You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Above all I’d be praying for decent south easterly wind on the way out that swings to a north westerly the return. The reverse would be character building.
That would be ideal.
Not sure what our contingency plans are if we have a heatwave. Or storms/gales/heavy rain all day! 😬
Regarding bar wrapping and gloves, I don't like thick gloves nor double wrapped tape. Key here is not to put too much weight through your arms in the first place. If you are on the hoods and have no bend in your elbows, then your bars are too far away. Nearer and often higher, with more weight through the saddle not the arms is better. For my 12h TTs I have aerobars, with weight through the arms not wrists. It's pretty comfortable but you won't be doing that in a month's time. More hand positions is what matters, including riding on the drops (it will be windy one way at least), so raise them a little so you CAN ride on the drops for reasonable periods of time.
For pacing, try and avoid going into the red as much as possible. I set a heart rate of 140 and do all I can not to go over that. It takes quite a bit of spinning up the hills (and there are few on a TT course), but it can be quite fun to not push on at the start of a race, thinking it's just a four-hour warm up 😀
I think you'll be fine btw, Just eat before you are hungry and drink before you are thirsty. It is a vastly better option than the alternative.
Take a lot of amphetamines (speed) and consume throughout the ride. Deal with the consequences and come down after the event.
Above all I’d be praying for decent south easterly wind on the way out that swings to a north westerly the return. The reverse would be character building.
Weird winds at the moment.
It was the Rapha Manchester to London ride on Sunday, they had a lovely NW wind the whole way. Full on tailwind. Not strong but enough to help significantly.
I can imagine though if you were riding NW from Leeds straight into it, it would be unpleasant enough to be cursing it the whole way.
The problem with organised rides on a set date is the weather
It could be 29c all day or 14c and constantly raining. Neither of which are helpful wjen you are set for 20hrs connected to a road bike.
Not sure if the intheborders chap was going for reverse psychology, but I reckon the OP is going to nail this. Good luck with the prep and I look forward to hearing how it went!
Treat it as 2 day long rides. 120miles rach way.
10hrs riding, 2hrs for stationery stretching and eating.
Then nice night in a hotel with hot water and clean sheets.
Wash kit out, dinner, stretch, sleep
Rinse and repeat on way home.
Your problem would be riding slow enough
Not sure if the intheborders chap was going for reverse psychology, but I reckon the OP is going to nail this.
No, I was responding to someone who normally only rides 2-3 hours on an MTB who's signed up for a near-enough 24 hour road ride within the month.
I sometimes ride gravel with roadies who do Audax's, they're a different breed. I've no problem keeping up with them on an all-dayer, but then I ride a lot of 6-8 hour rides, but beyond then takes years to achieve. One of them on Sat/Sun did 380 miles...
TBH I'm a bit of an outlier in the main MTB group I ride with, as they're mostly 3-4 hour maximum folk - and when we've done the odd longer ride, they've struggled big time, and required lots of stops.
Only an observation.
If you think about it in terms of power- the best way to finish strong is to be doing the same power in the last hour that you did in the first. Do a long training ride (the sooner the better so you have time to recover) and remember how it feels at the end, how fast you’re going and how much you can push up a hill. Then ride like that from the start!
This is easier said than done, even with a power meter 🤣
In an 18 hour ride- it’s almost impossible to go too slow at the start. After all, even if you spent 2 hours riding ‘too easily’ you could then (in theory) just ride the last two hours harder.
Be efficient too- coast as much as possible, stay low and aero wherever possible and wear tight fitting clothing. Every tiny advantage you can get will become massive over the course of the day.
And learn how to bargain with yourself and tell yourself lies 🤣 (Like the rat experiment when they swim for hours before drowning if you give them hope after a few minutes)
I did a locally, hilly 2.5 hour loop (1000m climbing in 45km) last night, deliberately keeping the pace low and just twiddling up the climbs. Felt very 'artificial' in terms of pace ... but then I guess that's what I need to do?!
Got a couple of long rides planned in now.
Will be doing 3 hours MTB in Hebden Bridge Thursday evening, and then will do a 4-5 hour road ride Friday. Then will do Leeds-Hawes and back next Tuesday, which will be just under half the distance but will have done Fleet Moss in both directions. Think that will give me an idea of where I'm at.
I sometimes ride gravel with roadies who do Audax’s, they’re a different breed. I’ve no problem keeping up with them on an all-dayer, but then I ride a lot of 6-8 hour rides, but beyond then takes years to achieve.
