Author Topic: Dunwich Dynamo?  (Read 3621 times)

Beardy

  • Shedist
Dunwich Dynamo?
« on: 16 January, 2018, 01:58:38 pm »
a question form a couch potato who wants an achievable target.

with a modicum of sensible training is it something to aspire to? Its been a while since I did ANY exercise so I'm staring from scratch. I also struggle with motivation, but having a target will help with that. Be gentle with me, but if its not a sensible goal to achieve by July tell me so.
For every complex problem in the world, there is a simple and easily understood solution that’s wrong.

Kim

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Re: Dunwich Dynamo?
« Reply #1 on: 16 January, 2018, 02:08:14 pm »
If you can get yourself to the point where spending hours on a bike doesn't kill you, then the team slow approach doesn't require spectacular fitness.  Anything faster is a bonus.

My rule of thumb is that if you can ride half the distance without suffering, you'll make it round a given ride.  Building up to 100km (which is about the length of the average FNRttC - hint hint) in six months doesn't sound unrealistic if you do actual training type stuff.  The great thing about starting from scratch is how quickly your fitness builds at the beginning, but YMMV.


benborp

  • benbravoorpapa
Re: Dunwich Dynamo?
« Reply #2 on: 16 January, 2018, 02:56:03 pm »
I think the Dynamo is the most realistically achievable ride for that distance out there. A night ride always kids the brain into accepting longer distances as being 'normal'; the sense of occasion is enough of a hit to carry you a good deal further; the size of the ride is such that there is nearly always someone to ride with and waves of riders to be carried along by; the route delivers you quite comfortably and painlessly to a point where as you've got that far you may as well carry on (this coincides with the realisation that there are no longer any simple bail out options).

Many people complete the ride every year without any realistic foreknowledge of whether it is something they can achieve. Quite a few appear to set off with no more thought towards the ride than a circuit of the local park and many set off knowing that what they are about to attempt is absolutely bonkers. Go for it.

A modicum of sensible training will make the ride more comfortable, less daunting and more enjoyable. You will experience more of the ride if you are not setting out into the complete unknown and you are able to concentrate on other things than surviving the next 10, 5 or 1km. Training miles will also allow you to accrue the knowledge and equipment to deal with the two most likely show stoppers - mechanicals and unseasonal weather.
A world of bedlam trapped inside a small cyclist.

Redlight

  • Enjoying life in the slow lane
Re: Dunwich Dynamo?
« Reply #3 on: 16 January, 2018, 02:57:49 pm »
I'd say it's perfectly achievable if you start gently now, during the cold months, and begin to extend your mileage once spring arrives and riding is generally more pleasant (unless you are in the company of the Fridays, of course, in which case riding in any weather is pleasant). As Kim says, you'll make some rapid gains very quickly; the key will be steadily building on them and  not getting disheartened if the pace of improvement seems to flatten. So long as the overall trajectory is upward, you'll be fine.

The DD itself is a good 200km ride to aim for as it's run over benign terrain and is such a large ride that it's easy to allow yourself to be swept along in a big bunch. It also helps that there are plenty of pit stops along the way.

Concentrate also on making sure you are comfortable on the bike - bar and saddle height, saddle itself, etc.  That will make all the difference on a 200km ride, when the little niggles that you've ignored over 50km will start to make their presence felt!
Why should anybody steal a watch when they can steal a bicycle?

telstarbox

  • Loving the lanes
Re: Dunwich Dynamo?
« Reply #4 on: 16 January, 2018, 03:33:51 pm »
Aim to do 100km (or a bit more) by May/June. If you can do that without wanting to throw the bike in a skip, you should be fine.

It's a great atmosphere and hopefully good weather as well - so arguably easier than doing a similar distance on your own in the winter.

Can you find someone else to ride it with you? That can also help for a bit of moral support. 

2019 🏅 R1000 and B1000

Re: Dunwich Dynamo?
« Reply #5 on: 16 January, 2018, 03:44:14 pm »
Dunwich Dynamo was my motivation for getting in to cycling and getting fit. I probably started riding about this time of year. First ride I could hardly manage more than about 5 miles to give you an indication of where I was. Did the ride on an early 90's Ridgeback mountain bike as well so hardly well equipped. When I did the ride I could comfortably manage 100km but had never really gone further than that but with a steady pace and lots of laughs with fellow riders I managed it. That was about 13 years ago and never looked back.

Be warned though. It is a slippery slope. Once you get in to it you will want to be out more and more, meet groups of men on the internet with similar interests and going out pub nights, weekends and holidays, probably end up joining Audax UK and do some silly rides and sleep in bus shelters with perfect strangers, start bivvying, wild swimming and spend all your spare cash on bike stuff. In my house this has been termed an extended mid life crisis.

Re: Dunwich Dynamo?
« Reply #6 on: 16 January, 2018, 03:46:16 pm »
Can't argue with anything the above posters have said.
I can add another rule of thumb if you like.
If you ride regularly, and by that I mean at least 5 days a week, whatever mileage you are covering in those 5 days, you should be able to do in one hit.

