(Editor’s note: Warren’s
training list is a guide for those of you without much consistent cycling
practice. It is a guide only. Please feel free to get in touch if you have any
questions)
With under three
months to go until the big push off from central London, it’s probably about
high time we thought of warming those saddles and making sure that cometh the
day, cometh the hour, cometh the, er, bike ride, we’re all in good shape to hit
the road with confidence…
Crucially, and as
we’ve said all along, the two-day trip is a testing one – but very much
do-able. I know that quite a few who have signed up (we’re pushing the 30 mark
as I type this, by the way – looking good!) are seasoned riders. Those of you
among that happy bunch will probably be well aware of what it takes to stick it
out for 45 miles (twice!) – but for those of you who don’t, a few words of
advice and some practical tips for making sure you’re up to speed come the 4
September. I’ll try not to witter on too much.
Your training regime
for the ride has two main goals. The first, clearly, is to make sure that
you’re physically in good shape and accustomed to going the kind of distance
we’ll be taking on. The second aim is to gradually pick up the speed at which
you cover the miles. B2B is definitely not a race, but it is important that
we’re covering ground at a reasonable rate. By the time we get to September,
the idea is that we should all be able to manage 10 miles per hour, or
thereabouts.
Again, if you’re a bit
of a biking novice, don’t let this worry you – it’s definitely achievable with
a bit of practice.
Which brings us to the
first, most obvious, yet most important tip: from this point on, Get Out On
Your Bike As Often As You Can. See, I’ve even used capitals. How Annoying Of
Me. Even if this means 3 or 4 miles to work, or to your mate’s, or to the pub:
a little goes a long way in terms of conditioning yourself for the saddle – and
it’ll also mean that you’ll start to pick up your average speed without even
realising it.
For those of you doing
this kind of ride for the first time, perhaps we should get a little more
specific about this. It’s not gospel, of course, but below I’ve laid out a
fortnight-by-fortnight outline of the kind of bike-time that will definitely
put you in good stead for B2B:
Monday 25 June to
Monday 9 July
At least three
five-mile rides per week, plus one ten-mile ride over the fortnight.
Monday 9 July to
Monday 23 July
At least three
five-mile rides per week, plus one 20-mile ride over the fortnight.
Monday 23 July to
Monday 6 August
At least two ten-mile
rides per week, plus two 30-mile rides over the fortnight.
Monday 6 August to Monday
20 August
At least two 15-mile
rides per week, plus one 40-mile ride over the fortnight.
Monday 20 August to
Monday 3 September
At least three 15-mile
rides per week, plus one (or more) 45-mile rides over the fortnight.
It’s all a little
arbitrary, of course – if you’re already in good physical shape (and younger
than me and Dom... which is quite likely) you may be able to cope with less training. But for those of
you looking at the schedule and thinking, ‘when am I going to fit it in?’,
again, don’t worry: remember that a 10-mile ride should take you little longer
than an hour (depending on hills ‘n things); the longer rides just take a
little bit of forward planning. Set aside four hours or so at the weekend – and
hit the road!
And don’t forget to
remember amidst all of this: being out on your bike is actually effing good
fun. I definitely wouldn’t do it otherwise.
A really good site for
biking routes, covering the whole of the country, is here:
It has routes of all
different lengths and all levels of difficulty – so just pick one and get
cracking!
A couple of other
quick, but important things…
Take plenty of water.
Probably a couple of bike bottles’ worth will do you.(we'll cover nutrition and hydration in another post)
Take a puncture repair
kit and a spare inner tube. Make sure you’re confident with changing an inner
tube – easy enough when you know how, but do gen up before you head out…
Enough for now – but
as ever, do get in touch with any other questions. And if you fancy hooking up
with other B2Bers for a training ride, why not head over to the Facebook page
and post a message? In fact, that’s a grand idea – be good to catch up with
some of you for a limber up!
Toodle pip for now
Warren
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