3 things to know before you do a big ride

So you are thinking of doing a big ride? Perhaps Enbridge's Ride to Conquer Cancer?

There is 3 fundamental considerations and to-dos before race day.

1. Buy a bike that fits and that you have been properly fitted for.

Whether it be mountain bikes, road bikes, cruisers, single speeds or tandems, all bikes are like shoes, they come in different sizes and different purposes. Before rushing out to purchase a bicycle, do some research on local bike mechanics and dealers near you and pop by to see what they have.

If you are looking for a road bike, think whether you want a bike for performance, a bit more stiff, where you feel the road more closely or a bike for comfort, that's a bit more suitable for endurance (long rides). My bike mechanic always articulates it as a Porsche or a Cadillac.

Now, once you have figured out a price point for your first bike (I'd suggest between $1,200 and $1,400). You will need to figure out what style of bike, performance or comfort. Once those are complete you will need to sit down with a bike shop and go through a thorough bike fitting. The bike fitting will encompass several facets; that includes seat height, bike size, types of shoes, clip ins, pedal styles, and in some shops a 2D geometry assessment to see how your joints and body would behave over long runs (not as important but nice to have).

Now, once you have your chosen style of bike, price point and fitting - make sure, and this is the most important you choose a bike that you like. A bike that you find looks cool, the higher the propensity you will ride that bike.

2. Training and guess what? more training

Depending on the length of ride you are doing, there are tons of resources available to help you plan your next big ride. Typically for a 100km ride, you would want to have 2-3 rides a week of varying intensity. There is a good one located at Avanti Plus here (http://www.avantiplus.co.nz/pluszone/title/Guide/content/100km-training.html). But I would do about 60km a week ; once a week with a 10km sprint, another with 30km and the 3rd at 20km.

Now these rides don't mean much unless you employ some recording to your rides, to apply a benchmark to improve and push yourself. My personal favourite and that of most cyclists is the application "Strava" it's a free application for iPhone, Androids and older Blackberry's (Z10 & Q10 users need to use endomondo). The application will record the route you ride and apply 'personal bests' every time you ride it, so you can know, on which segments of your ride have you performed better from previously. If you do not want to use your phone you can invest in a cyclist GPS; which is traditionally a Garmin. I personally use the Garmin 200, however, if you find that you want to get more serious in the future you will need to invest in a heart rate monitor. Just do some research on each Garmin products to see what they offer and see if that would interest you. http://www.garmin.com/en-US

3. Nutrition

This comes in two components; pre-race and race-day. The latter is more important if you aren't looking to blow apart any world records; I find that eating normally up to race day is acceptable, granted you aren't hammering back cheeseburgers and beers. On race day, it's important to remember there is only one simple law; every hour drink a bottle of water and at a very minimum, every 10 minutes have a sip of water and a bite of food, whether it be an energy bar, bagel, or other high carb/energy substance. The biggest misconception is that cycling will burn fat; true it will because your body is increasing metabolism but it doesn't burn fat on race day. If you do not put something in your mouth every 10 minutes, you will hit a wall and you will be in trouble.

The best adage I ever heard from professional athletes is this "what separates the guy who rides 70km and the guy who rides 300km is nutrition"

I hope this is a good start for those considering cycling, if you are unsure of something, the internet is littered with cycle forums and tips for all three topics above. If at all, I will try my best in the comments to answer any questions!