Six Little Do's And Don'ts of Ultra Prep

These aren't the most important things, but they will make your race more enjoyable.

Doing an ultra race requires a lot of preparation. There’s the training, of course, but also the packing, the route prep, the decisions to make about a hundred little things.

But after the big items are taken care of, don’t forget to think through a few of the smaller details. Here’s a few bits of advice for that final preparation based on my own experience.

DON'T Wear A Heart Rate Strap

Heart rate straps are great. I wear one on nearly every ride, and it’s how I calibrate my effort in a lot of my training.

However, when you’re fatigued, your heart rate becomes de-synced from your effort. Your heart rate can drop by 20 beats per minute for the same perceived effort.

In an ultra race, you WILL become fatigued, and seeing numbers much lower that you’re used to will almost certainly mess with your head.

So don’t let it.

Leave the heart rate strap at home. By day two of the race, it’s going to be next to useless anyways. Adjust the settings on your bike computer to remove the heart rate field from your screen and put something else there instead.

By the time you hit the start line, you should have a very good sense of how your perceived effort relates to your speed. Reign in the nerves and don’t go out too fast the first day. You don’t need the heart rate strap as a governor, just a little discipline.

(I’d suggest the same for a power meter, but I don’t have one on my bike, so I’ll refrain from actually making this suggestion due to lack of experience.)

DO Turn Off Automatic Re-rounting

If you miss a turn, or deviate from course for a resupply, or anything like this, you do NOT want your bike computer to suddenly be suggesting new routes. This is especially true for a fixed route race, but is relevant even in a self-routed, checkpoint-style event. More than likely, you’ve put in a ton of work (or the race director has) determining the exact roads you want to travel. Don’t let going ten meters out of the way to a gas station ruin that work.

Turning off automatic re-routing means that the correct course will always be right in front of you, and you’ll be able to see where you left the course (if you did) and navigate back to that exact point before continuing, per the rules of most bikepacking and ultra races.

I actually ride with automatic re-routing turned off all the time, and I think it makes for a much more pleasant and engaged experience.

DON’T Forget To Set Your Phone On Airplane Mode

On occasion during a bikepacking or ultra race, you will need cellular service and mobile data. The rest of the time? You’re riding your bike, not looking at your phone.

Turn on airplane mode and leave it there whenever you’re not doing an task that explicitly requires a cellular connection.

This is particularly relevant when riding through more remote areas. Constantly searching for a spotty cell signal will run down your phone’s battery extremely quickly. Whether you’re carrying batteries or using a dynamo hub, your electrical capacity is limited. Don’t waste it recharging a phone that didn’t need to be expending so much energy to begin with.

DO Download Music

As a close corollary of the above, make sure that any music (or podcasts, audiobooks, etc.) that you might want to listen to is downloaded and available to you offline before the race starts.

In fact, you may want to curate your library even more than normal. You don’t want to waste time and mental energy scrolling through hundreds of albums or artists. Pick a small selection that you know will give you energy while on the bike, and eliminate all the distractions. Simplify. Do your thinking ahead of time.

DON’T Forget Cash (And Coins)

Most places will take a credit card. Most places will take Apple pay, if that’s your jam.

But not everywhere. You need to have cash as a backup.

For example, on the 2022 Mishigami Challenge, I came in late to a campground that required cash to be placed in an envelope and dropped in a drop box to secure a site when the camp host wasn’t on duty. Similarly, some camp grounds will have coin-op showers that require quarters.

You might not touch your cash supply the entire race, but having it with you is a important redundancy that might end up saving you.

DO Carry Backup Navigation and Offline Maps

This last one might be the most obvious of this list, but it’s also the most important. Devices fail. They run out of battery, or get damaged, or just lose connectivity. Do not rely on one device, and do not rely on internet connections.

Having a backup doesn’t necessarily mean paper maps (though that’s an option). It just means having multiple, separate devices you could use to navigate if needed.

For me, my primary navigation device is my bike computer, and my backup is my phone, with the route downloaded for offline use. I do this through Komoot so I can get turn-by-turn directions even while on airplane mode, but you can do the same thing with RideWithGPS or other services.

In any case: have a usable backup that you are familiar with, and double check that you’ve got that backup ready before the start of the race.