2 sportives on consecutive weekends - too much for me?

topcattim

I'm a fairly average sort of sportive rider, I guess, riding the Dragon Gran Fondo last year in under 8 hours and the Etape de Legende in 9 and a half.

This year my big target is to ride the Tour of Wessex. I'm not bothered by the mileage (300 miles over 3 days) but am looking forward to the challenge of riding 3 consecutive weekends at a decent pace.

I've previously done the Hampshire Hilly 100, which is a nice ride and leaves from very close to me. Trouble is, its the weekend before the Tour of Wessex, which as I said is my major goal.

I'd be grateful for any advice on whether it would be pushing it too much to try and do both of these on consecutive weekends.

SteveR_100Milers

I did the Dragon in 7-20 and wouldnt worry about doing this, so IMO you should be ok. Personally, I wouldnt do much more than twiddle about in the intervening week.

richa

I think you should be OK.

But, if you are unsure why not do the shorter of the HHH distances and don't push too hard.

topcattim

SteveR_100Milers wrote:

I did the Dragon in 7-20 and wouldnt worry about doing this, so IMO you should be ok. Personally, I wouldnt do much more than twiddle about in the intervening week.

Thanks Steve. Just out of interest, when you (and others) quote times for rides like this, do you count time elapsed (i.e. the official start-finish time as shown by your timing chip, or the time you were actually on your bike, as shown by your bike computer, i.e. without food and wee stops?)

think you should be OK.

But, if you are unsure why not do the shorter of the HHH distances and don't push too hard

And thanks Rich. to be honest, I am so pathetically indisciplined and likely to get carried away by the thrill of the event that I am not sure I would be able to resist riding at something like my better pace. And yes, I could do the shorter distance, but if I was going to do that, I'd probably just go out on a solo ride. But your advice is welcome!

SteveR_100Milers

topcattim wrote:

SteveR_100Milers wrote:

I did the Dragon in 7-20 and wouldnt worry about doing this, so IMO you should be ok. Personally, I wouldnt do much more than twiddle about in the intervening week.

Thanks Steve. Just out of interest, when you (and others) quote times for rides like this, do you count time elapsed (i.e. the official start-finish time as shown by your timing chip, or the time you were actually on your bike, as shown by your bike computer, i.e. without food and wee stops?)

think you should be OK.

But, if you are unsure why not do the shorter of the HHH distances and don't push too hard

And thanks Rich. to be honest, I am so pathetically indisciplined and likely to get carried away by the thrill of the event that I am not sure I would be able to resist riding at something like my better pace. And yes, I could do the shorter distance, but if I was going to do that, I'd probably just go out on a solo ride. But your advice is welcome!

I am quoting the official chip time posted in the results, otherwise its rather meaningless...it is a race after all... I only stopped once on the Dragon to fill up bottles, to be honest, my strategy is to take as much of my own food and drink to avoid queueing at the feedstops for that very reason. You might ask what's the point in coghing up so much money if you're not going to use the food supplied, well for me it means I get to ride a lot harder and longer than I otherwise would do on a training ride (for TTing) and its great fun riding in a large group, simple as that!

bahzob

I did the TOW and Dragon last year, doiing again this + know the legend route well. You should be OK provided you dont let adrenaline get the best of you on any of the days and pay attention to eating drinking well during the rides and recovery after (put legs up asap, get some carbs/protein in. get plenty of sleep and if you can endure it take a cold bath). Also recover during the TOW rides by finding group of like speed and working with it.

One thing you should know if dont already is that TOW includes some nasty steep climbs as well as some long ones. Its this combination that can cause problems, especially if your gearing is wrong. Going deep into the red zone on a given day will make recovery for the next all the harder so only do it if it makes sense in a given situation (e.g. to keep up with a group on a climb that means getting a rest on a long flat section to come)

PS Also pray we get good weather for the TOW.