Hi Folks
just thought I would let you all know of a cycle I am doing in May 2012 (21st is start date)
going to be doing lejogle ( Lands-end to John O'Groats to Lands-end ) and i am planning on it taking 10 days!
I only started cycling again about 2 weeks ago, so I have 7.5 months to train for this beauty.
its all for charity, which charity is currently being decided via nomination here ( so feel free to nominate!) ----> http://lejogle.wufoo.com/forms/charity-nomination-form/
I will be on here every now and then, but I have a site set up at http://www.lejogle.co.uk
My aim is to raise £180,000 for good causes, to help make the sore posterior worth it!
cheers
Martin
http://www.twitter.com/lejogle2012
http://www.facebook.com/lejogle
http://www.lejogle.co.uk
http://www.justgiving.com/teams/lejogle
Funny/stupid idea - lejogle in 10 days
Re: Funny/stupid idea - lejogle in 10 days
Hi Martin.
I wish you all the luck in the world.
However, can I tell you a tale?
I drove the support van for The Race Against Time in May of 2007. In those days, TRAT did LEJOG in five days. It had been done for only two years previous, and in 2007 they were going to do it twice: May and July. I was in support for the May ride.
We left LE at 0600 or so, first stop due to be Bristol. 200miles. We never made it because of the weather. We pulled them in 30miles short, and the following morning took them back to where they left off to ride to Chester. They pulled into Chester about midnight.
Following day, 0600 or so, they set off for Moffat. Again a midnight arrival battling against headwinds and blizzards! We were concerned about hypothermia. Next morning, off to Kingussie and a midnight arrival again. Ditto Kingussie to JOG. Because of the difficulty and monumental task - and luck with the weather, it was decided to do TRAT in seven days in the future. Right too. Five days needs luck with conditions and the weather to guarantee success.
The riders - seven of them - were worn out and knackered. I doubt any of them turned a pedal for weeks after that ride. To do five days both ways - ie ten days there and back, requires a great deal of luck and a great deal of energy that mere mortals don't normally have.
As I say, good luck.
I wish you all the luck in the world.
However, can I tell you a tale?
I drove the support van for The Race Against Time in May of 2007. In those days, TRAT did LEJOG in five days. It had been done for only two years previous, and in 2007 they were going to do it twice: May and July. I was in support for the May ride.
We left LE at 0600 or so, first stop due to be Bristol. 200miles. We never made it because of the weather. We pulled them in 30miles short, and the following morning took them back to where they left off to ride to Chester. They pulled into Chester about midnight.
Following day, 0600 or so, they set off for Moffat. Again a midnight arrival battling against headwinds and blizzards! We were concerned about hypothermia. Next morning, off to Kingussie and a midnight arrival again. Ditto Kingussie to JOG. Because of the difficulty and monumental task - and luck with the weather, it was decided to do TRAT in seven days in the future. Right too. Five days needs luck with conditions and the weather to guarantee success.
The riders - seven of them - were worn out and knackered. I doubt any of them turned a pedal for weeks after that ride. To do five days both ways - ie ten days there and back, requires a great deal of luck and a great deal of energy that mere mortals don't normally have.
As I say, good luck.
Mick F. Cornwall
-
WaitForPete
- Posts: 17
- Joined: 3 Oct 2011, 5:05pm
Re: Funny/stupid idea - lejogle in 10 days
7.5 months is not enough to train for that.
Start with a couple of weekend trips, see how far you can get in 2 days, this will give you a better understanding of your limits.
Strongly suggest you go for one-way in 10 days.
Start with a couple of weekend trips, see how far you can get in 2 days, this will give you a better understanding of your limits.
Strongly suggest you go for one-way in 10 days.
-
patpalloon
- Posts: 390
- Joined: 16 Jan 2011, 12:06pm
Re: Funny/stupid idea - lejogle in 10 days
I agree - LEJOG in 10 days was hard enough, I failed it on my first attempt. Doing a double E2E in 10 days is a very tall order.
I feel sure that the genius that did this, didn't even feel a thud as he drove by.
Re: Funny/stupid idea - lejogle in 10 days
Ooft, that is quite some challenge you've set yourself there, I'm following your twitter feed to see how you progress.
