Tour of Ireland - 3 months training?

C-S-B

I saw this ( www.tourofireland.eu ) website recently and was intrigued and would love to do this event, but Im not sure if Im fit enough or if the 3 odd months remaining before it would be enough time to train for it.

Im 18 and reasonably fit, and commute in the region of 70kms a week in Dublin, and then at least one longer ride at the weekend. My furthest so far is 67kms (got lost :oops: ) without too much strain.

If I really wanted to commit myself to the training I could do so no problem, as I am on a gap year of sorts, and could free up time easily.

Im not aiming to win this race of course, it just sounds like a great event which I would love to do, so finishing is the only aim really.

Also, did anyone ride this last year? How was the pace of the leisurely group (my average when out on longer runs is about 26-30km/h)?


To sum it up;
does anyone think 3 months training is enough to ride 4 consecutive rides of ~200km from a decent level of fitness?

Toks

C-S-B wrote:

I saw this ( www.tourofireland.eu ) website recently and was intrigued and would love to do this event, but Im not sure if Im fit enough or if the 3 odd months remaining before it would be enough time to train for it.

Im 18 and reasonably fit, and commute in the region of 70kms a week in Dublin, and then at least one longer ride at the weekend. My furthest so far is 67kms (got lost :oops: ) without too much strain.

If I really wanted to commit myself to the training I could do so no problem, as I am on a gap year of sorts, and could free up time easily.

Im not aiming to win this race of course, it just sounds like a great event which I would love to do, so finishing is the only aim really.

Also, did anyone ride this last year? How was the pace of the leisurely group (my average when out on longer runs is about 26-30km/h)?


To sum it up;
does anyone think 3 months training is enough to ride 4 consecutive rides of ~200km from a decent level of fitness?

My gut feeling is this ain't a good idea unless you're really gifted athletically speaking. If it was a one day sportiv I'd say sure go for it but four days is a different matter. Why not contact a coach and get some advice

nolf

Do a 100 Mile ride.

Like asap.

If you can just about drag yourself over the finish line of a 100 miler, solo, then you'd probably be ok if you trained super super hard.

Like 70/80 miles both days of the weekend with whatever local club you can find.

If you can within 3 months say get it up to the stage of being able to do 2 days of 200km at the weekend with your local club, without dying, then you should be fine.

C-S-B

Thanks for the replies and advice;
Unfortunately this weekend I was sick and didnt get too much cycling done, but hopefully this weekend I will be able to try a 100 miler.

Ive also extended my commute to include a huge hill/small mountain and about 35km extra distance (only do it either in the morning or the evening - not both!).

Ive also tried contacting a coach but they have yet to get back to me, so perhaps ill have to look elsewhere

Toks

C-S-B wrote:

Ive also tried contacting a coach but they have yet to get back to me, so perhaps ill have to look elsewhere

There's at least 3 coaches on this forum i know of: Ruth, Alex and Ric. i think Mike Wilcox has started coaching too

Wooliferkins

Why not get yourself fitter this year then have this as your target for 2009. Set yourself targets throughout 2008 to get your fitness levels where you want them. Say a one day sportive in June and two back to back in September. Go away on a bike tour for 3-4 days so you can get used to riding distances on back to back days which is the usual killer as your body is used to a recovery period after hard exertion. Write a training plan there are some examples in this months Cycling Plus or as someone above said, get a coach. Good luck.

oldwelshman

12 weeks is plenty of time to prepare and train for this event.
Its not a tage race but 4 day sportive.
I saw people do London to paris in 4 days and were a lot less fit than you are currently thats for sure
You can see some of the pics in link here if you don't believe me :

http://welshman62.myphotoalbum.com/

Just gradually increase you miles each week by no more than 15 %.
You do not necessarily have to do a 100 mile befoe hand to test yourself, 80 is plenty and if you can do 80 you can do 120 probably
Just need to increase mileage and learn how much you need to eat and drink on lomger rides.
Go on some weekend longer rides on club run if possible and get advice from guys there also.

C-S-B

thanks again for the replies,

There's at least 3 coaches on this forum i know of: Ruth, Alex and Ric. i think Mike Wilcox has started coaching too

Are any of them in Ireland? I'd like to meet the coach so that I could have a proper talk with them

I did a longer ride on Saturday of 127km (79 miles) over some fairly nasty hills. Ride time was 4hrs 59mins, average speed 25.5km/h. Total time was just over 6 hrs tho, but I cant quite reconcile where i spent all that time (apart from a 15-20 min stop at a friends house with 15km to go) - I guess those map reading stops add up over time...

I brought 2 750ml water bottles, which lasted me the whole trip (drinking too little?), 2 bananas, some chocolate peanuts (had no normal nuts at home) and a bar.

Also, when climbing, I'm always grinding along at cadences of not more than 70 with a few gears left to spare (on a compact 50/36 x 11/25), while when on flats I usually pedal a cadence of ~90. I also do 95% of my climbing in the saddle (save energy - ?). Would I be helped by climbing out of the saddle or using higher cadences?

PS. some of the hills must have featured in some race before - 'up up up Dave 53x12', 'go Isaac Burke' and the like were sprayed on the roads, which helped me along a little I guess