Training for the lands end john o groats

andy83

Ok i have good level of fitness, eat relitively well and exercise at least 5 times a week

i commute to work and have started throwing in a long cycle each week to build up fitness

I really want to do the lands end to john o groats trip. I am looking to carry this out in april 2010

Now the thing is im unsure of when to start training, how to get myself used to the long distances etc

now it might seem a long time off but i have a chronic muscle fatigue illness called fibromyalgia but love cycling, currently doing around 50 miles a week on a mountain bike with slick tyres. I like setting myself goals and targets so that i try not to get to down about my condition.

I am looking to do it for a few charities and i would like to be able to set up some sort of sponsership process online so i can post on forums i use

Any tips would be grateful

thanks in advance

Bronzie

I guess the amount of training required will depend on how long you plan to take to do the ride. If you are aiming for 7 days you'll need to get used to riding 140 mile days back to back, which is a different ask to doing it in 14 days of course.

I didn't do any specific training for LEJOG, but I was regularly riding 100+ mile sportives (at least monthly) at the time so I was fairly comfortable with hours in the saddle which is the primary requirement to do the ride. We did the ride in 11 days averaging 90 miles or so a day.

andy83

Would like to do it in 7 days as think could get more sponsership that way, hence wanting to start early with the training side of things

most i have done in one stint so far is 35 milies, so guess there is a long way to go.

although i am riding a mountain bike which i have rebuilt and got slick tyres on just havent got round to sorting the forks out yet so they are just too heavy. looking to add some carbon forks within the next month, then hopefully around april will be getting a shiny new road bike.

so the thing is im not really riding long distances just yet so thats what i need to build up to, or should i keep going on my mountain bike then start hard when i finally get my road bike

Bronzie

andy83 wrote:

so the thing is im not really riding long distances just yet so thats what i need to build up to, or should i keep going on my mountain bike then start hard when i finally get my road bike

I doesn't matter what you ride, it's time riding that counts - you'll probably cover a bit less distance on an mtb in the same time, but it won't make a huge difference. When you switch to a road bike, you'll certainly feel quicker.

You've got a while to build up your mileage, but as you say, 35 miles to 140 for 7 days is quite a step so it won't hurt to build your mileage up over the coming season and continue that into 2010.

andy83

thanks for your help, im quite anal and got all my journeys since june saved and results are getting slightly better bit by bit

guess its just a case of knuckling down and getting some longer rides under my belt,

time to invest in that camleback me thinks