Good luck
Good luck
Re: Funny/stupid idea - lejogle in 10 days
Hi, sorry for such a long post, I admire what you are attempting, you remind me of myself, so thought I would share my experience with you. Best of luck, it’s one hell of a challenge. Do not underestimate the effect of fatigue when doing such high mileage everyday....
I attempted a challenge on a similar scale; I tried to do 2500miles in 20 days (viewtopic.php?f=22&t=53828). I would regard myself as experienced long distance cyclist, have done 200+ miles a day on many occasions (including on back to back days) and have done more than 260 miles in a “day”. Got to the point where after a 200 mile ride experienced no discomfort the next day ie. Providing did nothing to strenuous could barley tell I had done anything the day before….
The first part of my journey was supposed to be LEJOG in five days. Did about 180 miles a day for first few days without problem, at this point I thought it was going to be easy. Day 3 was where it started to get tough, hit big hill in lake distinct (think called Shap Fell?) not too step but goes on a fair way. I would usually have found this no problem, but after 450 miles in 2 ½ days it felt like it broke me….
Pushed on though ALLOT of discomfort and made it to Edinburgh on schedule. Was actually really glad when had issue (wheel bucked due to most of spokes on rear wheel coming very lose), gave me excuses to stop early and add extra day (know if this did not happen I still could not have made it in 5 days as every mile was getting harder). Completed LEJOG in 6 days and had 2 days rest before starting return leg. Even after 2 days rest was still hard to get on bike but pushed on as once I set myself a target I don’t like to fail and felt like I would be disappointing those who sponsored me.
Was not enjoying cycling at that point (weather did not help…). Barely got past Inverness, struggled to do 150 miles in 2 days (which should be absolutely nothing to me) cannot describe how hard the cycling was at this point. Even a 1 or 2 % gradient made me want to get off and walk, combined with the pain was simply the feeling of running on empty. Decided to call it a day, plan was to catch train back home, have some rest, then do some rides based near home to clock up some mileage so could still claim an impressive total for the 20 days I had allotted. However was awhile before I got on a bike again…
As well as the physical recovery I had pushed myself so far I simply did not think of cycling as pleasant for awhile (luckily this has passed).
In terms of the physical aspect, had a few painful area’s but the worst thing was numbness … So many hours in the saddle had reduced blood flow to certain key area’s. I had never had this issue before even though have done some pretty extreme distances, but know it can lead to permanent impotence…. Lucky everything is back to normal now, but 2 weeks after the ride was still thinking about going to the doctors… Events where riders used to compete for who could go the furthest in 6 days where very popular, but this was one of the reason for there decline.
I don’t think I noticed this issue for awhile, as numbness is not noticeable especially when you are in pain, but have to admit I pushed on even when was aware of this issue as don’t like to fail a challenge… Can believe I risked permanent impotence…
Could go on about lots of other issues (inc extreme weather..) and area’s on pain, I would get across how bad things where at some points I had never experienced while training, but the fact is everyone has different issues. Yours will be different, until you have done it you cannot image the strains you are putting on your body by keep repeating such extreme days without recovery time. I thought my cycling experience allowed me to judge how hard this was going to be, but I was wrong… The fact you have only just done your first 35 mile bike ride…..
The world record for cycling round the world is 176 days (103 miles per day). I used to struggles to comprehend why this was so slow, whilst there are many factors it should help illustrate how hard it is to complete vast distances day after day…
Although you have 7.5 months in time, most of this is not good time to practice log distance cycling. It’s very hard to put serous hours into long distance cycling over the winter months, I guessing you have pretty good base fitness levels, but what you need to even contemplate such a ride is lots of seriously long rides (and as many back to back long days as possible), every year I promise myself I am going to do more winter miles, every year when the weather get better I realise I have done far less than planned but suddenly find my miles naturally increase massively as weather improves. It’s not just the temperate but rain/ fog/ snow/ hours of daylight that make it so much harder, a run to the shops is fine but 8 hours in the saddle is simply far less pleasant.
Plus you need to start you ride fully recovered, this means starting to taper down you millage about a month in advance (you probably like me thing you don’t need that much recover time, but having felt the difference it makes to be fully recovered…).
