240 miles in 9 hours.

Shavedlegs

Things have been at a bit of a stand still as dad is hospital. But he is okay and will be out tomorrow. He'd find it hilarious that I'm telling a forum about him.

Vorsprung, thanks for the timetable, I'll stick it on my fridge.

Kléber thanks for the confidence, it is possible I think, but it will be incredibly hard. The current holder John Woodrow was/is an amazing TT'er.

Advancements in bike technology are definately on my side. I feel traffic lights rather than traffic are an issue. I don't know how the route has changed but it looked pretty straight, I'll know more after the first ride, planned for this weekend. I'm considering getting a Garmin for logging each attempt. But spending money on a charity attempt seems too much of a conflict.

Will, I'll accept the £20 bet, is the reduction a sign of your growing confidence.

Sturmey, Can I convert the CurlyWurly into 12p?

BeaconRuth

Shavedlegs wrote:

Kléber thanks for the confidence, it is possible I think, but it will be incredibly hard. The current holder John Woodrow was/is an amazing TT'er.

Such an amazing TT'er that you can't remember his name? It's John WOODBURN for goodness sake! :roll:

Here's an excerpt from the book "John Woodburn - Fifty Years at the Top" by Keith Williams: (The record was previously held by Les West.)

John has always held Les in very high regard and knew that he would need all his experience of similar record breaking in the past, in addition he would need to be in top condition both physically and mentally if he was to beat this world-class rider's record.............

..........Three years later (after JW broke the Bath-London-Bath reocrd) John received a phone call from Clive Pugh which went as follows:

CP: "I'm thinking of going for your Bath and back record. How far is it and how long did you take?"
JW: "211miles and 9hrs 3mins 7sec

End of telephone call. Then 5 mins later the phone rang again.

CP: "How far was it again and how long did it take?"
JW: "211miles, 9.03.07"
CP: "Do you realise that's equivalent to a 280 mile 12-hour?"
JW: "Don't worry, it's only 9 hours, not 12.

End of conversation. Clive Pugh never spoke about it again.

Ruth

rogerthecat

No problem, You need to break your distance down into 3 legs. Your first leg should be about 30 Miles, and you last leg about the same, for these two legs you need enough fluid and gels to keep you going, the middle leg which IMO is the most important you will need to buy one of these Click me

As you can see once fitted you will be able to move from point to point in ample time, " its all in the preparation"

This advice is free of charge

Barkiesnake

to paraphrase the asterix cartoon character

"these South Londoners are crazy" :roll:

Kléber

I think the proliferation of traffic lights will be a big problem, you are bound to lose lots of time. If you follow the RR route you end up having to take some very busy roads. You'd need to time the sequence of lights and pace yourself accordingly just to get from Knightsbridge to Hammersmith! No doubt the record holders were excellent riders but many records will be on the shelf for ever given the permanent changes in the roads and traffic management.

mrc1

Any update on this?

Shavedlegs

I'm taking the training steady. And waiting for the CTT to publish events for next year to set some intermediate goals.

I've had a go one way, I did it in 5.30 hours but it was into a 10mph head wind with light rain. Also I took the odd wrong turn. I went at a HR (took speedo off) I reckon I can keep up for the 9 hrs and felt fine to turn around and go back if I had to, a bit sore from the aero perhaps, but legs fine.

The traffic lights were a real pain, infact until I was past Reading it was hard to get any consistant speed and get relaxed. It wasn't the traffic but lights and roundabouts and speed bumps. I got very frustrated. The road surface was awful too and all the jolts shook my bones when I was in the aero position. It all becomes much better after Newbury, and I started to enjoy the ride, I even managed to shoot through Marlborough market barely slowing.

I'm off the pace (no surprises there) and experience has taught me even 1 mph gains over shorter distances take a lot. But I'm confident I can get close and at least not embarress myself.

I'm also working on a blog and sponsorship site, with options for attempts and sucess.

