Training for my first 100 miles

[mcshroom]

All a bit simple I accept (and Simon has an irrational hatred of mudguards), but the Fridays' page about the bike is a good guide - http://fnrttc.blogspot.co.uk/p/its-most-definitely-about-bike.html

Actually, if you haven't tried them already, I'd recommend having a go at a couple of the Fridays rides before your 100 miler. It's a relaxing way to get used to longer distances while being well looked after and with few cars around.

[Mrs Pingu]

+1 to fboab's suggestion of riding this month on fat bastard draggy tyres and then changing them - a nice bit of hypergravity training there. I always notice a massive difference going up hills when I take the studded tyres off my commuter...

[marcusjb]

All a bit simple I accept (and Simon has an irrational hatred of mudguards), but the Fridays' page about the bike is a good guide - http://fnrttc.blogspot.co.uk/p/its-most-definitely-about-bike.html

Actually, if you haven't tried them already, I'd recommend having a go at a couple of the Fridays rides before your 100 miler. It's a relaxing way to get used to longer distances while being well looked after and with few cars around.

Blimey. I had heard that his views were quirky - but I hadn't realised he was so extreme.

If I ever went on one of his rides, I think I would feel obliged to come with mudguards, front and rear panniers and maybe the trailer for good luck.

Funny really - audaxers shun the mudguardless in group riding conditions when the weather turns bad.

Anyway, all OT - but just amazed at his proclamations.

[CrinklyLion]

That one comes up at least once a year.  My view....

- Mr Legg is an extremely witty sort of chap.  Remember to read his proclamations in that light.
- Having personally participated in 4 and completed 3 FNRttCs with mudguards (if not elbows) intact since I didn't trust myself to safely remove and refit them, I think that there's little to be proved by turning up with 'em for the sake of it.
- My first ride with Mr Legg was the recce run to Cleethorpes in 2010.  In order to check if/reassure me that I really could make the distance on the night, Simon rode the _entire_ route with me by day a few weeks beforehand.  He rode it on some featherweight carbon bling with a rear block that looked like a corncob.  I, as the only other participant, rode on my sensible sturdy disk-braked hybrid with guards and rack and rack pack.  The 40ish miles to the Humber Bridge was the furthest I had ever ridden without stopping for a brew in my life.  The 70-odd miles to the coast was, I think the furthest I'd ever ridden full stop.  His only comment about my bike afterwards?  "You should really fit some barends on that.  It'll make it a lot comfier over the distance and help with climbing."

NSTN - don't be scared of the faster bike, try it out somewhere safe and non-public where nobody will point and laugh if you steer into a tree or summat and then you'll know whether it is worth experimenting with.  And enjoy the ride!

[woollypigs]

The LHT with thinner M+'s will do you well good, it will be comfy at 95km too. If you go for another bike ride it and ride it and ride it, you need to become used to it. As others have said build the distance up, you have plenty of time. You are already doing a great base distance, someone once said to me - if you can do 30miles you can do 60miles (I would just take it easier than him).

My first DunRun was on my MTB-hybrid with thin tires and the longest I had done before that was 30 miles in one go and had next to no weekly mileage under my belt and I was spend when I got the beach. The second DunRun was on my fully loaded LHT, fat tyres but many long rides and big weekly mileage under my belt and I was only tired by the lack of sleep.

Remember to eat and drink, when I climbed Tourmalet the fist time, I stopped every 2km to have a bite of Mars bar and a long drink and I managed to get up to the top without bonking.

[mcshroom]

Yeah don't worry about the mudguard stuff - I've done many rides with him and I think only one without guards. Then of course there's TimO's pannier of everything which is heavy enough to have it's own moons

The main thrust really is that he has had people turn up with badly maintained bikes and lots of unneeded equipment and they have then struggled. The 'think what you really need' mantra is a good one.

[hellymedic]

Go for a few 50 mile day rides. See what works and what does not.

When you come home, review your kit. Make lists of

Kit I took and used
Kit I did not take but wanted
Kit I took did not use but feel unhappy to leave behind (like waterproofs or p* kit)
Kit I did not use and could leave at home

A few trips will show what really *is* essential.

[Kim]

I think the underlying lesson in Simon's accessory rants is about reliability.  We all know that the weight of the bike doesn't actually matter at Fridays' pace^[1].  The important thing is that it isn't full of unknown mechanical gotchas, and it's certainly true that what you haven't got can't go wrong.  But reliability is key.  Don't muck up the brakes on a known-good bike trying to remove perfectly well-fitted mudguards.  Don't fit silly lightweight tyres that are going to have fifteen punctures in the first half of the ride.  That sort of thing.

