Your reaction to someone who told you they took 8 months to train for the London to Brighton?

What would your reaction be, inside your mind, to someone who told you they took 8 months to train for the London to Brighton?

 

With no more information I'd say they were using it as either an excuse or motivation to get out on their bike in which case 'good on them!'

But I know what you mean...

 

depends how fat they were.

then again, i hear the pace on the L2B can be fearsome, especially if you get in with a peloton of bromptons and full sus MTBs going up ditchling.

 

That was my thought too, fat and very unfit, or just bad training. This was in an unpleasant email to me complaining about us skating it. I can't imagine actually needing to train to cycle it.

 

If this was in Soapbox, I'd flame you about your arrogant attitudue to your own superior fitness. But its not, so I wont

 

Depends on your ambition for the day. We trained a lot longer than that but still couldn't stick with a well drilled pace line that was trying to get somewhere near the two hour mark.

 

i don't think i'd be able to stick with them if i'd trained for the past fifteen years.

i reckon i'd get the measure of the bromptons though.

 

What was the gist of the email Mikey? Were they trying to say that skaters shouldn't be allowed etc.?

 

LOL, Smeggers, if it wasn't for the fact that I'm not very fit, you might have a point.

@Tim, yes, true. That sort of pace is not acceptable during the main ride though, they would have had to leave early.

 

.. then apologies, I dont get your point though?!

 

@domtyler, yeah, that's about it. Apparently he had to shout at a skater for holding him up on one uphill. *Cough* what about the hundreds of cyclists I waited patiently behind then? (Admittedly mostly because I was having such a good time socialising with them, I wasn't very motivated to overtake).

@Smeggers, I was just saying that if even a relatively unfit person can manage L2B, I don't understand why anyone would focus 8 months of training on it. It's not a race, it's a social and chilled bike ride, and unless you leave very early, IMO it's dangerous to go fast and try to overtake aggressively.

 

L2B is a challenge for new cyclists. It wouldn't be for me, but I've been cycling for about five years now and have done a few SR series. When I first started though, 20 or 30 miles was a 'long ride'. My very first ride as an adult was 8 miles and it was fun but quite tiring on a shopping bike and not having cycled since I was 10 years old. It depends what you mean by 'train'. In my mind I don't 'train,' I just ride. But riding 200 kms I suppose is 'training' for a 300km ride, riding 400kms is training for a 600 and so on. So for a new cyclist 'training' for L2B would be simply riding further distances until the required distance was reached. This does take time though and I think 8 months from scratch is reasonable progress - especially if you have other commitments and work full time.

 

Some people I know would need to train 8 months to do the L2B..

They'd also need a few months mentally preparing themselves for the idea it could be done at all

 

I wonder if they own a brand new carbon beauty just for the L2B, and have never used it again... in favour of their usual steed - a Merc

 

Totally agree Blonde. I've been cycling for many many years and rides like the L2B can be ridden non stop in just under three hours. But, many of the riders who do the L2B are riding that sort of distance for the first time and see it as a huge challenge, no matter what type of bike they are riding.
Personally I wouldn't ride the L2B again as it is just too busy but that is my choice. I did it about 15 years ago and didn't enjoy it.