Suggest you check out Audax uk (http://www.aukweb.net/), they are the “recognised long-distance cycling association in the UK” if you check there calendar you will see they don’t run many log distance cycle ride over the winter (you have to not think 200km/125mils as long with what you are doing, it’s amazing how your perception of distance changes once you do some serous rides….), but they are a great bunch of very experienced serous long distance cyclist who have allot of experience to share plus entering some scheduled events is a great way to motivate yourself.
It’s amazing what the human body can adapt to, It’s not as hard (although certainly not easy….) as most people think to build to 180 miles in a day if you are highly motivated and gradually increase your distance. However 180 miles a day for 4 days in a row (yet alone 10) is a completely deferent story. The only way to stand a chance is to build up to that kind of distance then start putting in multiple days at those distances (it’s not till at least 3 days of consecutive riding you will realise how hard it’s going to get). Don’t plan on the fact your fitness will improve as the ride goes on, whilst this may be true for people planning on doing 70 miles per day, you will simply be doing to much per day with insufficient recovery time, you body simply cannot recover enough and each day will get harder, trust me on this….
Like I say best of luck, I can see you are serious and have given this allot thought from your website, but would urge you to consider scaling back you target. People won’t thing less of it if you scale it back, average people simply cannot comprehend cycling these types of distances, if you scaled it back it most people would still think of it as an impossible challenge the fact that your current plan is slightly more impossible makes very little difference to how they comprehend it. It feels allot better to exceed a very tricky target that to fail to achieve an almost impossible one….
I attempted a challenge on a similar scale; I tried to do 2500miles in 20 days (viewtopic.php?f=22&t=53828). I would regard myself as experienced long distance cyclist, have done 200+ miles a day on many occasions (including on back to back days) and have done more than 260 miles in a “day”. Got to the point where after a 200 mile ride experienced no discomfort the next day ie. Providing did nothing to strenuous could barley tell I had done anything the day before….
The first part of my journey was supposed to be LEJOG in five days. Did about 180 miles a day for first few days without problem, at this point I thought it was going to be easy. Day 3 was where it started to get tough, hit big hill in lake distinct (think called Shap Fell?) not too step but goes on a fair way. I would usually have found this no problem, but after 450 miles in 2 ½ days it felt like it broke me….
Pushed on though ALLOT of discomfort and made it to Edinburgh on schedule. Was actually really glad when had issue (wheel bucked due to most of spokes on rear wheel coming very lose), gave me excuses to stop early and add extra day (know if this did not happen I still could not have made it in 5 days as every mile was getting harder). Completed LEJOG in 6 days and had 2 days rest before starting return leg. Even after 2 days rest was still hard to get on bike but pushed on as once I set myself a target I don’t like to fail and felt like I would be disappointing those who sponsored me.
Was not enjoying cycling at that point (weather did not help…). Barely got past Inverness, struggled to do 150 miles in 2 days (which should be absolutely nothing to me) cannot describe how hard the cycling was at this point. Even a 1 or 2 % gradient made me want to get off and walk, combined with the pain was simply the feeling of running on empty. Decided to call it a day, plan was to catch train back home, have some rest, then do some rides based near home to clock up some mileage so could still claim an impressive total for the 20 days I had allotted. However was awhile before I got on a bike again…
As well as the physical recovery I had pushed myself so far I simply did not think of cycling as pleasant for awhile (luckily this has passed).
In terms of the physical aspect, had a few painful area’s but the worst thing was numbness … So many hours in the saddle had reduced blood flow to certain key area’s. I had never had this issue before even though have done some pretty extreme distances, but know it can lead to permanent impotence…. Lucky everything is back to normal now, but 2 weeks after the ride was still thinking about going to the doctors… Events where riders used to compete for who could go the furthest in 6 days where very popular, but this was one of the reason for there decline.
I don’t think I noticed this issue for awhile, as numbness is not noticeable especially when you are in pain, but have to admit I pushed on even when was aware of this issue as don’t like to fail a challenge… Can believe I risked permanent impotence…
Could go on about lots of other issues (inc extreme weather..) and area’s on pain, I would get across how bad things where at some points I had never experienced while training, but the fact is everyone has different issues. Yours will be different, until you have done it you cannot image the strains you are putting on your body by keep repeating such extreme days without recovery time. I thought my cycling experience allowed me to judge how hard this was going to be, but I was wrong… The fact you have only just done your first 35 mile bike ride…..