I'm going again this Saturday, I now know the way which is a bonus.

suze

BeaconRuth wrote:

Such an amazing TT'er that you can't remember his name? It's John WOODBURN for goodness sake! :roll:


Ruth

I was wondering who would spot this ........Well done Ruth you beat me to the correction. :roll:

mrc1

suze wrote:

BeaconRuth wrote:

Such an amazing TT'er that you can't remember his name? It's John WOODBURN for goodness sake! :roll:


Ruth

I was wondering who would spot this ........Well done Ruth you beat me to the correction. :roll:

Yeah but not knowing a bloke's name (albeit a bloke that was very good at TTs) is not really going to affect Shaved Leg's chances of doing this?!

My personal view is that this is a ridiculously hard challenge (I think the traffic lights will be the biggest of your many problems) that is going to take a huge amount of training, preparation and luck but why not give it a go?! Without sounding cliched, there are a lot of things in the world that people have done despite being told they are impossible etc and without people trying they would have remained that way.

Keep us updated and good luck.

Shavedlegs

Such an amazing TT'er that you can't remember his name? It's John WOODBURN for goodness sake!

I do apologise. I didn't mean any disrespect to John Woodburn in fact quite the opposite. Nor do I mean to show any disrepect for his record by attempting to break it.

mrc1 thanks for your comments you sum up my reasoning very well.

this is a ridiculously hard challenge (I think the traffic lights will be the biggest of your many problems) that is going to take a huge amount of training, preparation and luck but why not give it a go?!

All records are very hard to break by their very nature, but surely a record is worth more the more failures there have been in trying to break it?

Shavedlegs

Well I had my physiological test yesterday evening. I wanted to take the guess work out of my training. My HR max was just 2 beats more than I had calculated myself at 183. My lactate threshold was a little higher than I thought at 168.

The other news is that I have a very good V02Max of 82ml/kg/min, so a good engine and therefore no excuses.

I just need to train right and figure out how to get round the traffic light issue.

blackhands

dennisn wrote:

100 mile track record - Rod Evans 3:47:26
200 mile track AND road record - both by Marko Baloh in, strangely enough, the same time of 8 hours, 17 minutes. At least according to the Ultra Cycling association.

British competition records here:

http://www.cyclingtimetrials.org.uk/Def ... 7__gvfl0=0

12hour record is 300.27 miles.

inseine

I have a very good V02Max of 82ml/kg/min

You don't have a very good VO2max, you have an exceptional VO2max!

Murr X

Shavedlegs wrote:

Well I had my physiological test yesterday evening. I wanted to take the guess work out of my training. My HR max was just 2 beats more than I had calculated myself at 183. My lactate threshold was a little higher than I thought at 168.

The other news is that I have a very good V02Max of 82ml/kg/min, so a good engine and therefore no excuses.

I just need to train right and figure out how to get round the traffic light issue.

Do you have any of the power files from yesterdays test? If so maybe you could post them. Your VO2 Max does indeed seem very high.

Are you training with a powermeter?

Thanks

chrisw12

Didn't mr 'legs say he had a sub 20min ten to his name a few pages ago.

Oh how you guys said he wouldn't do it... :roll:

Ok he wont do it, but at least the guy has raced and is not just making things up like someone else I forumknow.


<crawl mode> I only said you wouldn't do it as a bit of reverse psychology, honest, but you are up against it, they didn't have traffic lights in the last century when the records were set.

Anonymous

Shavedlegs wrote:

Well I had my physiological test yesterday evening. I wanted to take the guess work out of my training. My HR max was just 2 beats more than I had calculated myself at 183. My lactate threshold was a little higher than I thought at 168.

The other news is that I have a very good V02Max of 82ml/kg/min, so a good engine and therefore no excuses.

I just need to train right and figure out how to get round the traffic light issue.

Cyclist Lance Armstrong's VO2 max was reported at 85 ml/kg/min.

You are only 3 off LA's Vo2 max, are you a pro ?

rake

frenchfighter

Good luck for what will be an extremely difficult task! You seem very focused and certainly have an outstanding ability.

