I'm doing the ride. I have a charity place for beating bowel cancer. I've only been riding regularly since October. I've ridden 1,500 miles through the winter and the longest I have ridden is 50 miles but that was on a calm day in January.
I too am feeling that I need to up the training. The challenge for me is that I weigh 21 st but even though I am very big, I am fit. I've got a week off work this week so have been planning my training. This involves a change of diet and a training schedule.
I got in 26 miles this morning and plan similar rides over the next couple of days. My average speed tends to be just under 12mph which I'm happy with given the weight I am carrying. I have been concentrating on speeding up my cadence which is helping to improve my endurance. I know I will complete the ride with 4 months training and dropping a couple of stone.
Realising there is only 4 months to the ride has given me the extra motivation to get out on the bike and train rather than just riding.
It will be a great day.
Good stuff. I have a slightly reverse problem to yourself, I haven't got so much weight to pull (12.5 st), but I am unfit. And I think a lot of my weight is body fat so I am also changing my diet to cut out the potatoes and pasta. Which is very tough!!
Longest ride to date so far for me was 55 miles, in 4 hours 35 mins. My big thing apart from general fitness is hills. Really need to get my technique better, when I stand I feel my legs turn to jelly. And there are some proper hills on this route.
Yes, I got a place in the ballot.
I started riding again last year (after a 20 year break) after buying a bike on the C2W scheme and then doing some training in order to do the London 2 Brighton overnight in July last year which was 70 miles. I survived that with energy to spare!
However, I've had a quiet winter and am now beginning to ramp up my training. I'm actually spending more time in the gym losing weight and building strength than on the road but that will change over the next few weeks. I'm going to do some longer group rides over the next few months including a couple of local Bikeathons and probably the L2B overnight again.
I'm mid-40s and currently the wrong side of 17 st so have a fair bit of work to do. The concept is a bit scary to be honest but I fully intend to complete it comfortable within the 9 hour limit even allowing for Newlands Corner and Box Hill!
When I trained for the L2B last year I started off doing 10 mile rides at about 11 mph. By increasing this bit by bit every weekend I was quickly able to do 25 miles at 14+ mph without pain or discomfort. I'm aiming to up this by another level or two before August.
At the moment, I haven't signed up for a charity but am analysing the various offers and quality of free jerseys!
Congrats on the riding after such a long break, must have been weird getting back on the bike! Obviously haven't lost it though!
I took a drive around the course from kingston down thru the Surrey Hills part and back to Wimbledon and I have to say, its not Newlands Corner or Box Hill we should all be worried about, rather Leith Hill. Bleeding nightmare!!! Highest point on the route.
Im going to take a train down to Newlands to do that part of the course (Newlands, Leith, Box Hill then back thru Leatherhead, Cobham, Esher, Kingston and Wimbledon) in the next few weeks so Ill have some experience, and some Garmin data to look at.
Get through that 25 - 30 mile stretch and the rest is pretty straightforward save for the mileage.
