Dublin - Galway Cycle

RobBaxter

Hi Everyone, A friend and I are hoping to cycle from Dublin to Galway sometime in the next few weeks. Just looking for a bit of advice really. First of all what training should we be doing? At the moment I cycle 16km(8+8) a day to work and back and 30km twice a week. Is this enough?Second, is it possible to do it in one day? It is 216KM exactly. 7am - 10pm? (15 hours?). If not where would be a good half-way point?We both have road bikes aswel. Cheers,Bobby

RobBaxter

Hi Everyone,

A friend and I are hoping to cycle from Dublin to Galway sometime in the next few weeks. Just looking for a bit of advice really.

First of all what training should we be doing? At the moment I cycle 16km(8+8) a day to work and back and 30km twice a week. Is this enough?

Second, is it possible to do it in one day? It is 216KM exactly. 7am - 10pm? (15 hours?). If not where would be a good half-way point?

We both have road bikes aswel.

Cheers,
Bobby

km991148

You would probably want to do at least half the distance to see how you go. Cycling for 15 (although taking the full day will mean an ave of around 14-17 kms/h) hours will mean a lot of eating/ getting nutrition/ drinks right to keep you going. Also you need to consider, are you carrying your own bags/panniers, are you cyling back etc. Also I beleive dublin-galway will probably be quite windy, so you need to factor that in.

RobBaxter

We are probably just going to bring a backpack each travelling very light. We will just get the train back up I'd say. Do it over a weekend.

Does anyone have any idea on what amount/type of drinks/food we should bring? Nutrician bars and lucozuade?

Anyone with past experience? tips/advice?

Cheers,
Bobby

DualFrontDiscs

You should easily be able to cycle in a full day what you normally cycle in a commuting week. So you're at 80km (16*5) straight away. I'd throw in the extra 60 too. So you should be able to do 140km easily enough.

220km might be a bit of stretch, given 30km is your current max.

You'll need to keep yourself well hydrated and fueled up too.

If you decide to go for it and try for the full 220 in one day, I'd recommend trying to get a good 50- 80km complete before you take your first big stop, as subsequent stops tend to become more frequent by time/ distance.

Of course, going for a full C2C (coast to coast) can help with motivation.

As long as you've a bail out plan, I'd suggest going for it. Get on the bike early though.

DFD.

biomed32

try http://www.galwaycycle.ie there is plenty of info there in the training sections, you realistically need 4-5 months of preparation depending on your fitness level. the training cycles started at 30k and on the week before the cycle we hit the distance of 170k we built up the distance by 10k each week

CramCycle

The first time I done it I stopped overnight in Athlone, which leaves you in nice shape for the descent into Galway the next day and at the time my abilities would have been far behind yours, I do think.

I would say you could do it as there aren't any mad hills but it would be a shame if you were not confident to ruin the feeling of a long journey, maybe kip overnight in a friends house or a hotel along the way and then you'll know wether or not you could do it all in one go the next time, I might have been able for it the first time but why kill yourself, I have done it 3 times since all in one day.