too late for long rides to benefit?

[Wycombewheeler]

I'm feeling under prepared, is it worth doing a long ride this weekend, or am I better off resting?

[Lightning Phil]

Depends what you mean by long and what benefit you are looking for.  I’ve never seen audax length rides as improving fitness, more a test of yourself, your bike setup, and your equipment / clothing and food choices.

I’ve got an easy four hour ride planned for Saturday. I have no illusions that it’ll make a difference to my fitness for LEL.  It’s more just going out for a nice ride, keeping the legs turning over, plus a final check of the fettles I did on Sunday. I then have a bit of intensity  and an easy two hour ride next week for more legs turning over.  But nothing more, nothing that’ll generate significant fatigue.

[The French Tandem]

A 100 to 150 km ride is probably the longest thing I would consider one week before LEL. I have always felt that it takes me a fortnight to fully recover from a 300 km, so riding such long distance is likely to just drain all your energy. But that's me, and other people may react differently to long distance training! Just try to figure out how long it took you to recover from your last significantly long distance.

A

[Bikeabilityman]

For LEL 2013, I did the number of recommended distance rides for the preceding months. Two 600 rides were on the list, but I fitted in the 2nd one (the super hot Buzzard) two weeks before the LEL start, when I think 200 max was suggested. My derrière took the whole fortnight to recover from the sores (sweat/heat). Like Phil said, just do ticking over/bike check rides.