Your VO2 of 82 is quite increidble...it would put you top 15th in the WORLD of ANY sport going by the table here: http://www.topendsports.com/testing/records/vo2max.htm
(I know this is not official and there are likely many people with VO2s greater than 80 not on the list)

Given this, I wonder why you didn't try to become a pro?! Or maybe you were!

By the way, a random piece of information which I find interesting is that doing a 10mile TT in 20mins is equivilant to running 160 back to back 100m races in 7.5 secs. All power to the bike.

Aggieboy

Shavedlegs wrote:

Well I had my physiological test yesterday evening. I wanted to take the guess work out of my training. My HR max was just 2 beats more than I had calculated myself at 183. My lactate threshold was a little higher than I thought at 168.

The other news is that I have a very good V02Max of 82ml/kg/min, so a good engine and therefore no excuses.

I just need to train right and figure out how to get round the traffic light issue.

Watching this thread with interest and love the 'bulldog' spirit.
In fairness to you, would you be allowed to move the start to beyond the worst of the traffic lights and add said distance to the end? Good luck and whatever time you do it in it's a great accomplishment. Chapeau.

chrisw12

Had the pleasure, honour of talking to two legends of the road records gang today. Lynne Taylor and her Dad.

I suggested that perhaps the records need modifying and should start and end OUTSIDE of major towns, but it's difficult to change tradition.

Lynne's dad knew exactly how many traffic lights there were leaving London he also said in the past that helpers would get to the lights just before the riders, jump up and down and activate them but apparently this doesn't work now.

and Ruth if you're reading this, it looks like competition for the female bar will be hot hot hot next year, so you'd better put that power meter to good use.

BeaconRuth

chrisw12 wrote:

........and Ruth if you're reading this, it looks like competition for the female bar will be hot hot hot next year, so you'd better put that power meter to good use.

:? It can be as hot as it likes. I won't be interested in contesting it any more than I have been for the last 4 years.

Ruth

bahzob

I missed this thread earlier on. I've had a bit of experience myself of trying to do things that others thought would not be possible and tbh my general advice for anyone trying something like this is just do it.

Dont post on forums like this since the nay sayers will have their say and you risk losing some self belief, which at the end of the day is the single most important factor between success and failure.

That said here' s my thruppence:
- I think even the revised target is extremely tough. The traffic lights are the real downer, stopping absolutely wrecks average speeds. And roadworks kill them (e.g Hungerford had some major work with a contraflow this year). By all means go for the absolute record but I would say for charity purposes you could set a target based on actual moving ride time which puts things under your control.
- I happen to live at Newbury which as you say is on your route (by coincidence the book on John Woodburn mentioned earlier was written by someone from here) and ride at sort of speeds you will need to average + have some experience of riding long distances quite quickly. So if you are out this and want a training partner let me know.
- When it comes to actual ride itself id be happy to organise a support station around here.

* General comment re 10 times. IMO 10 times are not that reliable as predictors for longer events, especially those that get past 5-6 hours. as an e.g looking at John Woodburn's achievements his lifetime 10 pb is 20:41 (though he did do that at 63!), he never won a national 10 and only 1 national 25.

** This is not a downer but you do need to be realistic about the effect passing time will have on avs. Looking at the book on John Woodburn it gives the splits on the 2 up when he went 8.40 hours london bath 25 splits were 52.30, 57.15, 1.00.45, 1.07.30 1.08.50, 1.08.50, 1.06.00, 53.30. As can see things get a lot slower past 4-5 hours, despite there being a strong westerly wind. Thats fairly typical. I rode the welsh 12 this year which has a great results booklet that gives splits at various distances. The winner, Royal Marine Sean Childs, is a very experienced long distance rider (used to doing 24s as well) who was fully supported. His avs at 2 hours was 24.7mph. On the next 6 laps his lap avs's were 23.8, 23.6, 23.5, 22.0, 22.6, 22.4. This is typical, looking through the results every rider went slower the longer the event wore on. So realistically I am afraid to get under 9 hours you need to be half way well under 4.30.

