Ride Across Britain ? Fitness

iandennis

Hi, I'm considering taking place in this years Ride Across Britain but need some advice.

How fit do you need to be to complete the 960 miles - that's 100 miles a day over the 9 days.

I'm doing 24/30 miles a day at present on my cross bike and 30/40 mile rides at the weekend but I am not that fast.

Am I expecting too much if I go for this event ?

I know that I have 6 months to train and would love to take part.

Any advice welcome

Thanks

TommyEss

Well first you'll need to ramp up to actually complete a century ride, then you really want to try some back to back (not 9...!)

Getting from a 40 mile ride to a 100 mile ride is not a quick jump, but you've got plenty of time, remember to ramp up the distance gently - don't go out tomorrow and attempt 100! The hardest part is actually going the day after when your legs are knackered, which is why you want to do some pretty long distance rides back to back - set a few weekends aside where you can ride 100 on the Saturday and then see what you can do the next day, then ramp up with a set distance route for the Sunday.

Plenty of time yet to build yourself up gradually, but I wouldn't want to attempt it if I'd never ridden further than 40 miles in one go.

All the best.

max1234

I did this in 2010; it's an excellent ride and they look after you very well - being able to have a massage at the end of each day helps.

They do give you a training plan which is useful (i didn't stick to it too closely though). As it's not until Sept this year you should have plenty of time. If you build up to 60/70 mile rides the step up on the event shouldn't be too hard - the trick seemed to be to think of it in terms of splitting each day down into the 35 miles between the food stops. Starting early (7.00am) each day means there's lots of time to finish without having to push the pace too much. Riding in groups also makes a big difference and I gather they're focusing on that this year.

The weather is the big variable - we were lucky apart from in JOG - summer there is similar to the worst of winter here in London - no idea why anybody would live there.

Good luck - it really is worth it.

thegibdog

6 months gives you plenty of time to build up to the kind of distances you need to be doing. As mentioned above you want to get plenty of long distance back to back rides in beforehand.

I'm currently half way through 3 months of training for my LEJoG, I've just been building up the mileage and doing back to back rides every weekend. Did my first century of the year last weekend and am planning on doing back to back 100 miler's next weekend. I also want to get in a week of back to back shorter rides if I can, just to get used to riding decent distances every day. Although whether this is good preparation can only be judged after I've done the End to End I guess!

Finally, surely it should be Ride Up Britain? I know it came from Ride Across America but it's not really going across Britain is it!

ShutUpLegs

^
As above, doing back to back distances will be the hardest thing for your body to adapt to once you can do higher mileages. Good luck.