Where I disagree is the advice about not carrying kit and supplies.  If you're reading his advice at all, then you're inexperienced at overnight riding, which means you don't know exactly what you're body's going to do.  As mentioned upthread, nothing slows you down more than being too hot, too cold, hungry or thirsty.

...but this thread isn't about a FNRttC.  As the username suggests, Notsototalnewbie has a reasonable idea about what she needs to eat and carry.  It's about training and to a lesser extent the bike.  Bike reliability is the inverse of faff, though, and that lesson is just as relevant.


_{[1] When I was a newbie, Simon made disapproving noises on seeing that my bike had grown front racks since the previous ride.  I pointed out they weighed 170g, of which 100g was saved by swapping the stem, and that I'd lost about 5kg of lard in the intervening period.}

[Kim]

When you come home, review your kit. Make lists of

Kit I took and used
Kit I did not take but wanted
Kit I took did not use but feel unhappy to leave behind (like waterproofs or p* kit)
Kit I did not use and could leave at home

My problem is that it all comes into the second and third categories.   

Of course, when you're up against a time limit, there's no point in carrying some of the more advanced repair kit you'd take when touring, as if you have to arse about with a complex mechanical, you're going to be out of time.

And the cynic in me says that an excellent way to save weight on a bike is to have someone with a car available to rescue you if things go horribly wrong.

[Notsototalnewbie]

I've been on several FNRttCs, in fact they were the first long rides I ever did and I think the Shoreham one was in fact the longest. I did all of them on bikes with racks and mudguards and Simon did not ban me, in fact when I last bumped into him on a commute he encouraged me to start coming again.

I'm not too worried about what kit to carry; I have done plenty of day rides and I can usually get most of what I need into a small barbag, with a saddlepack for tools. My fettling skills are such that it's not worth me carrying much more than tyre levers, a decent multitool and spare inner tubes; as Kim suggests, anything worse than what those can fix is going to take me out of the ride anyway.

I weigh 10kg more than I did two years ago and I plan to be rid of that by August.

[Cudzoziemiec]

His only comment about my bike afterwards?  "You should really fit some barends on that.  It'll make it a lot comfier over the distance and help with climbing."

And did you? I'm not a big fan of bar ends - I've taken them off my hybrid - but I think they do help with steep climbs.

[zigzag]

has anyone mentioned the free speed you can gain by riding with your back more horizontal? you can do this by strengthening your core/lower back muscles and lowering handlebar and riding in drops.

[Kim]

has anyone mentioned the free speed you can gain by riding with your back more horizontal? you can do this by strengthening your core/lower back muscles and lowering handlebar and riding in drops.

Or by lowering your seat, which also helps you to breathe more freely...   

Seriously though, on a DF the breathing in a crouch thing can be really limiting if you're not trained for it.  Certainly not a quick fix.

[hellymedic]

has anyone mentioned the free speed you can gain by riding with your back more horizontal? you can do this by strengthening your core/lower back muscles and lowering handlebar and riding in drops.

Or by lowering your seat, which also helps you to breathe more freely...   

Seriously though, on a DF the breathing in a crouch thing can be really limiting if you're not trained for it.  Certainly not a quick fix.

Lowering your seat might reduce the power output of the lower limbs...

Girlies don't gain as much as boys by crouching forward, due to differences in body shape...

[zigzag]

has anyone mentioned the free speed you can gain by riding with your back more horizontal? you can do this by strengthening your core/lower back muscles and lowering handlebar and riding in drops.

Or by lowering your seat, which also helps you to breathe more freely...   

Seriously though, on a DF the breathing in a crouch thing can be really limiting if you're not trained for it.  Certainly not a quick fix.

if you position yourself closer to the ground you have to push through the denser air. swings and roundabouts

[Cudzoziemiec]

has anyone mentioned the free speed you can gain by riding with your back more horizontal? you can do this by strengthening your core/lower back muscles and lowering handlebar and riding in drops.

Or by lowering your seat, which also helps you to breathe more freely...   

Seriously though, on a DF the breathing in a crouch thing can be really limiting if you're not trained for it.  Certainly not a quick fix.

if you position yourself closer to the ground you have to push through the denser air. swings and roundabouts

You are also subject to a greater gravitational field. 

[Kim]

Lowering your seat might reduce the power output of the lower limbs...