The world record for cycling round the world is 176 days (103 miles per day). I used to struggles to comprehend why this was so slow, whilst there are many factors it should help illustrate how hard it is to complete vast distances day after day…
Although you have 7.5 months in time, most of this is not good time to practice log distance cycling. It’s very hard to put serous hours into long distance cycling over the winter months, I guessing you have pretty good base fitness levels, but what you need to even contemplate such a ride is lots of seriously long rides (and as many back to back long days as possible), every year I promise myself I am going to do more winter miles, every year when the weather get better I realise I have done far less than planned but suddenly find my miles naturally increase massively as weather improves. It’s not just the temperate but rain/ fog/ snow/ hours of daylight that make it so much harder, a run to the shops is fine but 8 hours in the saddle is simply far less pleasant.
Plus you need to start you ride fully recovered, this means starting to taper down you millage about a month in advance (you probably like me thing you don’t need that much recover time, but having felt the difference it makes to be fully recovered…).
Suggest you check out Audax uk (http://www.aukweb.net/), they are the “recognised long-distance cycling association in the UK” if you check there calendar you will see they don’t run many log distance cycle ride over the winter (you have to not think 200km/125mils as long with what you are doing, it’s amazing how your perception of distance changes once you do some serous rides….), but they are a great bunch of very experienced serous long distance cyclist who have allot of experience to share plus entering some scheduled events is a great way to motivate yourself.
It’s amazing what the human body can adapt to, It’s not as hard (although certainly not easy….) as most people think to build to 180 miles in a day if you are highly motivated and gradually increase your distance. However 180 miles a day for 4 days in a row (yet alone 10) is a completely deferent story. The only way to stand a chance is to build up to that kind of distance then start putting in multiple days at those distances (it’s not till at least 3 days of consecutive riding you will realise how hard it’s going to get). Don’t plan on the fact your fitness will improve as the ride goes on, whilst this may be true for people planning on doing 70 miles per day, you will simply be doing to much per day with insufficient recovery time, you body simply cannot recover enough and each day will get harder, trust me on this….
Like I say best of luck, I can see you are serious and have given this allot thought from your website, but would urge you to consider scaling back you target. People won’t thing less of it if you scale it back, average people simply cannot comprehend cycling these types of distances, if you scaled it back it most people would still think of it as an impossible challenge the fact that your current plan is slightly more impossible makes very little difference to how they comprehend it. It feels allot better to exceed a very tricky target that to fail to achieve an almost impossible one….
Re: Funny/stupid idea - lejogle in 10 days
Mick F wrote:To do five days both ways - ie ten days there and back, requires a great deal of luck and a great deal of energy that mere mortals don't normally have.
As I say, good luck.
I was in my LBS yesterday and the mechanic was telling me he did a six day LEJOG this summer. Solo, unsupported, and finding accomodation each night.
No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?
-
vjosullivan
- Posts: 417
- Joined: 31 Oct 2010, 12:06am
Re: Funny/stupid idea - lejogle in 10 days
The Martin Cox wrote:My aim is to raise £180,000 for good causes
That's a hell of a target. I usually have difficulty raising a fiver! It's way out of the usual "family, friends and a local sofa shop" league. Seriously, how do you go about raising a six figure sum for charity? (My daughter, for one, would dearly love to know.)
E25
-
stewartpratt
- Posts: 2566
- Joined: 27 Dec 2007, 5:12pm
Re: Funny/stupid idea - lejogle in 10 days
Yeah, I was thinking that sounded a lot more ambitious than the riding bit.
-
caledonian1
- Posts: 32
- Joined: 23 Jul 2010, 3:24pm
Re: Funny/stupid idea - lejogle in 10 days
irc wrote:Mick F wrote:To do five days both ways - ie ten days there and back, requires a great deal of luck and a great deal of energy that mere mortals don't normally have.
As I say, good luck.
I was in my LBS yesterday and the mechanic was telling me he did a six day LEJOG this summer. Solo, unsupported, and finding accomodation each night.
