LEL 2013 / London - Edinburgh - London Audax

This sounds great fun, but slighty contrasting with my (loose) goals for next year.... Hmmm.

I'm in for DecaIronman in September, in two minds over whether this would be an awesome last big bike training session or if recovery could be a problem.

For those who've done it (or similarly long audaxes), how long have you taken to get back to normal fitness-wise?

I've just bought this, and I'll decide once I've read it. If anyone else wants a look after I'm done, let me know.

Barring Mechanicals - From London to Edinburgh and back, on a recumbent bicycle: Amazon.co.uk: Andy Allsopp: Books

ok. given my frame of mind right now I've been looking for something painfully long, physically and mentally challeging to set myself into. (besides work)

So maybe this is doable.

my average in other events was 14km per hour. this should then (in theory) take 28 hrs. of cycling in 5 days. or like 7 hrs max a day.

This is five 300 one day after the other. So more like 20h a day, Jacqui. I doubt you can get enough coffee. As you can have two bag drops this is, well, just another touring holiday. If I can get holidays I might do it.

This sounds impossibly hard. I've done 200 mile days before and they make my eyes hurt. I'm not quite sure how five in a row is possible unless you are Greenbank/hippy et al levels of mental.

Ludwig is quite mad though, so he'll be fine.

You just have to hang out with the Ridgeback riders from Hackney.

http://thesquarepusher.blogspot.co.uk/?m=1

When it comes to cable cars I recommend the one over the glacier at Verviers. They leave the door open when you have to take it back from the summit. I chewed into the railings on far side from the door. Not so far as the car was rather small.

I'd have from March 17 to late July to get bike-fit after the marathon. Not that long, but it's certainly not like I'd be hopping straight on the bike after crossing the finish line.

If you plan to do both then I would advise doing some brick training leading up to about two weeks before the marathon. That would be where you cap any training session with a dose of the other discipline. In theory it's totally possible and without the need to qualify you should be able to get ride fit very easily in the intervening period.

Between now and the marathon you should focus on a couple of riding things. One is being comfortable on doing a 200k and getting going the next day. The other is working out what kind of nutrition/food/hydration works well for you. Keeping in your nutritional comfort zone is fundamental to success in a multi-day endurance event. Once you get above 300k in riding, the event becomes less about fitness and more about psychology and keeping the engine ticking over.

For those who've done it (or similarly long audaxes), how long have you taken to get back to normal fitness-wise?

After I did PBP it took me around three weeks for my knee to get back to the point where I could put it under proper strain again and nearly six months before I could feel all of my fingers and toes properly. I would regularly hit fatigue barriers in the middle of easy personal rides and get into some downward spirals. Some of this may have been psychological though.

Mind you, two guys from Wakefield Tri Club were out doing Helvellyn Triathlon a couple of weeks after PBP. I guess there's always someone who can push it further, faster, harder and more often than you (at least this is what the missus says BDT).

I did a 600km ride in 3 days last year, took me almost a year to get the feeling return on my feet because my shoes was a touch narrow.

For those who've done it (or similarly long audaxes), how long have you taken to get back to normal fitness-wise?

PBP 2003 I suffered with an inflammed achilles and numb fingers in right hand, achilles took a week off work and about six weeks before riding again, the finger & thumb feeling gradually came back over two months.

LEL 2005 I was better prepared stiff knees & tender backside but I was out on the bike three days later.

LEL 2005 ride report

LEL 2005 photos

The more preparation you put in during training, the less likely you are to finish the event injured.

Yes, Exposure is much better in a strawberry field at night after 450km then Fenix.

You might expose yourself in fields at night.. some of us have riding to do.. ;)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fixedwheelnut/3235611082/in/set-72157602469146725/

I want a saddle bag like this now.

Cripe! that's a lots of stuff.

Cripe! that's a lots of stuff.

I still don't know how to travel light :)

Hah! more respect to you, especially on a fixed wheel bicycle, reading your report on the 2005 LEL Audax.

I reckon I can pack a little less if my touring set-up anything to go.

I'm in for DecaIronman in September, in two minds over whether this would be an awesome last big bike training session or if recovery could be a problem.

For those who've done it (or similarly long audaxes), how long have you taken to get back to normal fitness-wise?

If wikipedia is to be believed, decaIronman = 10xIronman.

How on earth is it possible to run 262 miles immediately after finishing a ride equal to LEL? And surely if you are contemplating such lunacy you have some prior experience at this kind of thing, no?

Even the concept of a ten-times distance Ironman scares me.

Who is going to ride it on a fixed?
Or is that everyone on here due to the forum name

im gonna ride it fixed, brakeless and will do a skid all the way

I'm in for DecaIronman in September

woooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, don't think you can just nonchalanty drop that sentence in there like that. it's like giving us one virtual slap across the face.

i'm doing city to summit next year. respect to you. if you want a training partner in central london from some rides/running let me know

Entry opens in a weeks time!

This falls the same month I'm planning to do a 1500 mile tour and Dunwich there and back. Half of me is thinking 'this is absurd, that is too much for one month and you will break'. The other half is thinking 'well, I'll probably be fit enough...'

Hmmm.