Ben Nevis to Cairngorm 11th sept- too late for me?

lvquestpaddler
lvquestpaddler Posts: 416
edited July 2010 in Training, fitness and health
Hi, recently got into road biking with a cheap and cheerful Carrera Vanquish. Doing mileages up to 50 miles on resonably undulating hills around Perthshire and still MTB-ing at home around the forests and trails of west of Cairngorms. I saw this charity event but it's 70 miles, 2 months away and culminates with a 1500ft climb to the car park of Cairngorm Mountain (I have biked up this before on my MTB), and the double road bike has gearing of 35/50 front and 12/25 rear.
Given it's not an Audax/Sportive bike is doing this event a tall order on a "race"(stop laughing!) bike in the 2 months left? The gearing is a concern and I don't want to do 65 miles ok then push it up the mountain at the end.
Aged 41, 2 st overlard but aerobically not too bad.
Can anyone advise on this, such as how to train, or should I just wise up and forget it!!!!

Comments

  • johncp
    johncp Posts: 302
    Sounds like you'll be fine - you can improve a lot in 2 months, work on max distance, a bit extra every week but don't get stressed about it, you could probably do 70 tomorrow if pushed. So far as the last climb - whats the gradient, how does it compare with what you've already done? If you then think you need lower gears a cassette swap to 12-27 would give you a gear that will get you up most hills.
    Have a good day!
    If you haven't got a headwind you're not trying hard enough
  • lvquestpaddler
    lvquestpaddler Posts: 416
    Cheers John, been looking into that I could get an SRAM 12-28 cassette and been considering a 34T chainring instead of the current 36T too.
    I hadn't realised I already had a "compact". Thank hell it isn't the old skool 39/52!!!!
  • aberdeen_lune
    aberdeen_lune Posts: 547
    You have plenty of time to train for the event if you put in the work you will be fine. As you live in Kincraig you can get plenty of practice on the Cairngorm climb. Why dont you have a few practices on the second half of the course ride down to Laggan and follow the course route up to Cairngorm. That should give you an idea on how tough the climb is with a few miles in the legs. After a few practices you will soon know if you need to fit a bigger cassette. 11-28 on a compact would give you some nice low gearing for the hill and you may be better knowing you have some bail out gears if you are tired.

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