LEJOG ... In a Week ?

olliestokes

I'm looking to ride LEJOG in maybe a week to 9 days, in may, i have done no trainig up to yet on a road bike but i feel that im a person who will complete such a thing mainly through determination. i am looking for any advice regarding training ?

I also want to know whether you feel it right that if i ask for sponsorship and donate half to a charity and use half inorder for me to travel to Africa and Volunteer within communities there.

Thanks for any help or Advice

Ollie

crimsondynamo

i feel that im a person who will complete such a thing mainly through determination.

I don't want to rain on your parade, but determination ain't going to get you through injury you will invariably suffer when you ask your body to go from zero to >100m a day for 9 consecutive days.

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail. My advice: get the miles in progressively but urgently, and make sure your bike is precisely fitted for you.

EDIT: experience and the confidence it brings counts for as much as physical conditioning, you need to be "matter of fact" when repairing a puncture in the pis$ing rain with traffic whizzing past when you're totally empty. You need to know to drink before you're thirsty, eat before you're hungry, rest before you're injured. These are wisdoms often undone by bloody minded determination.

pimptovimto

If you are really serious about this, you need to go out and try and do 100m one day this weekend. This will let you see what you are getting yourself into, if you manage to do it then you will see what needs to be done to complete 100m per day for 9 days, if you cant then it will give you an eye opener as to where you need to be in order to do it.

I happen to agree with crimsondynamo, you are asking a lot of yourself to do this, the distance itself is not as easy as you may think it is and that is not to mention the terrain and climbing involved which is likely where you will catch an injury, give it a go, find a 1000ft hill and try to pedal up it see how you go.

best of luck.

PV

bike-a-swan

LEJOG is on my calendar for summer 2011 and I was considering the challenge of doing it in a week. I'm aware that it's some pretty huge distances and I can happily do a 70 mile plus road ride at the moment with no particular issues, and I'd be fitter before I attempted this (lost something over the winter!). my issue is not so much the fitness but the kind of effect riding that distance repeatedly has- to give you an idea, I did a 3 day trip on the roadie (panniered) covering about 60 miles a day with pretty much no ill effects day to day, but how does this mount up?

harpo

Between the start of March and doing LEJOG in June I cycles almost 2000 miles in preparation. The prep was dedicated rides on days off work and commuting plus doing longer routes home to up weekly distance. Work your way up in distances and get used to cycling decent distance a couple then a few days in a row. I found 65 miles fast kind of equated to 100 miles loaded for training purposes. But you can't beat the first time you cover 100 miles. Expect to spend 9 hours in the saddle to cover 100 miles. Plus time to eat lunch, eat breakfast, pack up, unpack, eat dinner, route navigate, get washed and sleep.

You'll need determination to get up eat cycle eat cycle eat sleep eat.......for days on end. It is very doable for anyone that puts the preparation into getting a decent level of fittness. Expect to be tested but enjoy it. You won't be ambling along sight seeing but you'll gain a lot of pleasure in the challenge if that is your sort of thing.

vernonlevy

olliestokes wrote:

I'm looking to ride LEJOG in maybe a week to 9 days, in may, i have done no trainig up to yet on a road bike but i feel that im a person who will complete such a thing mainly through determination. i am looking for any advice regarding training ?

I also want to know whether you feel it right that if i ask for sponsorship and donate half to a charity and use half inorder for me to travel to Africa and Volunteer within communities there.

Thanks for any help or Advice

Ollie

I admire your ambition but you do need to take stock of the situation. A 100 mile ride is manageable but to do it on consecutive days will overcome any ambitions of an unfit person. Six or seven years ago I mentioned the possibility of doing LEJOG at 100 miles per day and I was counselled out of even thinking about starting a ride with that pace in mind. I was ever so grateful. I have subsequently done it both ways at a more relaxed pace and enjoyed the experience thoroughly.

As for the ethics on funding a jolly to Africa masquerading as voluntary work - if you've had to ask about it you clearly have doubts about the issue. You should clearly state on any sponsorship paperwork how exactly the sponsorship money would be distributed. You should also be very clear about the distribution of money when making presentations about your trip. For a clear conscience I would volunteer via VSO then you can ghave the best of both worlds - volunteering and a paid trip.