Honestly, it doesn’t. Going fast is one thing, but just getting to the end is very achievable without much prior experience. I went from basically not having ridden a bike for a couple of years to completing an SR in about 10 weeks.
I’ve no problem keeping up with them on an all-dayer, but then I ride a lot of 6-8 hour rides, but beyond then takes years to achieve. One of them on Sat/Sun did 380 miles…
I did a Super Randonneur series this year across April and May, with not a huge amount of prep. As I said before, beyond a certain level of fitness (which I think the OP has) it's mostly a mental challenge.
No, I was responding to someone who normally only rides 2-3 hours on an MTB who’s signed up for a near-enough 24 hour road ride within the month.
No, I reckon it's doable. Might hurt a bit afterwards but people do stuff like this all the time - look at the untrained numpties doing London to Brighton who have literally just dragged the bike out of the shed!
Same on Dunwich Dynamo (200km night ride), that attracts the same sort of "ooh this sounds cool!" crowd who have done minimal (if any!) training and they kind of get through it with a lot of help from the food stalls and village halls that are open en route.
And the multi-day tour that i ride lead on, that routinely sees a small but significant percentage of the participants doing their first ever 100-mile ride on...Day 1 of the tour. Never mind having done back-to-back centuries or multi-day events, they've never even done one century! Most get through it fine, it's just made considerably harder than it actually needs to be!
OP has support vehicles, a group to ride with - it'll be fine. There'll be a few dark moments of course, a few occasions where he'll probably feel like throwing the bike in a hedge, binning it all off, falling asleep or whatever so it's a case of riding through those.
I don’t think you really need to focus on riding slowly, just be wary of overcooking it. Don’t push to keep up with a group (or at least, not for too long) and you’ll be fine.
https://www.eaglevalleybh.org/about/news/wolfington-the-power-of-hope
Give yourself hope 🐀
Another great thing I use a lot is something Mark Beaumont mentioned in a GCN video.
The only thing certain is change.
So if it’s all going well/flat/tailwind/downhill/nice road surface/high blood sugar levels/great weather etc then enjoy it whilst it lasts because it is going to change. Similarly, if things are tough then know they will only improve (assuming you are pacing and eating well and have the right gear).
Vegan Cyclist also has a good idea where he imagines ‘future you’. I guess that’s the same as hope but also, you want to make future you proud of yourself. Remind yourself that future you will judge the decisions you make during the ride.
So if it’s all going well/flat/tailwind/downhill/nice road surface/high blood sugar levels/great weather etc then enjoy it whilst it lasts because it is going to change.
Yep. A bad patch is inevitable on a ride of that length. I felt like crap only 180km into a 600km ride last month, so I stopped for something to eat and had a 20 minute nap on a river bank. I felt much better afterwards.
Felt very ‘artificial’ in terms of pace
Yeah it does. When was training properly (although not particularly successfully) I had a blood lactate test and a power meter, and I observed that for my zone 2 (which is usually defined as the point where lactate is at the same level as rest and the pace you need to be for unlimited distance) would roughly correspond to the point where breathing just started to interrupt my conversation. Like I could still talk more or less normally, but noticed extra breathing around talking. That may not be the same for everyone mind.
Subsequently when doing really long rides I've noticed that my HR, which would normally be in the 170s pushing hard up a climb, cannot go above about 160 after four or five hours no matter how hard I try. I conclude that this is the functional endurance threshold, so I try to keep it below that point for the whole ride and it seems to help. Of course, those actual numbers are entirely personal to me, the point is that it might be a useful way to set pace.
only 180km into
nope 🙁
There’s a few insights into my f***ed up endurance brain in my Dirty Reiver vid.
10h28m54s without stopping once took every trick in the book 🤣
nope 🙁
What's your point?
Yep. A bad patch is inevitable on a ride of that length. I felt like crap only 180km into a 600km ride last month, so I stopped for something to eat and had a 20 minute nap on a river bank. I felt much better afterwards.
I started a thread on my Ridegway double on here. Pedalhead met me twice on that route, out and back, and he noted that I was seemed stronger on the way back than on the way out, and he was right. I find that I ride ok for 2hrs, after about 4hrs where my normal longest ride would end my legs start to say 'wtf why are we still going?' and throw a bit of a strop. But then I carried on and they sort of stop whining and play ball for another 8-10 hrs or so when they then say 'ok now we really are ****ed'.
