Preparation, Your Fitness

Fitness is borrowed, this is something you need to understand. We are all on different levels of how much fitness we are currently borrowing. Fitness comes and goes depending on a multitude of reasons. The great news is that bikepacking and cycling in general is a great activity to get into whether you are at the peak of your fitness or trying to get back to a heavier lifestyle. Bikepacking there are no rules as such. You can adapt a bikepacking adventure to suit your fitness level. The very nature of self supported bicycle riding and bikepacking means you get to decide what is best for yourself. That being said, With bikepacking often meaning an off-road adventure, it does mean that understanding your body understanding your limits and fitness level is very important. Cycling off-road is just a harder thing to do than cycling on paved surfaces. The UK is a diverse place with ever-changing terrain, so really understanding your own fitness level is at is not only crucial for you to have a successful bikepacking adventure. Not understanding your cycling fitness level is a sure way to ruin the experience of a bikepacking adventure, it’s going to make it extremely difficult to pick a route that is suitable for yourself to have a good time. Here are some ways to help understand and improve your fitness as you get ready for a bikepacking adventure.

I have always loved cycling because it is generally a pretty easy to adapt into everyday life. And to build your fitness up the simple thing to do is just ride more incorporate it into your daily life, if you can, cycle to a from work, cycle everywhere you can, and you will start releasing that your fitness will improve without really doing any dedicated training.
riding often even if it is for shorter periods of time will have a greater effect on your overall fitness riding for 1–2 hours each day is going to be better than going for one really long ride once a week, It’s often easier to fit into your daily routine too. Remember, bikepacking is going to mean you will be riding for consecrative days, so being used to riding each day is a benefit. That’s not to say going on a long day ride won’t help from time to time, though.
The best way to understand your fitness level is as simple as riding your bike. Ride your bike at a speed that you feel like you can sustain. To do this, It’s best to just keep it local a loop from your front door back to your front door. With bikepacking I would recommend being able to ride around 50 miles fairly comfortably, it’s OK if you need to stop, and it's OK if you don’t plan on doing 50 miles each day on your bikepacking trip but knowing you are comfortable riding more than the daily mileage you are would like to ride each day is the goal here. If you are wanting to ride 30 miles each day, knowing you can ride 50 miles is a huge advantage.
Riding the hills, the good news with this one is that once you are out and about exploring the UK’s countryside you will be training this naturally, but I do recommend including some cycling in the hillier areas especially if you live in a flatter section of the country this will get you used to using your gears and finding the most natural cadence (how fast you spin your legs) for your body, it will help you know if you have the right gearing on your bike too as well as just increasing your fitness. The more you cycle uphill, the easier riding a bike becomes. You also get faster naturally as your power output grows.
Once you have gained an amount of fitness that you feel comfortable riding a bike with then it becomes easier to understand how many miles you want to aim for each day, setting a realistic target for yourself means being honest with yourself, understanding how you feel on your bike after riding for different duration of times will help you set a realistic target for each day. Which is only really doable if you have spent time understanding how your body and mind feel while riding your bike. The more you ride, the more you will understand your cycling fitness.