London-Edinburgh-London 2013: The thread

[Panoramix]

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

Before LEL my fastest (and unique) 200 was 10 hours and I could do a 300 in 15 hours. I think that the 300 time is the most relevant since one tend to do 300 and a bit days. I finished LEL with enough time in hand
to stop worrying about time when I was in Yorkshire on the way back.

Ride one sub 15 hours 300 and you will be fine!

 

[yello]

I think that the 300 time is the most relevant since one tend to do 300 and a bit days.

I approached LEL as back-to-back 350s. Sadly, it didn't quite turn out like that but that's another story... and a learning experience! My own training included riding 100 or 200s on consecutive days, rather than just progressively longer weekly rides. I did that to get myself used to getting back on the bike when the muscles where feeling tired. I did ride a 300 and a 400 but only the once. And I didn't ride further than that. Maybe that was the wrong approach, I don't know, but it was the one I took.

But there's a different context to LEL, one that does not exist in any of the training you do. On LEL, riding your bike is what you are there to do. If you're not eating or sleeping then you're riding. You accept that quite naturally. It's almost an energy source in itself. You don't have to get home to feed the dog, wash the car, mow the lawn... whatever. You're riding for 4 to 5 days and that's it. Doing 300 to 400km in a day (when you consider that's, say, 20 hours) is really not that onerous! You just keep plugging away. Well, that's the theory anyway!

 

[DrMekon]

Well, my 1st event was the Mildenhall 300, and I got round that in 14h52m. Whilst it's nice to think I am 'fit for lel', I feel far from it, and a 400 is still intimidating. I feel I need some hilly 300s and a few hard 600s over the next couple of years as a minimum.

 

[Panoramix]

Well, my 1st event was the Mildenhall 300, and I got round that in 14h52m. Whilst it's nice to think I am 'fit for lel', I feel far from it, and a 400 is still intimidating. I feel I need some hilly 300s and a few hard 600s over the next couple of years as a minimum.

Well yes but 400s and 600s are more about experience than fitness. You may fail a 400 or a 600 because you didn't sleep at the right time or eat properly or prepare your bike properly but I am sure you are fast enough.

 

[PalmerSperry]

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.

Though this can work the other way too ... Speaking as someone who's 0 out of 4 when it comes to 200s.

 

[yello]

Well yes but 400s and 600s are more about experience than fitness.

I'm inclined to agree with that. I rode a 400 in June with pretty much no 'fitness' to speak of (i.e. negligible prior training). Just a knowledge of how to do it and a determination!

 

[vorsprung]

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

My first ever 200km was in 10h, but I don't think I've done that fast since except during other events

LEL 2005 I was on a slower bike than I use now, but conditions were good. I remember getting to Thorne ( I was on a London start ) and the cycle computer saying my moving average at that point was over 25kph

If I ever did LEL again I'd use a bike with tribars. There is a lot of pan flat stuff and not many large groups to tag along with

 

[DrMekon]

Yeah - re. a sub 8hr 200, we were second to the 200km point in 8h11m (not credit to me, I was hanging on the back of a group of club riders with carbon bikes most of that), and the guy who was 1st there (a chap call Bruce on a carbon bike) looked like he was on the far right hand side of the distribution when it comes to audax-ability (he claimed not to need to eat until 150km!). I am sure you are right about planning and experience being the issue. My plan has been to get 10000km under my belt this year (should pass it next week, much earlier than expected) and get my BMI down to 19 (currently 19.5, down from 26.5). Next year, I'd like to do an SR, but my better half is making "you're taking the piss" noises, so it may just be a couple of 200s a couple of 300s, and possibly a DIY600 with RichF and Teethgrinder if they run it again next year. Wouldn't want to go overdrawn at the Bank of Marital Goodwill too early. We'll see what shape that leaves me in for 2012.

 

[yello]

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

As I rode the same route in 2006, out of interest I looked up my time. It was 10h 37 ride time for a total of 225km as I rode to and from the start. The elapsed time, I didn't keep since I road with the organiser on the pre-ride recce and we were pretty stop-start all day. I would imagine it was close to 12 hours.

 

[redjedi]

It's all getting very serious in here. 200s/400s/.....600s

I struggled to do the 30 miles to Ipswich station after the Dun Run.

Right, time to get serious.....I'm going to take the long way home tonight and increase my 7 mile commute to 10 miles



But I was quite pleased to have done 110 miles on the friday night ride and woke up the next day not feeling any aches at all, which is a huge improvement on my first 100 miles.

 

[zigzag]

My plan has been to get 10000km under my belt this year (should pass it next week, much earlier than expected) and get my BMI down to 19 (currently 19.5, down from 26.5).

that's very good effort, drmekon! regarding weight - my bmi is 21.5 and people keep telling me i'm too skinny, i can't imagine how i would look with bmi 19. like a toothpick . but maybe you are of different build if you still think you are too heavy.

 

[DrMekon]

that's very good effort, drmekon! regarding weight - my bmi is 21.5 and people keep telling me i'm too skinny, i can't imagine how i would look with bmi 19. like a toothpick . but maybe you are of different build if you still think you are too heavy.

The last 8kg has been done more for interest than for any performance reasons. My job is to develop interventions for trials in public health. I thought I'd see if I could come up with something that'd work for weight loss without making me grumpy. So far, it's working. We may even see if we can work it up into a protocol for a grant app for a future trial.

But yeah, the "are you ill?" questions started when my BMI went below 20.

 

[DrMekon]

Passed 10,000km on the bike for the year this morning, which was meant to be my big hairy audacious goal for the year. Unfortunately, bikejournal competitiveness has lead me to peak a bit early. Now 13,000km looks eminently doable.

 

[ianrauk]

Nice one DrMekon.. stirling work

 

[DrMekon]

Cheers. Felt a bit bereft without something definite to aim for, so I am going to try to stick to 1000km+ months for the rest of the year, not withstanding the need to take my bike back to the shop for a replacement frame where the rack eyelet came off. Also, I've got my entries in for the End of Hibernation 200 and the Still Seething 600 for next year, so plenty to look forward to.

I figured the promise of lots of TLC, a flat route, and somewhere to crash after made the Seething 600 a good choice, given I'll not have done a 400 by that point.