I did however chug a ton of carbs and caffeine at the halfway point which helped hugely. I don't think I'd been eating enough, but I know my own gut and how much sugar it can take (which is a lot).
By the way, having forum support during the ride even if you aren't checking in is awesome. So I would recommend arranging some sort of tracking either via Garmin or Spot if you can so we can follow your dot 🙂
I can lend you a spot tracker device if you want, but a Garmin 530 might have enough legs if you use the extra battery or a portable charger - you might also need one for your phone though.
Pedalhead met me twice on that route, out and back, and he noted that I was seemed stronger on the way back than on the way out, and he was right.
Yeah, there's something in that. Me and a few others did an impromptu sprint up the last hill at 580km, yet two hours earlier I'd slowed to a crawl. A slab of bara brith worked wonders...
only 180km into
nope 🙁
What’s your point?
Not a point, just an honest reaction as in 'jesus flipping christ'. I do know a few folks who do this kind of stuff, but "only 180 km" got under my guard as I know what my body generally and arse and shoulder specifically feel like at that point in a ride. So I say again, nope 🙂 . Better?
Not a point, just an honest reaction as in ‘jesus flipping christ’. I do know a few folks who do this kind of stuff, but “only 180 km” got under my guard as I know what my body generally and arse and shoulder specifically feel like at that point in a ride. So I say again, nope 🙂 . Better?
Thanks. "only 180km" was less than 1/3 distance and is less than 1/2 of the OP's proposed distance. I was making the point that just because you might be struggling, it doesn't mean that you will fail to complete the ride.
By the way, having forum support during the ride even if you aren’t checking in is awesome. So I would recommend arranging some sort of tracking either via Garmin or Spot if you can so we can follow your dot 🙂
I can lend you a spot tracker device if you want, but a Garmin 530 might have enough legs if you use the extra battery or a portable charger – you might also need one for your phone though.
@molgrips ... that would be awesome ... I'll check if we already have one, if not, will PM you.
The challenge/charity has a personal connection, its a local Leeds charity (Sunshine & Smiles) set up a few years ago to support families who have a child with Down Syndrome, and our youngest daughter has Down Syndrome. People have done a few crazy fundraising events over the years, my wife did an Iron Distance last year, and Lee (the guy who's put this together) did a 24hour turbo ride a couple of years back in the cafe/shop where we employ young adults with DS.
(Just to give a bit of context as to the 'why' I am doing this ...)
(Just to give a bit of context as to the ‘why’ I am doing this …)
It's also a significant boost to actually completing it. It's not like me going out for a 400km ride with no point to it, this is something with a personal connection to you - which is a big morale booster and a reason to complete it.
Simon Mottram (the Rapha founder) does the Manchester to London ride every year for the same reason - it's in aid of Ambitious About Autism and his eldest son is autistic. OK, Simon is an experienced roadie but he's not a super fit racer type and he doesn't routinely ride those distances. But he does it every year without fail.
How did the 4-5 hr road ride go ? All set for the Hawes and back day tomorrow ?
my two penneth as a Carradice-lugging audax type is that for someone with the OP's baseline fitness it'll be neck / back / wrists that'll give out long before legs or lungs. If your set-up is spot-on it'll hopefully just be a case of chalking off the miles......
Did Edinburgh - Carlisle - Edinburgh at the weekend for the Ride to the Sun (well, down as far as Longtown) - just under 300km with about 3,200m of climbing. I ride reasonably regularly but that was over double my longest ride of the year so far.
The key for me was a cadence sensor and a HRM. As has been mentioned previously you want to keep you cadence to average high 80’s/low 90’s rpm and HR for me about 130. That meant I could average 22km/hr and feel ok, even with the first 140km being into a headwind. The cadence sensor and HRM were great as it's so easy to get ahead of yourself up, especially up short sharp hills - those were the ones where I'd just shift up to the lowest gear and just spin away.
The other thing is to have easy-to-eat snacks on hand to graze on frequently. I'd not arranged my food as well as I could have done which was a bit of a pain but after a reshuffle it was much easier.
The key for me was a cadence sensor and a HRM. As has been mentioned previously you want to keep you cadence to average high 80’s/low 90’s rpm and HR for me about 130. That meant I could average 22km/hr and feel ok, even with the first 140km being into a headwind. The cadence sensor and HRM were great as it’s so easy to get ahead of yourself up, especially up short sharp hills – those were the ones where I’d just shift up to the lowest gear and just spin away.