I did LEJOG in 6 days last year and that was on the back of 3.5 months bike training. To do it both ways in 10 days is ambitious but I would never say impossible,.....you have 7.5 months so keep the dream alive I say
-
The Martin Cox
- Posts: 10
- Joined: 3 Oct 2011, 2:57pm
Re: Funny/stupid idea - lejogle in 10 days
Thanks for all the comments folks, its good to read different experiences.
Yeah, it does look on the face of it to be a ridiculous challenge, and that is kindof the point of it - by setting such a challenge it is something that will captivate the publics attention.
I got a post on facebook asking me to sponsor someone doing a 1 mile run - I was bored just reading the request as the person involved was a perfectly healthy able-bodied individual. I think to raise serious sums of money then the event has to be equally serious, think of Izzard or Walliams with their Runs and Swims - it has to be able make them literally stop what they are doing to process the event.
The training is up to 50 miles per ride now, 3 times per week, either at 4am or 9pm - so the plan is to keep on stepping it up until the 100mile mark and then start to knock out a couple of back to back days each week - this should be about mid december time.
I have done a bit of work in the garage so its nice and soundproofed and a trainer of some variety will be put in very shortly, but if truth be told I love winter cycling - so I will be combining them.
As far as audax is concerned, as soon as I can do the longer distances involved then I will be all over it like a tramp on chips!
Thanks for the support and the feedback, its all good, even when its not!
if anyone wants to know about my fund-raising strategy, please dm me for some tips
Yeah, it does look on the face of it to be a ridiculous challenge, and that is kindof the point of it - by setting such a challenge it is something that will captivate the publics attention.
I got a post on facebook asking me to sponsor someone doing a 1 mile run - I was bored just reading the request as the person involved was a perfectly healthy able-bodied individual. I think to raise serious sums of money then the event has to be equally serious, think of Izzard or Walliams with their Runs and Swims - it has to be able make them literally stop what they are doing to process the event.
The training is up to 50 miles per ride now, 3 times per week, either at 4am or 9pm - so the plan is to keep on stepping it up until the 100mile mark and then start to knock out a couple of back to back days each week - this should be about mid december time.
I have done a bit of work in the garage so its nice and soundproofed and a trainer of some variety will be put in very shortly, but if truth be told I love winter cycling - so I will be combining them.
As far as audax is concerned, as soon as I can do the longer distances involved then I will be all over it like a tramp on chips!
Thanks for the support and the feedback, its all good, even when its not!
if anyone wants to know about my fund-raising strategy, please dm me for some tips
Re: Funny/stupid idea - lejogle in 10 days
You may like to check out Ben Rockett. Last year he rode LEJOGLE in sub 6 days, in a supported and sponsored attempt. He was a postgrad student at Bath University at the time. There's a good video of his ride here which should be informative!
-
WoodyWheeler
- Posts: 25
- Joined: 11 Oct 2011, 11:32am
- Location: Ivybridge, Devon
- Contact:
Re: Funny/stupid idea - lejogle in 10 days
Certainly and ambitious project, both in terms of cycling and fund raising. £180,000!!
I rode JOGLE in 6 days and struggled to raise £1,000 - folk just aren't interested when celebrities are (as you say) running 20+ marathons and have all the publicity links to get themselves noticed. Mark Beaumont rode around the world and only managed about £30,000 (I think).
Keep us posted with your tips for raising the funds! I'd love to know the secrets for my next venture.
LEJOGLE in 10 days should be doable if you keep the training up as you seem to be. The trick then is to make sure you get your nutrition right. You need to be eating enormous quanities of calories on such a ride to make sure you have energy for the day, and the next day, and the next day, and the next day....
On my jogle I needed 8,000+ a day for 10-12 hous cycling. Preferrably eating a little every 15 minutes t o spread the input so you have constant output. This raises all sorts of logisitical issues if you ride unsupported. Read my tips on nutrition for this on my site (link in signature block).
But if you do get your training and your nutrition right you'll be fine. I felt like I could have done a few more miles each day on my JOGLE and at the end thought I could probably make it back to the start again if I had too (but luckily I didn't ;¬)).
Good luck with it - stay focused, stay strong.
