Transcontinental Race

[Gruffy]

I don't mind what it is really. It's already silly and plenty tough enough to sort the wheat from the chaff. Making it tougher won't really change much except making it longer.

I'd be happy to see a new 'route' as I think being a veteran TCR rider gives you a substantial advantage and this would reduce it a lot and make my chances better. A flatter, longer route would better suit my strengths too, but I don't think we'll see that.

I'm just looking forward to a proper adventure, in whatever form they devise.

[Gruffy]

Gruffy said:

I don't mind what it is really.

I take that back. They're hinting that TCR No4 is one for the climbers. Oh well, that's my winter training sorted then.

[Gruffy]

Lumpier than my mum's mashed potato.

[Gruffy]

After a crude session on ridewithgps it comes out at 4,000km with 50,000m of climbing. Five and a half Everests in less than two weeks. Punchy.

[Gruffy]

okgo said:

Mate James is doing it again, seems fired up too. Reckon he may win it this time!

Unless Kristoff has another pop, my money would be on James to win it, based on this year's performance. He looked incredibly strong and the experience from TCR No.3 can only help.

I was entertaining the slim possibility that there was some way I could be a contender come race time, even if it was chasing a podium rather than the win. The lumpy route definitively rules that out and takes the pressure off somewhat. I'll try to tackle my weaknesses over the next 9 months but I ain't no climber. Now the challenge is a personal one and I'd like to reach the end feeling like I couldn't have got there any quicker, however long that actually takes.

[Gruffy]

My application is in. Hopefully I've made a compelling case for getting a place, but I'm told I'll know by the end of the year. For now I have to assume I'm in and continue with the planning, bike-building and training.

[Gruffy]

Choosing and building a bike takes enough time as it is. I waited until I knew what the race looked like before getting too involved but I won't wait for the official nod. I think it'll be more important to get lots of testing in on the equipment I'll be riding, including all the configurations of luggage and kit that I'm considering.

Besides, if I don't manage to get an entry I'll just end up shadowing the race and self-documenting the controls anyway. I'm riding to Turkey next July either way

[Gruffy]

Mike did make a point of saying (last year) that if someone was genuinely capable of finishing and persisted then they eventually got a place. They had 250 places last year and less than 200 actually made the start. That's to be expected given the nature of the race, but competition for those spots might be tougher this year now that the race is more well known. I've been following it for the last two races and, I agree, it had more romance about it in the earlier editions, but that's success for you. I think the next 1-2 editions will be pivotal in how the TCR develops. It's no easy thing to manage.

[Gruffy]

Cheers for the tip

[Gruffy]

It's proved quite popular amongst the TCR community.



That dynamo-light combo is my current front-runner. Seems well-liked by successful finishers. The deluxe was my first thought but I'd also read recently that it perhaps wasn't durable enough.

Sleeping rough is going to be tricky. Not much point in testing that during an English winter. I will practice that more in the spring or – to my wife's rolled eyes – if we get any winter sun. Fancy hotel and I'll be sleeping on the balcony in a bivvy.

I thought I was broadly decided on kit strategy before the controls where announced but the super lumpy route has forced a rethink. More chance of weather extremes but silly amounts of steep climbing, so even more impetus to reduce weight. More on this in a future blog entry but there are a few different strategies to choose from. At one extreme you may conclude that it's best to ditch sleeping kit altogether and stay in hotels (being disciplined about not hanging around though) and/or sleeping during the hottest part of the day and riding at night. Tortoise or hare? No easy answers.

[Gruffy]

Luckily I'd already made a personal commitment to keep my total mileage above 1% average climbing, but I will increase that further now. I'm going to do a long ride this weekend that'll be relatively flat, but that's only because these long rides aren't great for your physical training and throwing in too much climbing would just make my recovery time longer.

I need steady flat rides for my winter base but will add hill repeat sessions into the week.

[Gruffy]

Yeah, I'm going to be a bit more disciplined with rides now, instead of just riding everything at 90%. I like low gearing so I can definitely spin up anything (no big ring heroics here!). I just need to avoid the temptation to push too hard up hills and keep the HR down even if it means a slow pace. It's hard to resist and I feel guilty if I go too slow.

What's CTL?

[Gruffy]

The rule I'm working to is that anything beyond 5-6 hours is good for experience but detrimental to overall fitness. My plan is to try and limit those to one a month, with one or two back-to-back big rides.

I think the most important factor will be, as you say, staying on the bike and applying rule 5. Given the scale of the thing though, even marginal increases in fitness will become significant, especially when it comes to climbing.

Regarding CTL, I keep an interested eye on the Fitness & Freshness graph on Strava, though I don't imagine it's particularly accurate with just a HRM and no power data. By now I have a reasonable 'feel' for when I'm overtraining, but I'd love to get a power meter and start using more data. If only I wasn't already stretching to build a bike for it!

[Gruffy]

One of the questions in the long application process was "Your bike breaks and you can't repair it. There are no bike repair shops within 10km. What do you do?".

[Gruffy]

You can take public transport (if you can find it) to a repair location but then you have to ride back to the pickup point and resume the race.

[Gruffy]

Fancied getting a double century in to see what lessons I could learn. Virgin Trains sent me an email offer for trains on the East Coast so I ended up going to Hull. Crappy weather, but that was also useful learning (and good training). Lots of useful lessons learnt.

Coolest thing is I feel pretty fresh afterwards. I tried to keep my heart rate to 135-140bpm and it made a huge difference to how much it took out of me. I did allow myself a few extra bpm as I passed through Peterborough, because Mr Wolf ^^^ has a KOM there and I knew it'd annoy him if I stole it.

https://www.strava.com/activities/427633191

[Gruffy]

I've just posted a blog entry on the ride that has a bit more detail
https://theadventurecapitalist.wordpress.com/2015/... but I think the Lincoln Wolds would be a great place to ride in better weather. Nice rolling terrain. Reasonable road surfaces. No significant climbs to speak of so it's ideal for challenging yourself to ride further.

[Gruffy]

stripy7 said:

Carry a mini pump, tubes and patches, forget co2. Wear merino socks (but anything is better than cotton). Next time ride back as well.

I wore merino socks for this ride. My socks would've been saturated by the time I reached hull no matter what I did, even with a front guard. I use CO2 at the moment because I'm still geared for 'fast & light' but will switch to a mini pump once I've got my audax bike (with tubeless!) or for any more big adventures.

[Gruffy]

Johno said:

Are you waiting for new kit/wheels before going tubeless?

I'll be building wheels for the new bike. Hopefully ~30mm depth, tubeless, disc-specific and a dynamo hub. Will take advice on spoke count requirements for durability vs aero.

[Gruffy]

It's available as low as 28, I believe. Over 4,000km every little advantage multiplies up to make real savings. Marginal gains and all that.