It was reading the FAQs for the Dynamo that made me decide to get a bike, to do the ride.
This was in May of 2006. The late Barry Mason was trying to persuade me to do it in the late June of the same year.
There is no way I would've been fit enough, especially as May 2006 had almost 3 weeks of solid rain.
If you start riding now, and maintain regular rides, you should be fine to do it this summer.
As hs been intimated elsewhere - you don't have to be fast to do the Dynamo.
I did the ride in 2007. And have done it around another seven times since.
Good luck.

Kim

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Re: Dunwich Dynamo?
« Reply #7 on: 16 January, 2018, 03:56:18 pm »
As hs been intimated elsewhere - you don't have to be fast to do the Dynamo.

I should further add that riding with people who are slower than you can be a good way to pace yourself over long distances.  Particularly at the start.

Beardy

  • Shedist
Re: Dunwich Dynamo?
« Reply #8 on: 16 January, 2018, 04:01:35 pm »
Kim, A personal question if you don't mind. How do you cope with conversations with others while on a bike? This seems to be being billed as a very social ride, but with my hearing, holding any sort of conversation while on the go is just not going to happen.
For every complex problem in the world, there is a simple and easily understood solution that’s wrong.

CrinklyLion

  • The one with devious, cake-pushing ways....
Re: Dunwich Dynamo?
« Reply #9 on: 16 January, 2018, 04:33:36 pm »
It's as social as you want it to be :)

I got to the end OK when I did it, joining the stokerised-by-Wowbagger club.  At the time I was commuting between 5 and 35 miles a day and doing a 40odd mile 'training' ride most weekends with my then 8 year old.  It was my first ride (and probably last!) at that distance, first tandem ride, and first clipless ride.  Think it might have been my second night ride - the FNRttC to Cleethorpes was a bit before it I think....

Upon arrival at the beach I saw Rich Forrest, who was looking revoltingly fit and thin and strong, and realised that even having dropped a couple of stone in the months leading up to it I still hadn't managed to get to my taget weight of 'less than Rich'.  I think he's nearly 2 feet taller than me... oh, and a bloke.

So, even as a significantly overweight utiulity cyclist who got sadly led astray by the mad bike people on the internet I managed it - and it was on the back of a rather heavily loaded tandem that I had previously literally ridden round the block once on, in donated cycling shoes and a scruffy t-shirt.  I had acquired some cycling-specific 3/4s by that point.  It can be surprisingly achievable!

Kim

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    • Fediverse
Re: Dunwich Dynamo?
« Reply #10 on: 16 January, 2018, 04:40:17 pm »
Kim, A personal question if you don't mind. How do you cope with conversations with others while on a bike? This seems to be being billed as a very social ride, but with my hearing, holding any sort of conversation while on the go is just not going to happen.

As a hearing person with rubbish auditory processing, I find the biggest problem is wind noise and not being able to hear someone who's in front of you as easily as someone behind - but most hearing cyclists are used to that to some extent - especially helmet users.

When riding with barakta I wear an FM transmitter under my jersey (keeping the microphone out of the wind) that links to her hearing aid.  That means that as long as she's within radio range (100m or so) she can hear me reasonably well (though I tend to simplify my language to make up for lack of lip-reading), and as the radio link is only one direction I can't always hear her reply - particularly if she's riding in front of me.  She often responds with one-handed gestures (not all of them rude) when we're riding in single file.  It can be awkward if we get separated in a group, as she can't hear the people immediately around her without faffing around with input settings.

I've cycled with BSL-using friends a few times.  In-motion conversation tended to be limited to simple things like directions, pointing at interesting things (amusing signs, potholes, dead badgers, etc), "everything okay?", "slow down you fit postman bastard!" "your bike's making a noise" or " I'm going to stop up there" which can be communicated one-handed without riding into anything.  As a mixed-ability group we'd stop a lot anyway.

Appreciate that it's going to be even harder in the dark.

On the other hand, even on social rides, plenty of people just get on with turning the pedals for prolonged periods.

I don't think there's a magic solution to this one, other than deaf awareness by your companions.  Which could be fine if you're riding as part of a YACF group (or whatever), but doesn't work so well with random strangers.   :-\

Re: Dunwich Dynamo?
« Reply #11 on: 16 January, 2018, 07:16:49 pm »
As I am as slow as a asthmatic snail with a walking stick l am considering a potter out to around the half way point a day before and doing the last 100k on the night so as to enjoy the spirit of the event  :)
the slower you go the more you see

Re: Dunwich Dynamo?
« Reply #12 on: 16 January, 2018, 07:43:34 pm »
I am deaf and during dark hours riding, I simply don't talk even in a group ride. No one has a problem as they know my communication limits :) Beside they know how well I am doing by judging the amount of expletives coming out of my mouth. The worst it is = the more I am not happy!

arabella

  • عربللا
  • onwendeð wyrda gesceaft weoruld under heofonum
Re: Dunwich Dynamo?
« Reply #13 on: 16 January, 2018, 08:30:12 pm »
start by using your bike to go short distances (the corner shop, the shop on the next corner instead etc.)
don't know if your commute is cycling-achievable (<10miles, say) but that would be handy for basic levels of activity.  then add in detours, weekend outings etc.
your legs will ache after to DD.  then when the ache subsides you will want to do it/similar again.  then you will start eying up audaxes near you ...
Any fool can admire a mountain.  It takes real discernment to appreciate the fens.

