im going to do lands end to john o groats any help!

[southerner007]

hi to all i have just started cycling, and am going to do lands end to john o groats in september, just brought a orbea lobular race road bike to do it on, we plan to do it in 6days for charity their is a few of us doing it and we are all pretty determined charcters, i know its going to be very hard and need a lot of effort in training and oranising it. it would be a personal goal of mine to achivie this all the help i can get and info from you guys would be appreciated manny thanks im ryan by the way

 

[just jim]

Would that be Sept. 2010?

 

[robgul]

Have a look at www.cycle-endtoend.org.uk

Rob

 

[arallsopp]

Welcome.

Am sure you'll get lots of help.
IMHO, the most important thing is resilience. You've got to have a plan that works if you suffer mechanicals, foul weather, road closures, etc.
A good base level of fitness will help you round, but any of these could knock you out completely.
Plenty of lovely bad weather coming to train in. Dark too.

If you don't know how, learn to fettle your bike. Simple things like spokes breaking or chains snapping would be a good start.
Do you have lights, map, GPS, mudguards?

(Can open. Worms everywhere).

 

[aqaleigh]

have a look at BIKE BRITAIN in your local library - its packed with info for this ride and has a good mix 950 mile tour plan
6 days is very ambitious - i've been cycle touring for a while and still don't like to do more than 100 miles in a day and average around 70-75
I wish you all the best

 

[aqaleigh]

WOW - just calculated your mileage approx 160 miles a day - practice - practice - practice

 

[bianchi1]

The trouble with 6 days is you have very little margin of error. if you get a day or two of headwind it will be hard to make the milage.

That said it is a good target, just be prepared for bad knees for about two months after the ride!

 

[Greenbank]

My first tip would be:-

What you lack in physical preparedness (i.e. the thousands of miles of training you need to put in) the more you'll need to make up for it with mental toughness.

If you're determined, and with a bunch of likewise determined characters then you'll be in a better position than most. Everyone will need pulling through their low points at various points during the ride.

My second tip would be:-

Consider doing some Audax rides as training, not only are they good for proving you can do the distances (200km, 300km, etc) but you'll pick up lots of tips on what to do when riding long distances in a way that means you can get up the next day and do it all again.

 

[amaferanga]

The trouble with 6 days is you have very little margin of error. if you get a day or two of headwind it will be hard to make the milage.

That said it is a good target, just be prepared for bad knees for about two months after the ride!

Bad knees for 2 months? What rubbish! If you've prepared properly and your bike fits then there's no reason at all why you'd get sore knees.

6 days is fine provided you can maintain a moving average of around 25km/h which will give you plenty of stop and recovery time. By September next year you will obviously need to be comfortable doing 250 km/day on moderately hilly terrain. My advice would be to do as much of your training as possible on very hilly terrain. Once you can do 250 km days back to back on your very hilly routes (say ~4000-5000m of climbing) then 250 km/day on LEJOG should be very manageable (most direct and direct-ish routes aren't particularly hilly). This approach worked for me on my 5 day LEJOG earlier this year. My training started in January (having not ridden > 50 miles in a day for several months, though I was doing a 25 mile/day hilly commute on fixed through the winter) and I did the ride in July, almost exactly 300 km/day on average.

I was mostly recovered after a couple of days (so much so that I wished I'd made it more of a challenge).

 

[bianchi1]

Must have been just my knees then!

Im as sure as i can be that my bike fits, guess it was the 5 days of driving rain and cold that did me, one day was nice tho!

 

[dodgy]

I don't suppose there is such a thing as a 'good month' to pick for an end to end in the UK, weather is so hard to predict. But September wouldn't be my first choice.

 

[wyno70]

May or June would be my choice, plenty of long light days to get the miles in and not too hot!

 

[andrew miners]

andy2010

hi to all i have just started cycling, and am going to do lands end to john o groats in september, just brought a orbea lobular race road bike to do it on, we plan to do it in 6days for charity their is a few of us doing it and we are all pretty determined charcters, i know its going to be very hard and need a lot of effort in training and oranising it. it would be a personal goal of mine to achivie this all the help i can get and info from you guys would be appreciated manny thanks im ryan by the way

start out by checking the accomadation the yha is cheap and also independant hostels uk and scottish independant hostels also try bunk barns thse can be had for as little as £8 per person ,but check facilities i.e shower cooking arrangments.
It takes abit of organisation take it syep by step, we are doing the event beginning 25th june both ways in ten days!

 

[arallsopp]

Please excuse me for being dragged momentarily off topic, but 'both ways in 10 days'?
How many miles is that???

 

[screenman]

About 185 per day.