SCR outing?

snooks

Attica wrote:

Oops, just entered!

Only two slots left at 10.20, you'll have to be quick folks.

What a shame, they must have all gone now....Nevermind eh?

attica

MTFU Snooks

linsen

I will absolutely need some ideas for how to get ready for this.....

Jen J

snooks wrote:

Attica wrote:

Oops, just entered!

Only two slots left at 10.20, you'll have to be quick folks.

What a shame, they must have all gone now....Nevermind eh?

You could just go for a 10.25 pr 10.30 slot, and catch us up?

:twisted:

Bassjunkieuk

jashburnham wrote:

Meh, February is too early in the sportive season for me! I've got an all inclusive week in Turkey booked for mid Jan, not ideal prep.

Now it's not handy for London but if any SCR folk on here are interested in Sportives then I highly recommend the Dragon Ride in Wales, it's fantastic.


http://www.dragonride.co.uk/

I did look into that ride, the only problem being the location! Having said this my father-in-law lives in Cradley, near Malvern so I could in theory go from there rather then straight from London. That way I could also take the family as the kids can go see Grumps, as they affectionately call him :-)

linsen

You could just go for a 10.25 pr 10.30 slot, and catch us up?

Or 11.30 :oops:

cjcp

linsen wrote:

I will absolutely need some ideas for how to get ready for this.....

Concentrate on distance and hills, and your nutrition over these distances. Check out what food and drink will be available and try it on a long ride, to see if your stomach takes to it, otherwise you may need to take your own. This is particularly the case with energy drinks.

I think this used to be described as a "reliability ride", a tester of early season form and, I think, how the bike was holding up after the winter.

cjcp

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

jashburnham wrote:

Meh, February is too early in the sportive season for me! I've got an all inclusive week in Turkey booked for mid Jan, not ideal prep.

Now it's not handy for London but if any SCR folk on here are interested in Sportives then I highly recommend the Dragon Ride in Wales, it's fantastic.


http://www.dragonride.co.uk/

I did look into that ride, the only problem being the location! Having said this my father-in-law lives in Cradley, near Malvern so I could in theory go from there rather then straight from London. That way I could also take the family as the kids can go see Grumps, as they affectionately call him :-)

Do it. It's a good event. Highclere is better organised, but the roads, particularly on the descents are smooth and the scenery's brilliant.

DiggingDeeper

linsen wrote:

I will absolutely need some ideas for how to get ready for this.....

As you will see on the day I am no sportive god, far from it. However based on a sample of one (very bad if you are into stats) I'll toss these observations into the hat. As i know nothing of your abilities bike etc I can only say what I am thinking re myself based on a 50Km sportive completed a few months ago in the Surrey Hills (same terrain basically).

issue 1 [Logistics] Arrival at location with all gear food and clothing needs proper planning (rain in Feb if we get unlucky will be harsh), it will be busy and parking could be a nightmare as we are on a late start.

issue 2 and probably what concerns more I imagine. 100Kms is a hell of a distance in the saddle if you aint used to it. My 50km gave me some grief and those hills are pretty harsh and its not just the ups that are hard. The lanes could be single track with stone walls and doing 40mph down them is woooooooooooooooooooooooh.

I will be putting in longer rides between now and Feb and concentrating on hill climbing.

It will be enjoyable despite the effort and if the hills get too hard, stop and rest. I had a 30 second stop on the 18% hill and it did wonders for my condition and I don't care I'll get it next year.

Oh yes re [1] I wil not be drinking for 2 days in advance of this. Hill climbing and kidney ache was rotten last time.

Hopefully others can muse a little on what they think. If they disagree with anything I say that fine we all have different experiences.

Regards DD (will definitely be Diggin up the 25 percenter :oops:

Bassjunkieuk

linsen wrote:

You could just go for a 10.25 pr 10.30 slot, and catch us up?

Or 11.30 :oops:

Sounds like a challenge :-) When I did the capital to coast I'm sure it wasn't until about 15-20 miles in that I cleared the earlier starting "casual" riders, i.e those that haven't been on a bike in a few months and are on Halfords MTB's....this was short lived tho as shortly after my rest stop I picked up all those doing the half distance ride!

At least with this ride I'd hope it's only fairly fit riders, especially with limited spaces and a 110KM route!

lost_in_thought

I do not think I would be fit enough or fast enough to even consider something like this. And I don't really see the point in overstretching myself simply in order to prove my suspicions correct.

If I were to enter anything, it would be having joined a club or done some smaller, shorter competitions to see how I rank, if at all.

I cycle around 100 miles a week, 70 commuting and generally a minimum of 30 over the weekend, normally more. However, on these longer rides, I really don't think I'm anywhere near racing pace.

So, I need to get faster before I start wasting money on registration fees.

cjcp

lost_in_thought wrote:

I do not think I would be fit enough or fast enough to even consider something like this. And I don't really see the point in overstretching myself simply in order to prove my suspicions correct.

If I were to enter anything, it would be having joined a club or done some smaller, shorter competitions to see how I rank, if at all.

I cycle around 100 miles a week, 70 commuting and generally a minimum of 30 over the weekend, normally more. However, on these longer rides, I really don't think I'm anywhere near racing pace.

So, I need to get faster before I start wasting money on registration fees.

LiT - it's not a question of being able to sustain a race/fast pace, but whether you can mange the distance. You obviously do a good base mileage and you have sufficient time between now and then to build up weekend mileage. You see all sorts of shapes and sizes on sportives.

linsen

It's not a race is it?

il_principe

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

linsen wrote:

You could just go for a 10.25 pr 10.30 slot, and catch us up?

