I know its a way off yet, and a bit defeatist, but lack of hours in the saddle mean its slowly dawning on me that completion is a pretty slim possibility.

But I still would like to give it a bash for the craic and to at least make the start and see how far one gets.

Otherwise can you sell the entry????

cheers

It's in the head, not the legs

at least that's what I'm hoping

stewart, i am out already.
a week offroad in scotland with the lad's is far more appealing. 8)

stewart, i am out already.
a week offroad in scotland with the lad's is far more appealing

Tony mate, and I thought the 18st+ club were going to block the start! 😆

to be honest, i dont think i would have finished it.
i can ride allday long, but to have to ride at the speed to make the cutoffs is a differant kettle of kippers……. 😆

i can ride allday long, but to have to ride at the speed to make the cutoffs is a differant kettle of kippers…….

Know what you mean, hence its begining to bug me that the training/ speed development is not happening, so whats the point of worrying about it, just ride the bike I say.

Btw whereabouts you doing your Scottish epic?

fort william to roybridge to kingussie to pitlochry to killin to kings house hotel to fort bill

and joining them all with offroad stuff. 8)

It's in the head, not the legs

Worked for me.

it can't possibly be as wet as last year, the cut offs are doable if you focus on keeping moving.
Its not a walk in the park but worth it for the warm glow afterwards

Well, I'm signed up, only ridden >15miles in one go about 5 or 6 times this year, know I'm way off the fitness level I could/should be, but what the hell?

I'll be on the start line, I'm not expecting to win, but would like to complete.

I find a reasonable level of fitness and proper 'fuelling' on the day and you can achieve much more than you expect.

'kin eck tony that is a classic, sounds great.

it is definately alot in the head, but i'll be honest, those who have not done much training and struggle at a 3 or 4 hour ride wont be completing this event. The cutoffs will be tough to make but the ability to keep grinding the pedals stroke after stroke for 10 – 12 hours is physically exhausting.

I know i'll find it tough again this year and i'm pushing my training a bit more nowadays and i think i'll find it quite hard (again)

up to approx 45 miles on a sunday now, hope to have in the 60-70 miles by July

Will this be good enough? 😯

up to approx 45 miles on a sunday now, hop to have in the 60's by june.

Will this be good enough?

I dont think its how much your upto but how you feel afterwards. Do you finish and feel totally exhausted or do you think, that was good but could quite happily do more.

My training just now is.

1 weekend ride quite long – 107 miles on Sunday
2 weekday rides at mental pace with other roadies – total including commute about 55 miles
3 other days commuting – 27 miles each
1 other day off riding casual so only about 20 -30 miles but just a chilled out relaxing day
1 -2 weekday night rides of about 20 – 30 miles each.

1 thing i'm gonna do though is lose a commute day to just relax and rest. Not done any of that recently

scotabroad, I am in a similar position current max is 37miles or around 4hrs riding, looking to increase that this month to 52, but it's going to be tough. Trekster and I have a long ride planned for the end of this month hoping to do 40 – 50 miles that day.

I am still going to do it as I am intrigued as to how far I can go, be it the first, second checkpoint or the finish.

Got a roadtrip in planning Dalby WC Course, Glentress, Fort Bill, Laggan and Snowdon but that is post Kielder to look forward too, oh and PDS before 🙂 Happy riding days ahead….. 😀

raddogair 😯 that's many miles…. you'll be on the podium 🙂

scotabroad, I think there's plenty of time left to get the miles in. Well, there better be.

raddogair that's many miles…. you'll be on the podium

Yeah, right. Aim for top 20 this year, now theres over double entered compared to last year. Might get better, see how summer goes.

Its the 65 – 80 miles bit that hit me last year and that last sandy climb before the boardwalk. We'll see how it goes

to put things in perspective I did the 1st tail end Charlie section with my mate Bill last year, 42 slow miles chivvying folk along, helping sort cramp, offering support, food etc, we were cold and tired but did that on the back of 2/3rds of **** all riding last year, I reckon we could have got round all the course (but not have made the cuts due to the time the first section took) just out of bloody mindedness.

There's still 4 months to go and we are going to have THE BEST SUMMER FOR YEARS so plenty of riding to come.

If you can get upto 75=80 off road miles in one go you will finish 🙂

This year I'm in the race, I wont win but I will finish

I think you should go for it! You have nearly 4 months to train and as said above it's all in your head. Just do it!

You can see the 'training' I did at http://mactually.co.uk/ – there are monthly mileage counts on the right hand side toward the bottom of the page.

I did 200 miles a month in each of the three months leading up to the K100. Much of this was my 5 or 6 mile a day commute, with some bigger rides thrown in on weekends. The biggest ride I did in the run up was 90 miles on the road (but on the MTB I was planning to ride).

I finished. Last. In the dark. Broken. But I finished. To be honest, I completely blew on the ride over the border to Newcastleton and did the last half on bloody mindedness.

Me, last, in the dark and broken:

My plan for this year is: ride more over the summer; get a kick ass bike; drink beetroot juice; finish again, but hopefully not last and a bit less broken than last year*.

If I can do it, you can.

*The cut-offs are going to be tighter this year, I believe. I'd not have made tighter cut-offs last year, only leaving the last one 15 minutes before it closed.

