London to Brighton Off Road 2017

[Landlord]

Hi all,

I did search but couldn't find anything for this year...

Has anyone done the L2B off road before? I've signed up on a fit of pique (lost my dad to heart disease a couple of years ago so the cause means something to me). However, I only took up cycling last November after over 30 years out of the saddle (i.e. when I was a kid).

I'm taking it seriously and trying to get out as often as I can. I live in the Chiltern valleys so finding gradients isn't a problem! Still have about 7 months before I need to do it so hopefully long enough to get in decent shape.

I'm also doing the London to Reading next month as a "warm up". On my own though - can't find anyone to do it with me

So - any advice for a fatty (about managing the L2B, not making friends!)?

[Landlord]

bearman3784 said:

Did it a couple of years back as a fitness target. It's a really good day out, well organised and fun. Fair bit of road to ride but only 1 beast of a hill towards the end that beat me and i was not exactly at the peak of fitness back then. Good bunch of friendly people doing it apart from a few Strava bellends trying to push their way through everyone and everything. Main thing is remembering to eat and drink more often than you think you should for a long period in the saddle and dont push yourself too hard to keep up with faster groups at the start

Edited by bearman3784 on Tuesday 21st February 08:59

Thanks for that - It's at the back of my mind about trying to "keep up" because I've never done distance before so don't really know how to pace myself. Hopefully the training over the coming months will help with that!

[Landlord]

Great advice chaps. Really valuable.

I have a lot of wooded areas around me so I can definitely take advantage of the "relevant" training. I'm getting out 2-3 times per week but only managing about 10 miles each time (I'm very slow at the moment!- it takes me about an hour to do that) but with circa 400ft of elevation gain so practising hills to some degree. Had a nice off-road ride at the weekend through deep mud and around 800ft of gain over 11 miles or so - should be able to do a bit more of these as the weather improves.

[Landlord]

Daveyraveygravey said:

If that is all off road, then 10 mph is not bad at all.

If you count pot-holed tarmac as "off road" then yes, it is...

Daveyraveygravey said:

This is the BHF ride on 23rd September right?

It is.

Daveyraveygravey said:

This is a pig of a climb, fairly constant gradient but the surface is all over the place. There's a channel down the middle carved by rain water, on the left as you go up there is some exposed pipework and drain covers to keep it interesting, and at the moment the right hand side is slippery mud.

From a video I've seen of last year's on YouTube it sounds like the same place.

[Landlord]

daddy cool said:

I did it in 2015 - write up here: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Nice. Thanks for that. How fit would you say you were before you did it?

[Landlord]

I did 12 miles yesterday, 600' elevation. Physically I was fine (bear in mind my being a relative new comer to cycling, plus a fat smoker!) but my arse started to suffer towards the end. Not too bad but another 30 mins or so would have been wearing.

I have padded shorts plus a "gel" seat but - being a rather "wide" chap, I think I need to wider seat. My sit bones basically just sit on the outer edges of the rear of the saddle.

[Landlord]

daddy cool said:

If you ever fancy some training practice at Swinley hit me up

Swinley looks cool. It's about 1.5 hours from me and my weekends are very limited due to the missus working plus two boys who play for different footy teams but if I can get a chance I'll give you a shout