750 Miles in 7 Days

baznett

Hi Everyone,

3 of us who work at Decathlon are planning on cycling from our most Northern store in Edinburgh to Southampton via every store on the way down.
We have been doing a fair bit of cycling recently to get used to each others pace etc.
The planned time that we are going to do this is March next year, should be plenty of time for training.

Anyone have any kind of suggestions of what kind of training we'll need to do other than churning out 80-100 mile rides at the weekend.
Things like what kinda avg speed we should be looking at, we tend to ride at an avg of 19 over 30 miles at the moment.

Thanks

bahzob

Nice challenge. It sounds tough but should be quite doable, especially if the 3 of you stick together and work as a group.

I've done solo tours averaging this sort of daily mileage and it's a lot easier if you ignore the big numbers and break it down into bite size chunks. As a late riser my routine is typically something like:
8-9 breakfast
9-13 50 miles
13-14 lunch
14-18 50 miles
18-19 Freshen up
19-late eat/drink.

This means only having to average 12.5 mph which is pretty straightforward and most days will mean finishing ahead of schedule. As a group you should be able to go even faster, like you say you average 19 atm.

This in mind the training you are doing now is fine, plenty of long rides. If the weather is crap or as a change of pace doing shorter harder sessions won't do any harm but are not essential.

That said I would force yourselves to go out when its chucking it down, it's blowing a gale and/or freezing outdoors and do at least a 4 hour ride. Challenges like this are as much about the mental side as the physical so you really want to train in worst conditions possible. Also this will help make sure your gear is keeping you dry/warm.

Other suggestions
- By all means train as a group as it will help you get used to working together. However doing so will reduce the effectiveness of a ride in terms of training benefit by around 50%. So I would mix up group rides with solo ones aiming to average something like 15mph solo for 4 hours.
- If not already done get a bike fit. Over the course of a long trip like this small niggles can become a major pain and potential showstoppers.
- Make sure your bikes are in good condition and you know how to fix the problems that can arise. Should hopefully be less of an issue where you work. Not just a case of mending punctures but also being able to fix gear/brake cable issues and mend a broken spoke. I have ridden/marshalled the LEL,(1400km ride London>Edinburgh>London) and its surprising how many folks train for years only to nearly have this ruined due to a simple mechanical issue.
- If you google "Audax UK" you will find a group that organises rides of 100km or more throughout the year. These are cheap to enter, fun to ride and would be great training for your group.
- The back to back efforts of each day will tire you. This will be even more so if you go at a varying pace that includes really hard efforts. Slow and steady will be best. That said what I usually find is that day 2/3 of hard tours I feel crap in the morning but this goes away quickly once the pedals start to turn. Day 4 onwards actually starts to feel easier as the body gets used to the demands being put on it.
- May sound daft but don't overeat. Its tempting to think you can binge breakfast, lunch and evenings because of all the calories you are burning. The low intensity you are riding at means you are not burning as much as you think. Also the low intensity of the riding means you wont really need much in terms of energy drinks and the like while moving, especially if you plan to stop every 3-4 hours. You can use your training rides to gauge this.

Hope this helps, good luck.

whoof

Is there any reason that it has to be March. Later in the year the days will be longer.

If you are doing this as a group you need to learn to ride at the speed of the slowest person in the group. If they are hanging on it will be pretty miserable for them and frustrating for others.

Riding a long way is very doable if you ride sensibly. There are long distance events (Audaxes) where riders do 400km and 600km in 'one' go with some practice. Learn to take it easy on the hills and ride a bit slower than you feel you would like to be going. This will help to save your legs for both the latter part of that days ride and the following days.
See what you can eat that will give you the energy to ride but also that your stomach will handle. Everyone is different but if you have a lot of gels and energy bars and drinks this may leave you feeling pretty sick. You may wish to have something like this as a back-up or top-up but I would concentrate on food for energy rather than commercial energy products. You have plenty of time to see what works for you.

Above all remember you don't have to be doing this you are doing it because you want to so make sure it's enjoyable.

Grill

It's an easy ride as long as you've ridden a bit of distance before (30 mile rides don't cut it).

DO ride audaxes of at least 200k
DO NOT worry about average speed

meanredspider

Whenever I do these sorts of events I ride to my heart rate. I find something around 70% of HRmax (around 140bpm for me) and ride to that whatever the conditions (gradient, wind) throw at me because I know I can do it day in day out. In a group it's easy to get carried away - especially up hills - and work too hard. On one multi day ride similar to yours, I started with a group but they were pushing on too hard so I dropped off to ride solo. By day 3 my overall time was matching theirs - they were wrecked. By the end of the ride I'd done better solo than they'd done in the group.

My other Top Tip is to make sure you can breakfast well. I've found myself in hotels where breakfast is cheese, ham and grapefruit - totally useless for me for a day's riding. I take porridge pots with me now just in case.

dodgy

Don't do it in March unless you have to for some reason.

baznett

Thanks for everyones advise, much appreciated.
We need to do it in March as the 3 of us all work on the Cycles Department so need to make sure its a week that will be quiet and easy to get cover for, ie before Easter!
With the above, repairs shouldn't be a problem with 3 cycle technicians doing the ride, I'd hope haha.
I know this won't be ideal with the nights coming in early and a slight chill to the days.
Luckily with the routes we have planned we will be stopping over and peoples houses that we know making a decent sleep and food somewhat easier!
Lunch time food may be the hardest to come by, especially in Scotland.
With having to stop at 17 stores over the 7 days access to gels and protein bars etc should be easy to come by so shouldn't need to pack too much to take with us and clothing being left at our overnight places beforehand to save weight on carrying items with us.
All 3 of us should have HRM within the next week so will be easier to keep track of all our HR while riding in the groups.
Will defo have a look into the audax rides, we've booked onto a Evans ride in Leicester for next month.

meanredspider

baznett wrote:

Lunch time food may be the hardest to come by, especially in Scotland.

Why's that? There are people and shops in Scotland Even if you ride over the remote Cairngorm routes, there are places to get food. You may not be able to stop just whenever you want to but you won't have an issue if you plan.

ETA - ah - of course, Decathlon's UK stops in Edinburgh in the south. You won't have any issues.

baznett

haha I might well be hoping after day 1 it did indeed stop in Edinburgh & Glasgow, be a nice easy ride then!

Just seems the route up in Scotland appears to be quite remote! Might have to plan on buying lunch early doors rather than finding a place nearer to lunch time.