(Ralph, am I still okay for a lift?)

scotabroad – if I can do it you can do it, since Feb I have increased mileage from 9 – 37 miles if I can do that again and some more in the next 4 months then I reckon I am with a shout.

Also after the 37 miles if I had lunch earlier would probably done more but was stubborn in my mind as to where I would stop for Lunch which in hindsight was very very wrong, I felt loads better after a good food stop and short rest but it was too late.

I do try and keep fed en-route and keep the carb intake up.

Thinking of doing a target or three laps of Dalbeattie and two laps of Mabie in June possible the 19th and will stop in the middle for a proper lunch then drive to Mabie.

I rode Mabie to Dalbeattie this weekend but think multi-laps at the centres will be more interesting and reflective of the Kielder terrain.

Just bought a new bike for it.

Now just need to buy new legs, lungs, head…

YOu have:
May, June, July, August and some of September.
Plenty of time.
A ride every 2 days.
Increase the distance on 2 of these rides each week.
By the end of the month you will be stronger and fitter.

Put in some road work for the time in the saddle. On your mtn bike. It's slower, but it's what you'll be riding on the day.

Join a local bike club and go training and riding with them – that is a very sound idea as you are not pushing yourself hard enough yet.

Well done mikeactually for digging in and getting to the end, you look like a bit of a whippet mind 😉 raddogair that is an awesome training regime 😯

For me what the mental trouble is:

If it was 100km, I would be thinking that its doeable.

If it was 100 road miles I would think its doeable.

If was time unlimited I would dig in and drag my sorry "ss to the end.

But 100 miles, with the cutoffs, off road is a big ask.

I will keep it in the diary but I am stopping worrying about it and get a bit fitter and see how far I get.

cheers

TI29ER that what I have tried to do since February and hit my target this weekend though not my high touch target, much work to do to get further and bust 40 then 50 miles but I am improving. Try to ride once a week with faster people too.

IGM – what bike did you get? Haven't decided which bike to use, but more importantly need to sort a saddle was in agony this weekend at the 2hr 30 mark…..

Why worry?
Put in the hours and turn up and ride.
If it's not enough, so what?
YOu'll be better prepared mentally for 2011's event.
Either way, it's great to be part of something like this, but if the ticking off of the miles gets you in a fluster, then ride longer distances so they're less intimidating.

After all, it's only the equivalent of the M25 to Bristol cross country! (Or the M25 to Nottingham). 😉

Don't freak yourself out with the 100 mile thing. Just focus on the cut off's – break it down into smaller challenges. That'll make it less of a problem. Build your mileage up and focus on the mental challenge. The body can do a lot if your mind wants it to . . .

Don't freak yourself out with the 100 mile thing

I'm freaking out about the 25000 ft of climbing thats involved – so I have been told by a rider who did it last year.

Well done mikeactually for digging in and getting to the end, you look like a bit of a whippet mind

An asthmatic whippet. Peak flow this morning was 540, when it should be about 700. It was similar last September. 30% more air into my lungs with every breath would have been nice.

If anyone is debating doing a full 100 miler but fancies doing it in two halves check out the event being organised by Pat Adams 21 / 22 April Hiraethog 50:50 Based at the Llyn Brenig Visitor Centre in North Wales day 1 will be a 50 mile course in Clocaenog Forest a mere 5000' of climbing a day, no early start and we reckon at a 10mph average you'll be back at the campsite for tea time, then day two you start at a not indecent hour and ride the course +- a few changes and should be back mid afternoon and if you live in the North West of the UK might well be home refreshed by late tea time.

I'm freaking out about the 25000 ft of climbing thats involved – so I have been told by a rider who did it last year.

Nah, can't have been that much!

Agreed. Donk – I rode it last year and tracked around 12,000 feet of climbing. The silty soil there eats brake pads though so be aware of that!

Motivation: http://www.alastairhumphreys.com/2010/05/innate-ability/

Friends gps said 7800m. Dunno who is right but I'm hoping its you Glen 🙂

CRIKEY! I'd used a polar S720i HRm with barometric altimeter which generally isn't too bad on the gain thing! Anyone else got some elevation data from the ride??? linky here for previous conversations:

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/kielder-100-lordy

Does anyone fancy a ride round Kielder 19/20th June.

Could do the Trail over to Newcastleton (Castle, Lake, Bloody Bush trail, Newcastleton, back over and down the Lonesome pine) if you're interested. Nothing too hard by the big days standard but a good intro to the terrain.

Can extend as necessary.

CRIKEY! I'd used a polar S720i HRm with barometric altimeter which generally isn't too bad on the gain thing! Anyone else got some elevation data from the ride??? linky here for previous conversations:

If anyone has a GPS track of the course, then load one of the tracks into http://www.bikehike.co.uk and it will give you a vaguely accurate climbing / descending measure, based on the actual elevation data, rather than very innaccurate measures based on GPS altitude, which can be way off.

I thought I heard it was roughly 3500m of climbing last year.

Joe

There's only one steep-steep climb and you ride it – twice. Or walk it as it's not very long, maybe a 3 minute walk.

Any tips for someone trying to fit training in around demands of job and family that means long rides are simply out of the question (accept maybe once a month). Can you get ready for this running / turbo training for an hour or two five nights a week or have I got no chance at all?