Beardy

  • Shedist
Re: Dunwich Dynamo?
« Reply #14 on: 17 January, 2018, 08:09:34 am »
I'm beginning to form an opinion that you lot are a BAD INFLUENCE   ;D
For every complex problem in the world, there is a simple and easily understood solution that’s wrong.

Redlight

  • Enjoying life in the slow lane
Re: Dunwich Dynamo?
« Reply #15 on: 17 January, 2018, 09:34:59 am »
I'm beginning to from an opinion that you lot are a BAD INFLUENCE   ;D

It's taken you 10 years to work that out?
Why should anybody steal a watch when they can steal a bicycle?

Re: Dunwich Dynamo?
« Reply #16 on: 17 January, 2018, 07:13:11 pm »
If you ride regularly, and by that I mean at least 5 days a week, whatever mileage you are covering in those 5 days, you should be able to do in one hit.

Pretty much this. I've only done it two or three times, but each time it's been off the back of regular commuting (6-8 miles each way) and almost no other riding apart from some very occasional, very gentle weekend rides (probably about 3 in the two years or so preceding the first time I did it).

Re: Dunwich Dynamo?
« Reply #17 on: 17 January, 2018, 08:10:29 pm »
Hi Beardy,

May I suggest that possibly-not-achievable goals are the best sort of goals and, if you can harness even a soupçon of the resulting fear to get yourself off the couch, then all (well, all but one) of your massive wins will already have been won before you get to London Fields.

All the best with it!  :thumbsup:

Re: Dunwich Dynamo?
« Reply #18 on: 17 January, 2018, 09:51:28 pm »
The biggest challenge will be (dis)comfort. For a variety of reasons I did no meaningful exercise for 2 years. Then in November I quit my job due to stress. I had a doss about, but after Christmas I dug my bike out of the shed. I’ve ridden it about 8 times now, plus done 3 “gym” sessions in the shed. The heaviest weight is the 10kg I used for squats. Today I rode around 15 miles. It was slow, and quite hard work, and tiring. But by July I’d certainly be doing 50 miles in one hit. You can too.

As to conversations, I don’t. I prefer to ride on my own, no need to adapt to another’s pace or preferences. Go for it.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Wascally Weasel

  • Slayer of Dragons and killer of threads.
Re: Dunwich Dynamo?
« Reply #19 on: 18 January, 2018, 08:53:37 am »
Hi Beardy*

You've got plenty of time to build up to the distance required between now and the ride.

I rode it for the first time in 2006, with my previous longest ride being about 80 miles.  Most of my training was just from daily commuting and as Jurek says above, if on a weekly basis you're regularly doing something close to the Dynamo distance (spread over the week) then you should be fine.

If you've never done an overnight ride before I would recommend a Friday Night Ride to the Coast as Kim suggests (I must do that again myself soon).  Firstly because it will let you know what you're like on the bike overnight with no sleep and secondly because, although it's not a supported ride in terms of vehicle support, the FNRttC lot do look after everyone and ensure no person is left behind.

Even if you're half arsed about your training and never go much above 50 miles in the build up, the event itself will carry you along in a way that a normal social ride wouldn't.  It's bonkers.

Make sure that you book a return coach trip and bike transport from Southwark Cyclists (or some other form of return support) as if it is your first time at that distance and overnight, you're probably not going to want the faff of cycling somewhere else to pick up a train when you're knackered.


*This is usually the start of an Invitation To Fight in a hipster pub.

Beardy

  • Shedist
Re: Dunwich Dynamo?
« Reply #20 on: 18 January, 2018, 11:24:57 am »
Hi Beardy*

<snippage of the useful stuff>

*This is usually the start of an Invitation To Fight in a hipster pub.
Hipsters stole my look.  >:( I've had a beard for 35 years and was wearing 'granddad' shirts and wastecoats in the 80s  The Bastards!
For every complex problem in the world, there is a simple and easily understood solution that’s wrong.

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: Dunwich Dynamo?
« Reply #21 on: 18 January, 2018, 01:40:38 pm »
I am intending to do the DD. This will be my 10th. I missed one about 3 or 4 years ago because of a combination of grandchildren and weather.

I will be travelling extremely slowly. IIRC I arrived about 1.30pm last year, having started a little before 9pm. I was mostly on my own, although fora while I had damarell for company.

I heard a malicious rumour that your beard had shrink considerably. I propose that you and I steer clear of the scissors for the next 6 months and trundle round together.

Last year I had done relatively little cycling. I think the DD ended up being almost 10% of my annual total. The previous year I had the delightful company of a lady who had just turned up at the start on a decidedly inferior bike, never having ridden over 50 miles in a day before. She was amazing.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: Dunwich Dynamo?
« Reply #22 on: 23 April, 2018, 11:37:02 am »
I won't be doing the Dunwich Dynamo this year. I have booked a place on a summer school in St. Andrews. Sorry, Beardy, if you still decide to do it.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.