London-Edinburgh-London 2013: The thread

[ianrauk]

I'm 18 atm, so ill be 21 by 2013, I just started cycling in june, got some sort of a road bike this month, hopefully ill have a proper apparatus before the LEL

I have three years to train up

18? 21? pah, bleedin' youngsters, you'll p*ss it.
In all seriousness. it's a tough challenge that you will need to be prepared for. Mentally, physically and mechanically.
I suggest you purchase THIS and have a read. It will give a you a great idea of what the ride entails.

 

[iZaP]

18? 21? pah, bleedin' youngsters, you'll p*ss it.
In all seriousness. it's a tough challenge that you will need to be prepared for. Mentally, physically and mechanically.
I suggest you purchase THIS and have a read. It will give a you a great idea of what the ride entails.

Haha

I understand i'll need to be fully prepared for this sort of distance.

The book is about recumbent, is it still relevant? as it is "Barring Mechanicals"

 

[ianrauk]

Haha

I understand i'll need to be fully prepared for this sort of distance.

The book is about recumbent, is it still relevant? as it is "Barring Mechanicals"

Very relevant. It's what inspired this whole thread.

 

[Greenbank]

At the moment even I would find it tough. I am 44 and cycle on average 800-1000 miles a month.
I can cycle 150 miles a day no problem at the moment, but 150 miles a day for 5 days in a row, well that's a different matter
So I have 3 years to build up for it. It's not a trip to take lightly imho.

I did LEL on about half that.

Monthly mileages in 2009:-

Jan: 370
Feb: 335
Mar: 811 (OK, so I did London to Edinburgh one way in 3 days)
Apr: 361
May: 530
Jun: 560
Jul: 1230 (included the 875 miles of LEL itself)

It didn't go back in the 2008 at all. I did 0 miles in November 2008 and 45 miles in December 2008 as I was off travelling in Chile and Argentina for those 2 months.

I went from not having ridden a bike for 2 months to finishing LEL, all in just 7 months.

 

[vorsprung]

I started riding audax in 2004. The first year I did 2x200 and 3x300. In 2005 I did 200,300,400,2x600 and LEL

2003 I was aged 38 and riding 2 miles to the station and back most days

 

[zigzag]

Realistically, how fit would you have to be to cycle this event?

if you want to ride lel and enjoy it (i.e. not have aches and pains, have enough time for proper sleep), you need to be quite* fit. three years is plenty of time to prepare, one year would be enough if you are "normally fit" (not too overweight and in good health). for unprepared it is a very hard ride, as it was in my case..

i've learnt a lesson and prepared for this year's big ride 1001Miglia and didn't have any problems and enjoyed it thoroughly. it always helps to be faster as you can be more flexible with your time.

*to ride 200km in <8hrs or ~500km in 24hrs in flatish terrain

 

[yello]

ride 200km in <8hrs

In all seriousness, I doubt I could do that. Not without favourable conditions.

 

[ianrauk]

In all seriousness, I doubt I could do that. Not without favourable conditions.

+1

 

[Greenbank]

Nor me. My fastest 200 is 10h50 elapsed (Muswell Hills 200).

Fastest average speed (moving) on a 200 was 25.53kph. That would get me a 200 in under 8 hours but only if I stopped for less than 10 minutes during the entire ride (very unlikely).

25kph moving average for a flat 200, all the way down to 19kph for a very hilly ride (5500m climbing in 300km).

I had a moving average of almost bang on 20kph on LEL, so that means I was stopped for 46 hours.

 

[zigzag]

well, those are the distances and times from my experience. i was much slower last year when i did lel, therefore it was a struggle for me. this year i can just about do those distances in the times i mentioned above and 1000 mile ride a month ago was an absolute joy and not a big challenge.

it's hard to measure by words "how fit shoud someone be", so i've thrown in some numbers, that in my opinion can measure cycling fitness. one can be considerably slower and still complete lel, but needs to be very organised how he spends the time off the bike. there's also higher chance of tendon and ligament injuries if one pushes too hard for himself.

 

[Arch]

Haha

I understand i'll need to be fully prepared for this sort of distance.

The book is about recumbent, is it still relevant? as it is "Barring Mechanicals"

Oh yes. Do read it...

If you're skint, it's all still on the forum here - the book text is mostly in the thread - I'm sure Andy won't mind me letting you know...

https://www.cyclechat.net/

But if you have a few quid to spare, it's a cracking read. Recumbent or not, it's all about getting yourself on, mile after mile, hour after hour, rain after rain....

 

[mcshroom]

I'll add my support to Andy's book as well. A good read, and you really get a feel for what it was like, and how it felt.

As for feeling. I've just finished my first ever century

. I'm knackered and I've just reminded myself that LEL is 8 and a bit centuries all back to back

 

[Arch]

I'll add my support to Andy's book as well. A good read, and you really get a feel for what it was like, and how it felt.

As for feeling. I've just finished my first ever century

. I'm knackered and I've just reminded myself that LEL is 8 and a bit centuries all back to back

Oh, well done!

It's a great feeling isn't it? I remember my very first (of 2 so far!), I hurt all over (it was on an upright), and could barely get up the stairs to the flat, and I just lay on the bed in a heap. But I was soooooooo proud!

Did my second last weekend, thanks to the YACF ride to Scarborough. Managed 127, so I'm hoping the bare 100 isn't such a bit mental challenge now.

 

[mcshroom]

I'm hoping so. I know that after I did my first 100km the second was a lot easier as I could keep reminding myself that I had ridden that distance before so there was no reason why I couldn't this time.

Looking back at your YACF ride, congratulations on your first 200k and the trike century. I've just noticed I didn't comment on it on here before

(in my defence I did on YACF).

 

[mcshroom]

Note to Admin - this is post #394!

Do we warrent a sub-forum now?