Yeah, that's the key I think - just think of yourself as a big diesel engine, chugging away, not under too much load. Stay away from the temptation to put in a bit more effort on a climb, just keep chugging away. Everyone has their own preferred cadence too, but remember if your heart rate is going a little high but you've got fresh legs, you can lower the cadence and vice versa, if your legs are toast but you're only at 120bpm, increase the cadence to work your legs less and your heart more.
Even better than a HRM would be a power meter, as that gives you an instant reading of your effort - heart rate is always a little delayed, and can be affected by stress, caffeine, tiredness etc. Power is power.
Bit of an update.
Did 185 km today, out along the planned route to Hawes and back, including Fleet Moss x 2. Just over 2000m climbing, average 25kmh.
Borrowed a friend's Cannondale Synapse, with some nice Zipp carbon wheels ... felt like a good bike to be on for the day.
Quite a hard day, blustery wind all day, sort of tailwind-ish on the way out but buffeting me about a bit. Definitely headwind on the way back, and I think it got stronger through the day.
I ended the ride feeling better than a week and a half ago, when I did just half that distance. Neck and shoulder aches, but not too bad. Hand and wrists and bum mostly fine and still comfy-ish at the end. Not quite sure where I'm going to find another 200km in me, but have some more biggish rides planned, and I do feel that it's do-able.
If you can do that much already then you will be fine on the day, especially in a group and if the weather is favourable.
I’ve just completed a 300km gravel ride with next to no training. 3x 80km off road rides and 1x 175km road ride were the only training rides I’d managed in the two months before the race. You’ll be fine, especially in a group.
Did 185 km today, out along the planned route to Hawes and back, including Fleet Moss x 2. Just over 2000m climbing, average 25kmh.
That's pretty quick for a long ride, good work. I reckon you'll be fine.
Did 185 km today, out along the planned route to Hawes and back, including Fleet Moss x 2. Just over 2000m climbing, average 25kmh.
Came here to post that's pretty decent.
You're always way more motivated on the day, you'll be fine. Just go a bit slower than that!
Just go a bit slower than that!
Yes, that's the plan. I was pretty disciplined about my speed, cadence etc, buy did find that on the way back particularly, the effort was measured out according to only having 95km/70km/50km/25km left, without needing to worry about saving enough in the tank for another 200km!
for the next 3 weeks do the following:
Monday: Do some VO2 max intervals 20 mins warm up, 1 mins 5 x 2-3 mins at VO2Max
Tuesday: 2-3 hours at less than 70% max HR
Wed: Rest
Thursday: Threshold intervals2 x 15-20 mins
Friday: 1 hr easy pace Z1
Sat: 4-8 hours rides, increasing each week.
week before rest with perhaps 1 hr ride on Tues & Fri, with some short intervals on Thurs in each of the zones. The rest is critical.
You should be in good shape. On the 385km ride make sure you keep HR under 70%. Do NOT be tempted to chase people up hills. It will near kill you though 🙂
And good luck!
Quick update.
We did it!
Check out my activity on Strava: https://strava.app.link/jZjE4gFDHrb
14 hours 41 moving time, 390km. 26.5kmh average. 5000m climbing (my Wahoo undersold me, but that's what the other 2 guys recoded)
And there was some really good advice from people here, without which, i don't think I'd have managed the ride. So thank you!
Awesome..well done OP
Chapeau. I hope you actually enjoyed it while riding. Some lovely roads.
Nice!!! Knew you’d mail it. Well done
By heck, fair play!
Chapeau. I hope you actually enjoyed it while riding. Some lovely roads.
Absolutely. Buckden to Oughtershaw I know, and is gorgeous. Never done the section between Hawes and Kirby Stephen before, absolutely stunning riding!
The worst bit was Carlisle to Gretna, as the M6 was closed heading North, so all the traffic diverted onto our route 😬.
Fleet Moss was a particular bugger at 300km in, but after that, it was pretty rapid pedalling in gorgeous evening sun.
Chapeau!
Well done, I missed this thread so its been a nice little read for a Sunday morning (apart from the bickering about percentage elevation 🙁 )
Now I've got plenty of free time on my hands, I need to shed the tonne of lard I'm carring around and get back to riding. Just not in this heat though as I'm built for winter at the moment and I think heat stroke would be a probability.
Once again well done and I bet your little girl is really proud of her dad 🙂
Fantastic news! Well done 👍🏻
A good effort OP. Chapeau.
Cracking effort, impressive average over that distance