I did mean seat (in the darkside sense) not saddle.  Lowering it means a more laid-back aerodynamic position and less compression of the diaphragm - it makes you faster both up and down hills.  If the seat pivots about an axis forward of the pelvis then boom extension would need adjusting to compensate, for exactly the reason you state.  The tradeoff is head height, neck angle and requiring a bit more skill to control the bike.

if you position yourself closer to the ground you have to push through the denser air. swings and roundabouts

Yeahbut there's much less headwind:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundary_layer

[mattc]

You are also subject to a greater gravitational field. 

   

That contains as much sense as other recent posts.

[citoyen]

Just to reiterate what has already been said upthread, spend as little time as possible faffing and you won't have to worry how long it takes you to get up hills.

Faffing is my worst habit on audaxes. I was on the road for about 10.5 hours on last Sunday's 200, of which nearly two hours was spent not moving. That's waaaaaay too much time spent sitting chatting at controls, organising the contents of my saddlebag, updating social media with my progress... My fastest ever 200 was around 9hrs but my average riding speed was no quicker, I just didn't stop for long at controls.

[Ian H]

Faffing is my worst habit on audaxes...

Let me give you some advice...

[citoyen]

Faffing is my worst habit on audaxes...

Let me give you some advice...

I don't think so!

If I recall correctly, the one time I encountered you on an audax, you were sitting in a cafe at the last control, deliberately taking ages over your cuppa in order to get back to the finish as close to the cutoff time as possible.

[Wascally Weasel]

Hi,

Lots of good advice here.  If you’re comfortable with your LHT long distances then I would stick with it, unless you’ve got the time to learn what your comfortable position might be on a lighter bike.  Based on what you have already said about your plans, with some modest weight loss (but only if you want to do that) and riding more miles I reckon you will be fine!

I rode it last year and would say that, in comparative terms, it really isn’t that difficult for 100 miles – it’s quite a flat course for much of the route (e.g. barring Sawyer’s Hill in Richmond Park the first 40 miles are all virtually flat).  In the Surrey Hills, the route misses out all of the properly steep climbs on the Downs (like Whitedown, Coldharbour & Ranmore Common) and the crowds are very encouraging!

The hardest bit on the route is Leith Hill and while it’s noticeably a climb it isn’t very long or really very steep (it’s less than 10%, compared to Whitedown which is 18%).  Box Hill is easier than Leith Hill and after that there isn’t too much uphill left to do (the biggest remaining climbs if you can call them that, is the drag up Coombe Hill from Norbiton and I think one of the bits around Wimbledon Park).  Put it this way - I had a gearing problem last year which meant I couldn't use my granny ring at all and Leith Hill was the only place I would have used it had I had the option.

With missing out many of the hills and the narrower roads, most of the route takes place on main roads in good repair so I wouldn’t worry too much about the road surface (it’s not great on parts of the A25 but that’s as bad as I recall it being).  Also you can sit in a big bunch for much of the time and get dragged along – sure you’ll probably drop off the back when the gradient climbs but you won’t be the only one and there will be another group along in a bit every time!

The closed roads help too in that there is a lot of road to use which makes descending a lot of fun, even for nervous descenders like me.

Lastly, unless you desperately need to stop there, try and avoid the first feed station at Hampton Court as you’ll queue for ages for the loos - there are plenty of other places to stop later on.  From memory, you’re offered a stopping opportunity roughly every 20 miles or so.

[mike]

just to give a contrary viewpoint: I've got a LHT and a road bike and have been riding the LHT all winter and just switched to the road bike. On a 'standard' 18 mile loop with no major hills, with similar heart rates my average speeds:

LHT with full winter kit (dynamo, marathon+ tyres, guards) - 14 mph
LHT with spring kit (no dynamo, wide pasela tyres, guards) - 15mph
road bike (no dynamo, 25mm tyres, no guards) - 17.5mph

assuming similar drops in speed over 100 miles, the road bike would be about an hour quicker.  I say to switch to a road bike now, spend months fiddling with the position to get comfy on it, then enjoy not having to work so hard all the way round 100 miles.

[LEE]

As long as you are worried about doing 100 miles you'll be fine.  That means you'll prepare for it properly.

For a regular cyclist, who can do 50 miles without much problem, 100 miles is only a problem if you underestimate it, taking it for granted and not preparing.

My choice would always be for comfort and a familiar bike if I was "going into the unknown".  A LHT is made for comfort over distance.

[Wowbagger]

What wheel size is your bike, Laura? If it's 26" I would heartily recommend Panaracer Paselas 26 * 1.5. They are very light but extremely hardwearing. If you get some and don't want to keep them I'll buy them off you.