I rode JOGLE in 6 days and struggled to raise £1,000 - folk just aren't interested when celebrities are (as you say) running 20+ marathons and have all the publicity links to get themselves noticed. Mark Beaumont rode around the world and only managed about £30,000 (I think).
Keep us posted with your tips for raising the funds! I'd love to know the secrets for my next venture.
LEJOGLE in 10 days should be doable if you keep the training up as you seem to be. The trick then is to make sure you get your nutrition right. You need to be eating enormous quanities of calories on such a ride to make sure you have energy for the day, and the next day, and the next day, and the next day....
On my jogle I needed 8,000+ a day for 10-12 hous cycling. Preferrably eating a little every 15 minutes t o spread the input so you have constant output. This raises all sorts of logisitical issues if you ride unsupported. Read my tips on nutrition for this on my site (link in signature block).
But if you do get your training and your nutrition right you'll be fine. I felt like I could have done a few more miles each day on my JOGLE and at the end thought I could probably make it back to the start again if I had too (but luckily I didn't ;¬)).
Good luck with it - stay focused, stay strong.
Riding - Monoc TC2
Life is like a ten speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use. ~ Charles M. Schulz
Life is like a ten speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use. ~ Charles M. Schulz
-
stephenjubb
- Posts: 674
- Joined: 20 Jan 2008, 12:23pm
- Location: East Yorkshire
Re: Funny/stupid idea - lejogle in 10 days
Pizza_man wrote:Hi, sorry for such a long post, I admire what you are attempting, you remind me of myself, so thought I would share my experience with you. Best of luck, it’s one hell of a challenge. Do not underestimate the effect of fatigue when doing such high mileage everyday....
I attempted a challenge on a similar scale; I tried to do 2500miles in 20 days (viewtopic.php?f=22&t=53828). I would regard myself as experienced long distance cyclist, have done 200+ miles a day on many occasions (including on back to back days) and have done more than 260 miles in a “day”. Got to the point where after a 200 mile ride experienced no discomfort the next day ie. Providing did nothing to strenuous could barley tell I had done anything the day before….
The first part of my journey was supposed to be LEJOG in five days. Did about 180 miles a day for first few days without problem, at this point I thought it was going to be easy. Day 3 was where it started to get tough, hit big hill in lake distinct (think called Shap Fell?) not too step but goes on a fair way. I would usually have found this no problem, but after 450 miles in 2 ½ days it felt like it broke me….
Pushed on though ALLOT of discomfort and made it to Edinburgh on schedule. Was actually really glad when had issue (wheel bucked due to most of spokes on rear wheel coming very lose), gave me excuses to stop early and add extra day (know if this did not happen I still could not have made it in 5 days as every mile was getting harder). Completed LEJOG in 6 days and had 2 days rest before starting return leg. Even after 2 days rest was still hard to get on bike but pushed on as once I set myself a target I don’t like to fail and felt like I would be disappointing those who sponsored me.
Was not enjoying cycling at that point (weather did not help…). Barely got past Inverness, struggled to do 150 miles in 2 days (which should be absolutely nothing to me) cannot describe how hard the cycling was at this point. Even a 1 or 2 % gradient made me want to get off and walk, combined with the pain was simply the feeling of running on empty. Decided to call it a day, plan was to catch train back home, have some rest, then do some rides based near home to clock up some mileage so could still claim an impressive total for the 20 days I had allotted. However was awhile before I got on a bike again…
As well as the physical recovery I had pushed myself so far I simply did not think of cycling as pleasant for awhile (luckily this has passed).
In terms of the physical aspect, had a few painful area’s but the worst thing was numbness … So many hours in the saddle had reduced blood flow to certain key area’s. I had never had this issue before even though have done some pretty extreme distances, but know it can lead to permanent impotence…. Lucky everything is back to normal now, but 2 weeks after the ride was still thinking about going to the doctors… Events where riders used to compete for who could go the furthest in 6 days where very popular, but this was one of the reason for there decline.
I don’t think I noticed this issue for awhile, as numbness is not noticeable especially when you are in pain, but have to admit I pushed on even when was aware of this issue as don’t like to fail a challenge… Can believe I risked permanent impotence…
Could go on about lots of other issues (inc extreme weather..) and area’s on pain, I would get across how bad things where at some points I had never experienced while training, but the fact is everyone has different issues. Yours will be different, until you have done it you cannot image the strains you are putting on your body by keep repeating such extreme days without recovery time. I thought my cycling experience allowed me to judge how hard this was going to be, but I was wrong… The fact you have only just done your first 35 mile bike ride…..
