London - Edinburgh - London

[DrMekon]

http://www.londonedinburghlondon.com/

I've got a pass from my better half, and the promise of funding for a new bike to do it on (Madone 3 series / Domane 4 series / Woodrup), so am committed. I'd like to get it done under 80hrs, which is along the lines of how I've done on previous 600kms.

Any other PHers up for it?

[anonymous-user]

ok, some questions!..

what sort of pace do you need to average to make the checkpoints?
what do you carry on your bike?
how do you manage the mental aspect of it?

[Gizmoish]

I don't think the mental is in doubt.

[DrMekon]

pablo said:

ok, some questions!..

what sort of pace do you need to average to make the checkpoints?
what do you carry on your bike?
how do you manage the mental aspect of it?

1) Depends how quick you want to finish. Normal audax is 15kph minimum including stops, but IIRC anything over 1000km drops to 12kph min. That includes sleeping, etc. The really fast people won't sleep. I reckon I could do a sleepless 600km, but I know my eyes went weird after just 400km in 17hxx, so maybe not. Moving average is usually 25-30kph. Read some RAAM accounts if you fancy being really quick. If you can cope with hallucinations, then a sleepless 1400km might be for you. I've done 40hrs without sleep before (finishing PhD thesis), so thought I would be fine. This time it wasn't. I didn't get visuals - my eyes just stopped being able to focus. I couldn't read road signs or my GPS even though I didn't feel sleepy. It was pretty unsettling. I did 414km without sleep the summer before, and felt great.

2) Tubes, tools, spare tire, cables, bits and bobs. Some people are braver and ride with just saddlepack with a tube and a C02 inflator.

3) Ever done buddhist mindfulness practice? That helps. Or someone to ride with who talks alot. I found that the singing the theme from the Numtums nonstop helped for the last 130km of a 400km I did on my own in the summer. #numtums, numtums, it's a number tumber number day/#. Really though, it's less taxing than a day at home alone with the kids. That's properly mentally hard.

Edited by DrMekon on Sunday 23 December 23:13

[anonymous-user]

good luck, i had a look at the website and may volunteer to man a control or make your sandwiches as riding it is way beyond me.

I'm not super fast, its just that I dont think i could pace myself to do it and I have huge respect for those who have the discipline to ride that slow(!). My normal century pace is something like 30 kph so to have to halve that would be really challenging.

I read a "voyage for madmen", the story of the first round the world solo yacht race and became very interested in how people prepare and then cope with long distance events like that. the ultra marathon runners books are quite good as is a study i read in a journal about solo transtalantic solo voyages. I guess the controls are pretty evenly spread out which really must help.

I quite like the idea of the Ride24 at thruxton next year, seems like a fairly safe environment to do something a bit bonkers and go solo for 24 hours...

Edited by anonymous-user on Monday 24th December 18:29

[DrMekon]

They'd love volunteers, but you don't have to slow down. Lots of people ride at 30kph - A dozen of us did the first 90km of the first 300km I did at an average of 33kph. You just aren't allowed to leave the control until your average is back down to 30kph.

[fixedwheelnut]

2005 I averaged 22.9km/h riding speed Total time was 106h 30m on 68" fixed but I'm not as fast as Doc Mekon
Write up and photos here http://www.flickr.com/photos/fixedwheelnut/sets/72...

[DrMekon]

So it's limited to 950 riders, and entries opened at 10pm last night. I got my confirmation at 10.04!

Apparently as of 7am, there are less than 110 places left. Get your entries in!

Should be epic.