On 13 July my son and I are riding the Dynamic Rides 100 (link) and I'm doing the Ride London 2014 in August. I have not ridden 100 miles for quite a long time 2012 although I have done a lot of 80 mile rides in the last few years. I have no issues riding the London route - its pretty flat, but the Dynamic Rides is likely to be a bit more challenging I think, based on the other Mac Rides that I have ridden - its included Saintbury Hill for example which is a reasonable slog. Given that the Dynamic Rides event is only 4 weeks away I felt that I really needed to push up the mileage - mainly to get used to sitting on a bike for 6 hours or so again, and also getting the food and drink better over the ride so that I still felt OK at the end. Finally I really wanted to get more time in the sun as during the Parkinsons ride I was feeling a little too much sun by the end. A 100 mile ride is more of a whole day and if the sun is too strong it can be unpleasant.
So this weekend I decided to go for another 80mile ride and go down to Evesham, loop back and do enough miles to get the 80 (there was another carrot in that this would complete the June Strava challenge as well. The weather was a bit overcast, but there was a reasonable tail wind and the pace was really high down to Evesham - in fact I had 19.7mph average by the time I got to the bridge over the river. However after riding up the pedestrianised section to get heading back I was turned right into the wind and realised at the point that there was no chance of keeping anything like that pace home - especially as its uphill back. It was a drag but I felt that despite this I was able to keep some level of pace. At Astwood Bank I turned off to go up to The Lickeys. My legs were start to feel it but I was still able to keep a reasonable pace. The flat run from Beoley to Hockley Heath was OK - 20mph cruise - and that sort of pace is useful to bring the overall average up.
Back at home I was very pleased - 86miles, 18.2mph average, 4:44 ride time. I had thought of doing another few miles to do a hundred but the high pace that I was pleased with was not really doing me any favours by then - and I wanted to be home for other things for the day.
The only downside was that it stayed overcast for the whole time, so no benefit for the time in the sun objective! But I felt much better prepared for a 100 miler
Here's the Strava data:
A big effort in cycling during the week together with a 60 mile run with Noel on Sunday meant I managed a 3rd in the distance Team JLR - Strava Club weekly rankings for 7-14 April 2014:
and 4th in the elevation gain:
Pretty chuffed as there are some serious mile munchers at JLR. I won't deny that the last few miles home of the extended commute on Friday were pretty tough.
The start of the Sunday run with Noel felt like I might struggle but after about 10 miles I was felling pretty strong. Noel was OK but is not really very bike fit at the moment so we had a pretty low pace for the 60 miles (16.1mph) and was pretty well blown by the end. However the gentler pace (compared to if I had gone out alone) was pleasant and I got home feeling pretty good and comfortable.
I am trying to do as many mile as possible as part of the Ride London preparation. On this rides basis I am confidant I'd feel pretty good if I did it next week and kept the pace low. I am aiming for around 5½hours so about 18mph, I'm not ready for this pace yet but feeling quietly confident at the moment. I have got the Dynamic Rides 100 in July as preparation and expect this to be a lot hillier and hence slower - but good timing 1 month before the Ride London event.