Or 11.30 :oops:

Sounds like a challenge :-) When I did the capital to coast I'm sure it wasn't until about 15-20 miles in that I cleared the earlier starting "casual" riders, i.e those that haven't been on a bike in a few months and are on Halfords MTB's....this was short lived tho as shortly after my rest stop I picked up all those doing the half distance ride!

At least with this ride I'd hope it's only fairly fit riders, especially with limited spaces and a 110KM route!

This will be nothing like a charity ride. There will not be any Halford Mtb types, and 95% will be roadies of varying levels of seriousness. Expect the pace to be relatively fast. The key is to pace yourself and get in with a bunch that are going your speed, this will save you a lot of energy.

Jen J

lost_in_thought wrote:

I do not think I would be fit enough or fast enough to even consider something like this. And I don't really see the point in overstretching myself simply in order to prove my suspicions correct.

If I were to enter anything, it would be having joined a club or done some smaller, shorter competitions to see how I rank, if at all.

I cycle around 100 miles a week, 70 commuting and generally a minimum of 30 over the weekend, normally more. However, on these longer rides, I really don't think I'm anywhere near racing pace.

So, I need to get faster before I start wasting money on registration fees.

I'm sure you'd be fine if you decided you did want to do it.

I do events like these as training runs for my key targets. Not fussed about speed or performance on these, for me it's just a way of getting a long training run in, without having to plan a route, and hopefully enjoy some good company.

snooks

I'll do a sympathy ride into Surrey that day, my own route, my own distance...promise

lost_in_thought

See now this is my problem with this type of thing.

I don't know how fast the pace is likely to be - I have no frame of reference. If I average 15mph is that the absolute slowest (I expect so), if I average 20mph is that middling or still slow? How fast is 'fast pace'?

This question leads to the problem - my competitive nature.

It's a bit tricky, as it makes me very bloody-minded which is good, but I also don't like being comprehensively thrashed. It puts big dents in my motivation. I don't want to be that african olympic swimmer who everyone cheered home out of pity because he didn't actually know how fast he'd need to go to be a contender. That's something I can't deal with.

I have no unrealistic ideas that I'll win or even come in the top 50% in such a race ever, but I need to know where I'd be aiming for, and until I'm up near the middle, or even the bottom third, I won't be doing this type of thing. Being the fastest commuter on the uxbridge road between 0800 and 0900, and the fastest weekend rider of my friends doesn't cut it!! :shock:

Littigator

A couple of guys I know came 2nd and 3rd in this past year, albeit that "ITS NOT A RACE" and apparently they averaged 18mph, although that's more a measure of the terrain and the level of ride rather than their fitness

I think I might be up for this. Apparently it fills up fast though.

Jen J

Just tried to look at last years results to see the range of times, but couldn't see then anywhere.

With something like this though, you couldn't 'race' as everyone sets off at different times. And you couldn't go flat out for 60 miles, so if you ever wanted an event to just enjoy, this type would be good.

But I'm *not* trying to talk everyone into doing it, honestly ;~)

And Rob entered as Team SCR

attica

LiTs

You'll never know until you try!
Top average speeds are usually above 20mph, but they're done by supermen who do nothing but train for every spare moment.
I averaged less than 15mph for the Exmoor Beast, yet still came in 105th out of 700 odd, I think your chances of being comprhensively beaten are high, but top 50% is very do-able if your tales of derring do on the SCR thread are anything to go by. Just keep putting the miles in.

...Join ussssss

linsen

I'm hoping it will be a good incentive to get myself from pretty fit to very fit over the winter. I did the Moonwalk in London a couple of times and after three months training came in the top 50 last year, so I reckon as long as I focus I should be okay. My speeds are getting up, but I know I will never compare to the average male roadie... (or Victoria Pendleton!)

biondino

linsen wrote:

I did the Moonwalk in London a couple of times

Pics plz.

linsen

do some research, blondie - they are findable

lost_in_thought

Attica wrote:

LiTs

You'll never know until you try!
Top average speeds are usually above 20mph, but they're done by supermen who do nothing but train for every spare moment.
I averaged less than 15mph for the Exmoor Beast, yet still came in 105th out of 700 odd, I think your chances of being comprehensively beaten are high, but top 50% is very do-able if your tales of derring do on the SCR thread are anything to go by. Just keep putting the miles in.

True true. However, zooming around for a few miles in London is rather different to slogging up massive hills in a 60-mile ride. I will do a 60-mile one one weekend (not the next 2 or 3 - busy!) and see what my average is. I do sometimes do 50 miles of a saturday, but I pootle in places and stop for cups of tea and to take pictures/ eat cake/have lunch. This doesn't help my speed or stamina!

cjcp

Boomshanka! I've entered. 10.25 slot for the 110k ride.

Littigator

Looks like its all full for the 110k as it didn't give me any time slot options

WAAAAAAAAHHHH Sooooo not fair, I wanna play I WANNA PLAY!!!!!

il_principe

Littigator wrote:

Looks like its all full for the 110k as it didn't give me any time slot options

WAAAAAAAAHHHH Sooooo not fair, I wanna play I WANNA PLAY!!!!!

* Strokes imaginary beard: How convenient...

Littigator

Damn you JB! I'll give that imaginery beard a bloody good tug next time I see y....oh

Bassjunkieuk

JB, I was under no illusion that this was going to be like the charity ride I did :-) I was only using that as a comparison as that's (so far) the longest organized ride I've done.
It was nice once I found people riding at the same speed as me, although it was rather un-nerving not seeing any other riders or signs for a good few miles heading down a gentle hill! Thankfully I was still on course :-)

Looking at the route it's not a million miles away from me, so I could in theory go for a long ride and try out some of the hills that are putting the riders on....

STEFANOS4784

lost_in_thought wrote:

until I'm up near the middle, or even the bottom third, I won't be doing this type of thing.

Surely you can be confident to finish in the bottom third :P :arrow: