Placid
Not for me.I'd like to do the route but at a leisurely pace. All this enduro stuff aint my bag. Im firmly in "Lantern Rouge" territory. Mucho respect for those that do.
Foxy_Dread
I'm of the same mind.If it was pissing down on the day I'd have no intention of doing it. I was speaking to a proper cyclist last week and he said going out on shorter rides five days a week is more beneficial than say doing one long ride a week. I didn't realise it at the time but when doing an easy 22mile a day, commuting i was getting a lot from it. My challenge is to get back into the habit of cycling five days a week even whilst working from home. When i was doing the commuting stepping up to say a sixty mile ride was nothing, now it would be challenging.
Travis_Bickle
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under_the_arches
It was a bit of a downer afterwards to be honest, due to taking in so much over a short period of time. I feel a bit jaded now, but my legs are OK.Regarding a 100mile take your time and build up slowly it took me a year to break the 100mile duck.
Cuts
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under_the_arches
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Bielsa’s_Bucket
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Travis_Bickle
I've noticed an improvement since I started doing 30 mins a day on the spin. I'm with LBB, would love to be able to commute and get the miles in. Mate does it for three days a week, train for two, 150km on the bike and that's before weekends.
Bielsa’s_Bucket
Ok. I'm now in shepherds bush McDonald's eating Big Mac meal plus cheeseburger. I've had 8 pints and would still accept a challenge of riding 100 miles tomorrow if needed. If you can ride 10 miles you can ride 100 miles. Ask me to run 10 miles and I'd say fuck off. With cying every uphill is rewarded with a downhill. Stop worrying, sign up and put in your one day a week training. No extraordinary level of fitness required. Don't aim for 16-17 mph. 12-13mph is achievable by anybody and makes it an enjoyable ride, and you won't be the last to finish. We averaged 12.5 mph cycling time and reached Whitby at approx 915pm. The last man reached Whitby at 115am. And I bet he felt just as happy as we did when they put the medal around his neck. Go for it :)
Travis_Bickle
Etape Du Dales took me over 10 hours. Like you say still felt fucking mint. Need to sort my accommodation etc.
Bielsa’s_Bucket
When I was first asked to do this I thought "fuck that" 150 miles no way.... After a few more text messages I then thought "fuck em, I'll call their bluff" and I was the first one to sign up out of the 5 of us..Out of the 5, at the time I would have rated myself maybe 4th in the level of fitness but 1st in stubbornness and knew that once I'd signed up there was no way that I wouldn't complete it. Every time we arranged a 'team' ride, I seemed to be the only one with a 100% attendance! the others all seemed to drop out regularly for some reason or another. One day, with just me and the lad I would have rated least favourite to complete the challenge, he left me standing on every hill and flew ahead of me for most of the 70 miles we covered. At the end of that ride I worried that I would be the one at the back slowing the others down, but a couple of weeks later I was out with the same lad and the tables were turned completely. All that proved to me was that we all have our good and bad days but you just have to plod on and not get disheartened if you're struggling. If you're in the right company you'll get through it and they will appreciate that we're not all super fit, just out to enjoy it at the slowest mans pace. The other lads managed to get in 2-3 days a week training due to them working local and sensible hours, me working all over the country and silly hours managed 1 day a week, building up from 40-50, 60-70, then eventually managing a couple of 100 miles plus rides nearer to the time.I made the sensible choice at the same time as booking my place on the c2c, to book Accomodation at both ends, for me and my wife and daughter. Despite my advice, the others decided against this and chose to drive to the start and back home from the finish all in the same day, something they regretted more and more as the time drew closerr, but by the time they decided to do something about it, their time was up and everywhere was fully booked (a word of warning).My wife, my daughter and me drove up on the day before the event and drove via Hardknott Pass. This was the first time I had seen this 'hill' and what an eye opener it was. for the previous 6 months I had been convincing myself every time i rode up an hill, that Hardknott couldnt be much more difficult than this ?? when we arrived at the bottom of hardknott (in our car), there was a 4x4 pick-up towing a trailer with a portaloo.......it got stuck not far from te bottom and a tractor was needed to be called to giv the trailer a push from behind to get him up the hill. We couldnt really comprehend what we were seeing, and it definitely gave me a shake, and the reality of hardknott hit me. This was a killer...we arrived in seascale at aprox 430pm and headed down to the car park by the beach. any other time, the place would have been something of an anti-climax, it's a dreary town with nothing of any interest there that we could see. But there were a few dozen bikes and cyclists scattred around and the place had a strange feeling. sounds silly but i felt part of something which i'd not felt before. there was a definite 'comraderie' and feeling of respect towards each other as we walked past others who were there for the same reason. (i'm saying we, although the others wrren't there, just me , my wife and daughter).at approx 455 we headed for seascale sports hall where registration commenced at 5pm. there were approx 100 people queuing before us. i joined the queue, showed my id, and received my gift pack. (energy bar, gels, c2c bandana, waterprrof map, car sticker) and timing chip wristband.
Bielsa’s_Bucket
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Bielsa’s_Bucket
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Bielsa’s_Bucket
Once the descent was complete, we then had the next climb up Wrynose pass, which has it's steep sections just the same as hardknott but wasn't quite so long from the side from which we approached it. I did this one without stopping, feeling great due to the fact that more than 50% of the riders were pushing up this one too.We continued on to Windermere, where we had to board a ferry to cross. There was a great buzz amongst the cyclists, again the feeling of camaraderie and mutual respect. We had a problem though, one of our group was struggling mentally and had convinced himself that there was no way he was going to complete the 150 miles. We took it in turns to try to boost him but nothing seemed to be working. We had agreed between us that we were only going to go at the slowest mans pace and that no matter what we would all cross the finish line together. We became more and more frustrated as the pace slowed to approx 8mph even on the flat !! He was even braking on slight downhills and we were all a bit uncertain as to what to say for fear of tipping him over the edge. We just had to continue at his pace and hope that things would improve. We reached the first 'feed station' at Kendal, where our wives/girlfriends/daughters were also waiting to give us some support. It was also a bit of an emotional point as the lady who set up and runs the charity for which I have been raising money for had also turned up to meet me and thank me for what I was doing. It was the first time I had ever met her even though we have had regular contact since my dad passed away. She lost her son several years ago to the condition which killed my dad, and there was a strange but definite bond there when we met. Impossible to describe as I'm not in the slightest religious, and definitely not an overly affectionate person (my wife often tells me this). There was something :/After a slightly longer stop than anticipated, we carried on, but again the one lad in our group continued to struggle, still achieving a pace of not much more than 8mph. Once we reached the next feed station (hardraw I think), we got our heads together away from him, trying to decide what to do. It was apparent that if we continued at the pace we were doing, we would not reach Whitby before midnight !!!We tried to boost him, telling him he was more than capable of doing this and that there was no way we were going to let him give in. We would take it in turns to carry him if needed. He was broken, still
Bielsa’s_Bucket
We continued, he struggled, we waited, he struggled, we took it on turns to ride with him and try to speed him up, he struggled, we rode behind him, we rode ahead of him, trying to force him to speed up to keep up, he struggled.Then, with no warning, on a long flat section, he breezed past us at about 20mph. From that point on he was fine ??? Just some kind of mental block had probably cost him, and us, possibly more than an hour in lost time. Our average speed at this point, approx 80m, was less than 10mph.The mood within our group was now on a high, we took it in turns to take the lead, and pushed each other on, riding past other groups of riders, lone cyclists tagging themselves onto the back of us for a 'free ride', chatting to each other and others along the way. It was great. There were just as many passing us, as there were that we were passing, if not more, but it was undeniably a good feeling knowing that we were not 'at the back' and were now in better shape than some of the others.
Bielsa’s_Bucket
Next stop was Catterick, another very well organised and staffed food station. Morale was really high at this point, especially as my wife, daughter and the others were waiting for us just a couple of miles further down the road. Photos taken, kisses exchanged and we were on our way again, the route was now pretty flat and the miles seemed to fly by. Still there was the odd hill, but nothing like the first third of the ride, we were enjoying this.Next stop was Castleton. The best feed station of all. Only about 30 miles to go. There was a bit of a party atmosphere in the village hall where we were being fed with pork pies, sandwiches, nuts, soup, crisps, flapjack, muffins plus tea, coffee, water, juice, energy drinks etc. We sat down here for nearly an hour. Once you were seated it was difficult to get going again but everybody knew we were nearly there, although there were rumours going around that the last 30 miles were as hard as the first 30 miles !!!!The next 30 miles were hard, very hard, but achievable, and definitely helped to give that fantastic sense of achievement at the finish. I'm glad the last section was difficult as I think if it wasn't , there would be a feeling of anti-climax at the end if we'd have sailed through the final 30 miles. There was one climb called Limber Hill which was a very unwelcome arrival with about 15 miles to go. Most people we saw were pushing up this hill and there were lots of obscenities to be heard as the puffed and panted their way to the top. I'm proud to say I made it to the top of this one, despite a bit of zig-zagging.
Bielsa’s_Bucket
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Bielsa’s_Bucket
Sorry about the many posts, I lost it twice when I started after a couple of paragraphs each time so decided to play safe.
Travis_Bickle
Fantastic stuff. Well done. Looking forward to next year even more now......if looking forward to it is the right expression!!!!
Placid
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