BeaconRuth

Shavedlegs wrote:

All records are very hard to break by their very nature, but surely a record is worth more the more failures there have been in trying to break it?

Have you/are you going to register your attempt with the Road Records Association? Strictly speaking you won't have broken the record at all unless you do. There are a fair few rules and regs you'll have to adhere to including having officially-sanctioned observers and timekeepers.

Ruth

phil s

May I ask where you got your VO2max test done?

Shavedlegs

I just have a few minutes (at work).

Thanks Bahzob, I may well be in touch. All very interesting, I'm sure talking to someone with experience will be a great help.

Yes, Ruth I will be registering the attempt. I have to provide a detailed schedule and arrange many other things as I'm sure you know, so I'll be registering nearer the time when I know a bit more. I still haven't even chosen the time of day I leave London, it is quite a big debate with friends.

A friend mentioned he could drive in front of me out of London to set the lights to green. I'm not sure if this works for sure, (better chance than jumping up and down?) but also it may be outside of the rules, certainly the spirit of them anyway.

Hi Phil S,
It was done by Peter Byworth of VO2fortri, I got his details from this forum actually. To be honest I wasn't too bothered about finding my Vo2Max, I was more interested in getting my HR zones confirmed.

Pross

Oh well, ignore the cynics on here. You may well fail and have never said you will do it - if some people spent as much time riding as they do on here putting others down maybe they'd be able to challenge? Good luck to you, I don't know your reasons for wanting to raise money for charity but once you've got a Just Giving page or something up and running post it here and I'll sponsor you (even if you miss the record!). Hopefully the negativity on here will go some way to spurring you on further. I've just started cycling again with my first aim to complete a bike ride for a charity close to my own heart albeit a far less ambitious test than this (similar distance over 2 days) so can understand the will to succeed in this.

Unfortunately, on the traffic lights side of things, signals run on a variety of preset timings and vehicle detection so it is true that a vehicle in front may help to call up a green light or extend the time of one but they are still confined to set maximum and minimum timings. If you're lucky some may have hurry call facilities for emergency vehicles and you can borrow a transponder from the local fire station

Is the task going to be extremely difficult? Of course it is! Will it be possible to beat a 29 year old record given the right training regime, modern technology and the will to do it? Yes. The record books are full of people who would have been told "it's impossible" but there is no-one in there who thought "they're right, I won't bother".

blorg

Shavedlegs wrote:

A friend mentioned he could drive in front of me out of London to set the lights to green. I'm not sure if this works for sure, (better chance than jumping up and down?) but also it may be outside of the rules, certainly the spirit of them anyway.

I can't imagine that would be in any way against the rules as long as you didn't draft the car. I know a few of the long-distance record guys here in Ireland and they all had support travelling with them to organise food, etc. In fact IIRC one of the rules is that a commissaire HAS to travel to witness the record.

phil s

Reason I asked about where you had your VO2max test done - I had one test done at a tri-type place (won't mention the name) and I was measured at 82 as well. I was told there were some flaws and was offered a test at the English Institute of Sport in Loughborough, where it was a more credible 69.5.
At the end of the day I wouldn't place too much stock in the VO2 numbers anyway. Knowing what wattage you can sustain for a given period will help you pace it properly.l

Shavedlegs

Hi Phil,
It's of little consequence really, it's not worth much with out the legs and as a figure it is of no use to my training.

I'm relying on HR, which is why I went for the test, to be confident I was training in the zone I thought I was. I didn't pay much attention to the other figures on the day, so I didn't check my wattage, but I can pour over the report when I receive it.

I'm am toying with the idea of buying a power meter, but it is a dream as I just don't have the cash and it seems wrong to spend a lot on a charity attempt.

doyler78

This a serious cycling challenge which requires great commitment on your part and all in the interests of charity well I would be seeking a sponsor and who better than a power meter manufacturer/agent/distributor/retailer to step in a loan you one. It can't hurt to ask

And good luck of course.