Anyone done a London to Paris?

dg74

Hi

I'm looking into doing one of these rides for charity next year (need to lose some bulk and get fitter for this - which leads me nicely into my question).

How would I go about training (sensibly) for one of these rides? What are the average daily distances/speeds, etc that these ride at?

Any, absolutely any information or guidance would be greatly appreciated. And if anyone from the Newcastle area wishes to do the ride would they be interested in having a training partner to help with motivation and competition (a little wager for fun?).

Thanks

Darren.

fungus_the_muffin_man

We've organised our own L2P in June as we can't afford the costs of the organised ones nor get the amount of charity money involved for a free place.

The best thing you can do is build your miles up at about an increase of 5-10% distance every week or so. You need to be able to do roughly 100 miles for 3 consecutive days. My current ride distances are between 50 - 80 miles at a time at present at least 1 per week though I need to be doing it at least 2 times by now.

Also you need to mix your training up so you have training rides where you build up the distance and then rides where you go for shorter faster more intense workouts to help build strength. I'd also get doing core muscles exercises. It's long days in the saddle and you'll need these to help stop your back , hands, neck and shoulders from getting to painful.

cjw

I'm doing the L2P with Fungus above and the riding training has been increasing steadily since Xmas.

Currently doing at least 2x22mile runs during the week days each time trying to improve on speed over this short distance, sometime a slightly longer ride thrown in as well for good measure. At the weekend one day is always around 80+ miles (or a shorter but hillier course, say 70 miles). We've been doing sportives meeting up with some of our members for the last about 4 weekends.

Current week mile totals is usually about 150 miles.

Next weekend for me is the planned start of long rides on both days - shorter one on the Saturday (say 50 miles) and keeping with the 80 miles on Sunday.

Heckler1974

I trained for mine by doing three back to back (shorter but high intensity) 30-40 mile rides in the week to get used to the build up of fatigue over the three days and then a longer one (longer distance but more measured pace) at the weekend, rest days on the other three so you don't overtrain. Steady build-up as mentioned above is a good idea to build your base endurance rather than trying to hit big distances from the off.

The longer rides are also important to find out what's comfortable, something that vaguely annoys after an hour or two will be a raging eye watering soreness by the end of day three.

Lastly, you don't mention if the run will be guided by a charity tour company (most of them are). If it is, the feed station food if it's anything like the one I was on will be sugary nonsense, all Rice Crispy Squares and Fanta, you are better off finding snacks (and an energy drink) that suit your stomach during your training and stick to those.

Pokerface

I did it a few years ago. There were all sorts of people on the ride from racer types to complete novices.

You only have to ride about 30 miles at a time before there is a break - but the longest day was close to 100 miles all-together.


No special training required - but as others have said - start building up your endurance on a weekly basis. About 2 weeks before you go - you should be able to do a 70 mile ride (without too many stops) comfortably. If you can do that - you'll have no problems.

You can ride at your own pace. Average 15MPH will be sufficient I would say. There is a broomwagon if you ever really struggle. I was at the hotel sipping a beer by 3:00 on most days (except the first day - which involves the ferry ride).

Some people would even stop during the day for a pint along the way. But just one!


Lots of food, good company and if the weather behaves itself - it's a great trip!

Heckler1974

Pokerface wrote:

I was at the hotel sipping a beer by 3:00 on most days (except the first day - which involves the ferry ride).

What bummed me out on my one was the ferry ride was first thing on day two, so got to Portsmouth mid afternoon on day one with a chunk of dead time, ended up with enough time to go up the spinnaker (sp?) tower. Trouble was that meant up at four the next morning for a seven o'clock ferry which I think was about three hours and didn't get on the bike until close to lunch time. Bleurgh.

symo

No advice but looking forward to mine, doing intese turbo sessions twice a week for an hour then the usual 50-60 mile club ride on a Sunday.

dombo6

I'm doing the organised one in late June and training by just building up the miles, latest was 60 miles sportive in Surrey, regular club runs of 40-50 miles or so and this weekend there's an organised flattish spin of around 60 miles. Oh, and 45 minute spinning twice a week.
Getting used to long distance is important, ie clocking 100 miles in one ride, but psychologically it's a good idea to break it down into chunks of 30, even if only in your own mind.
Although I've done several Dragon Rides and an Etape (the easy one in 2008 ) ,and L2P is relatively flat, I am under no illusions that 100 miles a day for three days will be a doddle. Just look at the photos of previous rides, and the participants' faces on their third day in the saddle!