cycling.
I had planned an average of 100 KMs per day for my whole journey then I stayed smooth with 80 KM being my average speed. It is highly recommended to start slowly by killing less than 100 KM distance per day for the initial days and when you find things to be smooth then you can push a couple more kilometers.
Being Flexible on the Road
Staying flexible is the key as we tend to get in line with what we had committed to our friends and family. Doesn't matter if you had conveyed that you will cross 150 kilometers every day to others. All it matters is that you keep moving without being stagnant at any given place on the road. But obviously people will make you stagnant with their love and affection, as we need to do justice to their appreciation to our commitment and attempt to go a long way.
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