Impossible?????

mongerbunger

Hi guys im thinking of doing a ride for charity i want to make it as challenging as possible but also realistic so the plan is to cycle roughly 400 miles in 24 hours is this possible ( without drugs ) the route is from Edinburgh to reading where i live. any comments are welcome

Peddle Up!

A sustained average of almost 17mph for 24 hours with no allowance for stops. Better get some practice in. :shock:

marcusjb

Recent thread here about similar challenge (albeit 350miles in 24 hours).

http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=12808514

Totally possible (though certainly far from easy) - particularly if you were to ride and have to navigate etc., rather than on a course for a 24 time trial with marshals to point you in the right direction at every junction.

It would take a very good support crew to help you with something like that.

But, yes, possible.

marcusjb

Oh - I see a problem - you mention without drugs - that might be harder! Distance riding does involve rather a lot of Vitamin I (buprofen).

And caffeine.

So, no, it would be impossible without drugs!

amaferanga

Possible, but you'd probably need to be capable of riding 100 miles on lumpy roads (e.g. through the Scottish Borders or the Pennines) at >20mph to have a hope of sustaining 17mph for 24 hours. Factoring in stops for food, calls of nature, traffic lights, etc. and your probably looking at averaging >18mph moving. Not impossible, but I'd say probably beyond your average beginner (and I'm assuming you're fairly new to cycling based on where you posted this question).

Have a go and see how far you can ride in 6 hours to get an idea of where you're at now.

mongerbunger

Im not new to cycling just didnt no where to post it tbh, im going to train for about a year in that time im also going to be doing a london to paris.
it will be very challenging but its for a good cause help for hero's so well worth it

marcusjb

I'd agree with those above numbers - 5 hour 100 miles gives you 4 hours to play with for all the other stuff you'd have to do.

I plan to give a 24 hour time trial a go, probably not next year due to other targets and commitments, more likely 2013 - the fairly arbitrary baseline I would aim for would be 600km - 372 miles - so not massively far off 400. Be quite a step up for me - my longest 24 hour distance is the first 24 hours of PBP, where I did about 290 miles.

Totally possible, but you really will need a great team backing you up for that sort of distance - giving you food and water at pre-arranged points etc.

Good luck!

cougie

Edinburgh to Reading ? Isnt that against the prevailing winds ? And on busy A roads all the way for speed - not my cup of tea.

How did your road racing go ? You posted that you wanted to start that this year ?

nochekmate

Well 24 hour records suggest that it is not impossible of course to ride that 400 miles BUT YOU would have to have more than a touch of ability to do it and without that training for 12 months will not be anywhere near enough.

It was interesting to see James Cracknall's recent LEJOG tandem attempt where he and his partner tried to beat the existing record of 50 hours+. His partner was a very strong cyclist, who apparently comfortably beats the hour for 25 miles & Cracknall is no mug either on the bike, but they looked as though they were about to fail before retiring before the finish. They were struggling to match 18mph average by the end.

Given their talent and levels of fitness, I think that you will be biting off much more than you can chew trying to do 400 miles in 24 hours!

MichaelW

Is this a solo time trial ride or will you have a bunch of pace-setters to draft behind?
The Cracknell/Romero team were on a tandem so 2x the power for 1.a-bit x the aero drag. Also they had loads more than 2x the power.

dandrew

http://www.esca24hour.org.uk/

seems the record for the 24 hour time trial is 541 miles.
The Rapha rides site has a few pages on this type of thing.
http://www.rapha.cc/24-hours

RonB

mongerbunger wrote:

Im not new to cycling just didnt no where to post it tbh, im going to train for about a year in that time im also going to be doing a london to paris.
it will be very challenging but its for a good cause help for hero's so well worth it

Great cause and I wish you all the best mate. Agree with above comments all I would add would be that support as well as your personal fitness, gear, bike etc. will be the key to your success. Good luck, RonB.

RonB

Double post

racingcondor

I suspect 15mph average (360 miles total) is a much easier option. What you don't tell us though is your current level of fitness. Could you give us a clue about -

1) Longest ride to date (did your knees last etc)?
2) Current average speed over 40 miles?
3) Level you ride at (occasional recreational, regular commuter, club rider, 4th, 3rd, 2nd Cat etc)?
4) Rough annual mileage?

I'm guessing you're a regular rider but not a racer? If so I suspect that average speed is going to be very hard even with a coach training you for a year (not necessarily impossible depending on talent).

If you're a club rider then there are probably some riders in the club who have done audax and can tell you how much average speed drops off with time on the bike.

racingcondor

I second Ron though. Good luck and don't let people put you off, no-one would think less of you for aiming for 400 miles and 'only' managing 375 on the day. That's still 350 more than your average non cyclist thinks is sane and 3x what most avid cyclists ever ride in one go.

marcusjb

racingcondor wrote:

If you're a club rider then there are probably some riders in the club who have done audax and can tell you how much average speed drops off with time on the bike.

If you do things right, average (moving) speed should not fall away too much.

The key to all distance riding is steady pace - so don't go off at 25plus mph and blow up after 100miles.

Sure, on a long ride, you'll have good phases and bad phases - but within a reasonably tight band, you should be riding at a steady pace for the entire distance. The hardest thing (certainly I find) is riding slower than you think you should be doing when you're legs are fresh - but once you get your head around that, you'll be thankful you didn't rush off at the start.

I'm talking about moving speed here - total average speed is more important, and that is drastically affected by stopping moving - so don't stop too long! For this kind of challenge, you'd need to learn to eat on the bike (relying on a good support team etc.), maybe even learn to piss on the bike!

Sleep shouldn't play too big a factor in 24hrs. Give up caffeine for a few weeks before, make sure the week before is a restful week with plenty of sleep. You can't 'bank' sleep before an event, but you can make sure you don't have any sleep debt.

Steady pace is everything for this kind of thing. As above though, your average pace will drop away once you start stopping etc. (it is quite frightening watching your average speed drop away by 4-5kph during a cafe stop!).

dandrew

why not join in an organised 24 hour TT ( see my earlier post) That way you'd get some support and the chance on to ride on relatively quiet roads chosen to be event friendly. The Mersey Roads 24 seems great, in the middle of summer on quiet country roads with back up.
Without support and an organised event presence etc doing this on busy roads could be slow and dangerous ( especially if tiredness becomes an issue )