As the glow fades on this years challenges (Velo Birmingham in under 6 hours, Birmingham marathon in under 4 hours, both successfully completed), thoughts turn to next year, the question of what next?

So dear STW, inspire me for next years challenge. Bike and/or running based, other sports as needed, ideally UK based though I do keep looking at La Marmotte and The Haute Route. Basically, throw some ideas at me and tell me what I should have a crack at.

One of the long distance running events?

One of the UK ITTs?

Cheeky little bump, inspire me STW!

Try your hand at an Ironman. A wee swim to warm up then the equivalent of your velo Birmingham ride followed by the marathon. All within 17 hours

Follow the fink 30 week training plan. Feel superhuman.

One of the best journeys I’ve been on for self confidence and satisfaction.

http://www.northcape4000.com

Threads a bit early innit?

I normally start thinking about this stuff in between Xmas and NY..

SDW in a day is a decent one… it’s a proper day out and proper hard riding with many many hills for you to climb, but it’s also hard psychologically

Threads a bit early innit?

Nah, some of the really interesting events sell out before Xmas, Marmotte and l’Etape do anyway.

http://www.manx100.com

(disclosure – I run it)

Try your hand at an Ironman.

This was my first thought. Big day out that is.

So, I think a plan is emerging:
Manchester Marathon in April
Half Iron Man in June
Manchester to London on the bike in September

Is that too much? I mean, obviously it is, but is it doable?

How about riding LEJOG, that is a great thing to do.

No reason not to do the ones you have suggested too. And no, it is not too much but it is enough to keep you focussed and motivated.

How long did it take you to recover from the Birmingham marathon? What else would you be doing that might impact recovery time?

What about something a bit more interesting than an ironman?

City to summit…

Their ultra tour of Arran looks ace as well.

Arran…

How long did it take you to recover from the Birmingham marathon?

I reckon I was back to feeling “normal” 1 week afterwards, the week after 1 did 1 5k at roughly marathon pace and 2 bike (2 days of commuting to work 12 miles each way, 14.5mph), the run and the first bike ride felt heavy legged but the third felt OK. This week I feel fine, did a reasonably quick 5k yesterday and it felt no harder than before the big day.

the timing of the above 3 seems to work OK, 2.5 months between the marathon and the IM then 3 between the IM and M2L, should be enough time to recover and tweak the trianing.

What else would you be doing that might impact recovery time?

Work? Life in general? I’ve no kids and a very supportive wife who is also debating the IM herself so could throw some serious time into training.

Red Bull Dolomite Man…you’ll need friends to form a team though

You could run the GR20 if you are very fit

Tour of Cambridge – then qualify for the world’s on Varese, Italy.

A gravel/mixed surface ride like White Roads Classic, or a cobbled ride like Ronde Van Calderdale (harder than it’s inspiration the Tour of Flanders, and I’ve done them both) or Tour of the Black Country (similar cobbled route, by the organisers of the White Roads event).

Tour of the Black Country I’ve done a couple of times and will likely do again, but it’s not actually that long or hard IMO, great fun and an awesome ride but not quite the challenge I’m looking for.

I’ll have a look at the Tour of Cambridgeshire.

Marathons? Ironmans? sound too much like hard work to me… how about
An all day pub crawl on a bike in the lakes! try to average one pub an hour with at least 10 miles distance between pubs with an elevation dgain of at least 1500 feet. 2 pints at each pub stopping no longer than 30 minutes. 😆

You should be OK. Things like a very physical job can impact recovery time but a lot depends on how used you are to the effort of the events.

Like a lot of things there’s an optimum zone between not doing enough and doing too much so it’s easier to recover if you are doing say three marathons a year than if it’s your first or you are doing twenty. After my Bob Graham Round I was back to racing at the same level in about ten days but I was only doing about half the training mileage and choosing the events “wisely”.

There’s the old “one day per mile” recovery guideline but it’s a bit like the max heart rate formulae, OK for some people, way out for others.

As the glow fades on this years challenges (Velo Birmingham in under 6 hours, Birmingham marathon in under 4 hours, both successfully completed), thoughts turn to next year, the question of what next?

A proper race? Loads of info in here:
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/so-i-want-to-try-road-racing-build-a-bike-specifically-for-this

Other than that how about all the climbs in Simon Warren’s 100 Greatest Climbs book. Or some other “ticklist” of things that will extend beyond just one event.

Jekkyl, when we doing it?!!!

Super Randonneur…?

What would be a good route do you reckon NoBeer? Coniston to Keswick, via Hawkshead, Windermere and Grasmere? 😆 8) imagine how wrecked you’d be at the end of it.

24hr solo

Accidentally entered my next marathon last night, so that’s any hopes of getting fat this winter out of the window. Now to decided between a full or a half Iron Man.