The world record for cycling round the world is 176 days (103 miles per day). I used to struggles to comprehend why this was so slow, whilst there are many factors it should help illustrate how hard it is to complete vast distances day after day…
Although you have 7.5 months in time, most of this is not good time to practice log distance cycling. It’s very hard to put serous hours into long distance cycling over the winter months, I guessing you have pretty good base fitness levels, but what you need to even contemplate such a ride is lots of seriously long rides (and as many back to back long days as possible), every year I promise myself I am going to do more winter miles, every year when the weather get better I realise I have done far less than planned but suddenly find my miles naturally increase massively as weather improves. It’s not just the temperate but rain/ fog/ snow/ hours of daylight that make it so much harder, a run to the shops is fine but 8 hours in the saddle is simply far less pleasant.
Plus you need to start you ride fully recovered, this means starting to taper down you millage about a month in advance (you probably like me thing you don’t need that much recover time, but having felt the difference it makes to be fully recovered…).
Suggest you check out Audax uk (http://www.aukweb.net/), they are the “recognised long-distance cycling association in the UK” if you check there calendar you will see they don’t run many log distance cycle ride over the winter (you have to not think 200km/125mils as long with what you are doing, it’s amazing how your perception of distance changes once you do some serous rides….), but they are a great bunch of very experienced serous long distance cyclist who have allot of experience to share plus entering some scheduled events is a great way to motivate yourself.
It’s amazing what the human body can adapt to, It’s not as hard (although certainly not easy….) as most people think to build to 180 miles in a day if you are highly motivated and gradually increase your distance. However 180 miles a day for 4 days in a row (yet alone 10) is a completely deferent story. The only way to stand a chance is to build up to that kind of distance then start putting in multiple days at those distances (it’s not till at least 3 days of consecutive riding you will realise how hard it’s going to get). Don’t plan on the fact your fitness will improve as the ride goes on, whilst this may be true for people planning on doing 70 miles per day, you will simply be doing to much per day with insufficient recovery time, you body simply cannot recover enough and each day will get harder, trust me on this….
Like I say best of luck, I can see you are serious and have given this allot thought from your website, but would urge you to consider scaling back you target. People won’t thing less of it if you scale it back, average people simply cannot comprehend cycling these types of distances, if you scaled it back it most people would still think of it as an impossible challenge the fact that your current plan is slightly more impossible makes very little difference to how they comprehend it. It feels allot better to exceed a very tricky target that to fail to achieve an almost impossible one….
what an excellent reply
-
The Martin Cox
- Posts: 10
- Joined: 3 Oct 2011, 2:57pm
Re: Funny/stupid idea - lejogle in 10 days
Hi folks
I thought you might like a little update with progress....
saturday the 12 of october was my first trip past the 100 mile mark, i actually stopped 200 yards short of 110 miles in the end!
things are going well, my legs are starting to change somewhat and it seems I have lost about 0.5lbs in weight
I have just published my latest blog post up on the website for your viewing pleasure!
http://www.lejogle.co.uk/blog/?p=179
a couple of posters talked about raising profile compared to celebrities etc. I am on the radio this wednesday, regional printed press over the next few weeks, and I have a piece going out to 60,000 homes.its just about working the media as best as possible - do something interesting and people will be interested!
take care
ps on twitter @lejogle2012
I thought you might like a little update with progress....
saturday the 12 of october was my first trip past the 100 mile mark, i actually stopped 200 yards short of 110 miles in the end!
things are going well, my legs are starting to change somewhat and it seems I have lost about 0.5lbs in weight
I have just published my latest blog post up on the website for your viewing pleasure!
http://www.lejogle.co.uk/blog/?p=179
a couple of posters talked about raising profile compared to celebrities etc. I am on the radio this wednesday, regional printed press over the next few weeks, and I have a piece going out to 60,000 homes.its just about working the media as best as possible - do something interesting and people will be interested!
take care
ps on twitter @lejogle2012